Concert as a Grand Finale in Ljubljana

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016--Ljubljana

We have been having trouble sleeping.  The problem is that the beds on are wooden platforms that creak every time we move.  All night, I hear my bed creak when I turn, and I also hear Wes' bed creak when he turns.  It's the same for him.  Therefore, I guess we have been losing sleep.  This morning, I awoke at 6:40 and thought about getting up since I couldn't seem to fall back to sleep.  Eventually, I guess I did.  The next time I was awake, I looked at my watch and it was 9:20!  I said, "Wes, there's only 40 minutes of breakfast left!"  We grabbed clothes on and headed down.  It was interesting to see how many people eating during that last half hour had bad hair and sleepy eyes.  They must have had to rush to make it down in time also.

We decided to start our day by going back to Metelkova cesta, the alternative neighborhood that was so quiet last night.  We wanted to see the graffiti art and the general appearance of the place in daylight.  It is a Slovenian version of what Christiania was in Copenhagen.  Mostly young people moved into old military facilities that had been abandoned and started living there.  They painted the buildings with graffiti art and decorated them with sculptures.  It's interesting to see.  Lots of young travelers go there to stay in a hostel.  We saw a group of them standing around this morning, and it was obvious that they thought they were experiencing one of the coolest places on earth.  Unlike Christianity, the residents have no problem with photography, so there are lots of online photos at the link above to show what the place is like.

From there, we went down to the river to see the sluice gates.  They control the water level in the river though town where all the sidewalk cafes are located.  The reason for seeing them is that they were constructed with sculptural features including dragons which are one of the symbols of Ljubljana.

Returning to town, we toured the St. Nicholas Church, the cathedral of Ljubljana.  Then, after sitting on the main square watching people, we headed to the Botanical Gardens.  They are rather small and had only a few flowering plants.  They are operated by the university, and students and professors are on vacation.  We observed the same problem at botanical gardens in another city (Prague?) two years ago.  Wes commented that they needed to get some of the people growing the vegetable gardens we saw yesterday, which were lush and pretty, to come help them in the summer.

In the evening, we attended a concert at the Franciscan church by the Evangelistic Youth Choir from Pfalz in Germany.   It's an award-winning choir that has selective membership each year and goes through a boot camp of training and rehearsing before traveling to perform in various places and in various contests.  The music sounded so nice in the church.