We Put the Fun in Funicular

Yesterday was our last full day in Slovenia, so we decided that we would head down to Ljubljana's old town and wander around.  After our 20 minute bus ride and a short walk and there we were, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city.

We read about how the city is an architects paradise and that when Ljubljana was reduced to rubble by an earthquake in the 1890s, they had a boatload of rebuilding money to play with from the Hapsburgs and decided to rebuild in style.

We walked throught the bustling Saturday morning riverside market, with locals selling the fruits of their labours and handicrafts.  After a short walkabout and we were at a funicular which leads up to a castle perched high on a mountain that looks over the city (similarly to Salzburg).

We poked about the castle walls and decided to have some coffee and cake in the courtyard.  Kelly ordered a choclate mousse and an iced coffee - turns out an iced coffee in Slovenia is two scoops of ice cream over a shot of espresso.

After a bit more walking around the castle, we headed back down the funicular.

We decided to check out some of the bridges that cross the Ljubljanica river, having already seen the triple bridge, so we checked out the bridge adorned with Ljubljana's mascot, the dragon.

Greek legen has it that when Jason and his Argonauts had obtained the golden fleece, they encountered a swamp where Jason slayed a monster- the swamp being where Ljubljana now sits and the monster being a dragon.  These dragons perch on the four corners of the bridge and watch over travellers, like the Lions at the Lions Gate bridge in Vancouver.

Next up was the Butchers bridge.  There are several points of interest on this bridge, the first being a salute to Paris' Pont de l'Archeveche "Love Lock" bridge.  Padlocks of different shades and sizes clipped on the wiring, each scrawled with names and/or phrases.

The second point of interest are the grotesque sculptures by Jakov Brdar which represent figures from greek and biblical mythology.

Back when we were taking our pletna ride across Lake Bled, the American couple we were speaking with told us that they had just visited the Serbian Orthodox church and that it was magnificent, so we decided to take their word for it and headed across town.

From the outside, the church looks plain - not nearly as ostentatious as some of the baroque style Catholic cathedrals we have seen.

However, once we entered, we were all completely astounded.  It was a church like none of us had ever seen.  The whole interior was painted floor to ceiling with icons and saints and their names scrawled in cyrillic.  Some of the nooks showed scenes from the bible and a giant chanderlier hung in the middle.  

After having said "wow" for the 40th time, we were greeted by a kindly priest who asked us where we were from.  When we said Canada, he was excited to share that his son was going to Toronto for a year.  He then eagerly shared some info about the church with us.  It is the only Serbian Orthodox church in Slovenia, and that during the communist period, Yugoslavia was declared an atheist state and he was forced to practice his religion in secret.  As for all the frescos, he said that Catholics have statues, Orthodox has the paintings.  He also said that in the old days people were illiterate and could not follow along in the bible, but they could follow the paintings on the walls and rather having their noses stuck in a book all service, they could look around and enjoy the beauty and colours.  There are no pews - everyone stands (except for the elderly and infirm). There is no photography allowed in the church, but he generously let Kelly take some pictures (with the flash off, of course).  He then spoke about how all he has wanted to do is to worship in peace and now that communism and the Balkan war is over, he is renewing his faith.  We stayed for a couple more minutes and then said our goodbye to the priest.  

We then decided to walk back to the old town, passing the city's opera (this season they are doing Tristan und Isolde, Salome, Carmen and Orfeo and Euridice) and several other galleries.

We were then stopped by a woman with a walkie-talkie at a street corner.  We looked around and there was movie equipment and cameras - they were filiming a movie.  We had to wait until the scene was done filimng and then had to scuttle across the street in a hurry while they set up the next scene.

Once back in the old town, we settled at a river-side cafe to have some Slovenian beers and people-watch.

We finished up and paid the tab and decided to make one more detour before heading back to the inn, and that was to check out some Roman ruins and a sarcophagus.  The ruins have been discovered and preserved in a pedestrian underpass, and the school of graphic design has been allowed to highlight the area with some artistic accents (it was too dark to take pictures and flash would have looked terrible), but if you are ever in Slovenia and are trying to find them, look for the gold roman centurion.

It was then back on the bus and back to the inn where we had a quick bite, then started packing and turned in for the night.