I only sleep in Italian bed linen these days.
We have woken up in a blanket of thick fog. It will take a few hours to burn off. Shopping before we head to the castle.
First, breakfast.
Money can’t but happiness. That is what they say. I am not sure who they are, but they probably have money and are unhappy. Money can buy a few nights in a place like this. The bed linen, the marble, the breakfast, the book that needs cotton gloves. Maybe the difference is that this place is the exception to my daily life, the joy comes from the fact that day to day life does not include this indulgence. I can be happy in my journey, without excess. When I glimpse at what money gets some people, I can experience it as a departure from normality and does bring a certain sense of happiness.
Money can buy happiness, sometimes.
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
Oscar Wilde
Breakfast is a series of breads, spreads, charcuterie, an omelette, a poached egg with seasonal vegetables, house baked breads, house made jams and marmalades, local honey and Greek yoghurt with persimmon compôte. Coffee, obviously.
“He ate breakfast like a savage: quantities of leavened bread, chunks of cheese made from cows’ milk, and coffee drowned in cows’ milk too, which he called galão – things that no right-minded person would eat at the beginning of the day.”
Salman Rushdie
All in a very cool setting. The plants are real. I don’t think there is a bigger insult to nature than the plastic plant.
We take a walk around the city. Looking at expensive clothes and art we cannot afford. I am impressed by Mirsad Begić, the famous Slovenian sculptor. His work on paper and canvas is very cool. There is a photographer, Matjaž Kirvic, who is doing crazy things with landscapes.
We wander the streets taking photos like tourists before heading to the castle. It’s great to be moving around in the cold weather. The walk up the castle is short but steep. There is still ice on the track.
Apart from taking pictures everywhere I go, this is about as tourist as I get. The castle is interesting, but I can’t imagine a castle that is not interesting. The views from the top are worth the climb.
Th rest of the day we just wander the streets taking in the beautiful day and stunning city. The cold weather and the walkability of the city makes us question our decision to work in Dubai. For six months of the year the weather is so hot, you really can’t go outside. The cost of rent is so high, we live in a lower socio economic area where walking would not be that pleasant even in the cooler weather.
“The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse.”
Henry David Thoreau
We decide on a coffee and walk into the older part of the city. I am not really thinking about lunch after such a big breakfast. I am thinking about the markets and dinner. Coffee at Ferdinand and more discussion surrounding the future and earning money at the expense of living.
“Overwork is repulsive to human nature—not work. Overwork for supplying the few with luxury—not work for the well-being of all. Work is a physiological necessity, a necessity of spending accumulated bodily energy, a necessity which is health and life itself.
Pyotr Kropotkin
Heading home we pass Dvorni Wine Bar and stop in for a glass of Refošk. A table by the window to watch the world pass. We order a late lunch, cheeses and onion rings before heading home.
It was the last thing we did today. We both fell asleep around 17:00 and didn’t wake up until 19:00. Neither of us were hungry after a late lunch.
We have booked another night. Ljubljana is a difficult place to leave.
“Cities were always like people, showing their varying personalities to the traveler. Depending on the city and on the traveler, there might begin a mutual love, or dislike, friendship, or enmity. Where one city will rise a certain individual to glory, it will destroy another who is not suited to its personality. Only through travel can we know where we belong or not, where we are loved and where we are rejected.”
Roman Payne