This morning, we had to check out and move to a pension that the receptionist had kindly booked us the night before. We weren’t quite sure what to expect as it was very cheap, but we were welcomed so warmly by the owner, who was a real character. He showed us around everywhere and let us have the keys even though it was only 10am! We were really pleased as it was not somewhere we would have found ourselves.
The rainy weather continued, but we wrapped up and left for the day, and were soaked within minutes in a torrential downpour. We took shelter in a cafe and had some more hot chocolate while we waited for it to pass.
About an hour later, it was still so heavy that we didn’t think it would ever stop! Our plans to walk up to the castle were quickly replaced by a trip on the funicular railway, which we were sure would have had a great view if the cabin wasn’t totally steamed up. At the castle, we climbed the viewing tower to get a closer look at the clouds. We could barely see the ground by this point, but we went as high as we could anyway to get our money’s worth…Ljubljana was nowhere to be seen! To avoid heading back out into the rain, we had lunch in the castle restaurant, which was a lot more posh than we’d initially realised. As we sat there in our hoodies smelling of wet dog, more and more businesspeople in suits turned up. Somehow, they didn’t seem nearly as wet as us! Oh well, it was a lovely meal and really warmed us up. We shared a venison goulash and some Slovenian sausages with roasted potatoes, yummy.
After exhausting all the castle had to offer, we went back down into the main town to have our first proper look around. We joked about how all we’d seen of Ljubljana so far was in the dark and/or pouring rain, but we liked it anyway. We ticked off as many sights as we could whilst cowering under any shelter we could find to read the guidebook, then finally gave up and went back to our comfortable pension to dry off.
We spent the afternoon booking hotels on the handy computer in our room, and then headed out later for dinner. After wandering around for a while looking for a restaurant, we finally settled on a Mexican which had been mentioned in LP. We popped our heads in and saw that there was a queue so nearly left, but then the heavens opened once again so we decided to stay. This turned out to be such a good choice! It was without doubt the best meal of our trip so far – each main included three sides which were all delicious and we were totally stuffed by the end of our meal. The decor was amazing too, with colourful rag rugs covering the walls and used as placemats. The restaurant was probably a reason to return to Ljubljana in itself!
We stumbled out with full tummies but needed to break some notes for change so we just had to have an ice cream (what a pity). Once again, Oli got in trouble for trying to pay with a large note. We must have looked quite a sight in our raincoats and flip flops holding an ice cream while sheltering from the rain! We heard some really loud live music on our way home which we guessed was coming from the Ljubljana Festival, but we were way too full and tired to investigate further. Despite the awful weather, we really liked Ljubljana – it was so pretty and chilled out.
We left early the next morning to catch our train to Piran, accidentally buying half the station bakery for breakfast on the way. We seemed to be the only ones eating anyway, as some men in station uniforms who were sitting on the neighbouring table had already started on the beers. This was a bit worrying as it was only 9am, but we convinced ourselves that it must have been the end, rather than the start, of their shifts!