Two faces of Ljubliana

This morning started with a heavily ladened trek to a new hostel where we were greeted with a note on the door informing that, for whatever reason, the hostel was closed. Fortunately the note included directions to another hostel, unfortunately the other hostel was full and smelled like poo. We chanced another hostel down by the river where we had to endure the receptionist shouting down the phone to her friend for ten minutes before we were given a room.

We dumped our bags and headed straight out to catch up on the wasted time. The market place wasn't far away so we went for a stroll around. Following an age old tradition older women fill their stalls with produce grown in a western suburb of the city which is full of allotments. This is one of those women whose picture I took at the market.

Tracing the journey of the produce Fiona and I went to find this 'garden area' of the city. What we found was a conserved rural pocket within the city centre, just outside the old town. Large allotments were squeezed between cobble lanes. Watering cans hung from trees and the few gardeners who weren't at the market tended to their cabbages. We had dinner round the corner in a Slovenian restaurant that obviously used the fresh produce being grown next door. I'm pretty sure I had beef goulash, but according to Tripadvisor it could have been donkey. I think it's best I never find out.

To digest the beef (or donkey, god I hope not) we walked to the castle to watch the sunset.

The day so far was peaceful, but distant beeping of horns and whistling signaled a change. On the way back to the hostel we came across a protest - mainly left wing, anti-corruption and anti-government (who I think have been mishandling money) Different factions were clearly visible - the old communists, the young socialists, Anonymous, anarchists and members of the Occupy movement. The protest wound up from the old centre to a wide area near two big tower blocks where everyone congregated and chanted.

This photo exaggerates things a bit, as it was mainly peaceful, well what we saw of it. I'll need to read more about it to understand the motives.