piran café

The holiday lights were flicked on in Ljubljana last week. I’ve been here for nearly six years now and novelty has yet to wear off. The city looks quite appealing and festive. This is castle hill in the old town center.

Ljubljana 0178, originally uploaded by pirano.

Better late than never. Just found an article published more than a year-and-a-half ago by renowned wine writer and critic Jancis Robinson, but still quite useful.

“Slovenia’s is possibly the most unusual wine culture in the world,” Robinson, author of The Oxford Companion to Wine, wrote in this piece on her website, entitled “Slovenia – land of extreme winemaking“.

She also has 150 detailed reviews, but you have to pay for those.

goriska brda, originally uploaded by pirano.

Somehow, I missed a month with this monthly review. Maybe because it took a while to recover from this hike to Kamniško Sedlo, a mountain ridge/pass in Slovenia’s Kamnik Alps. It’s not something I usually wake up for at 6am on a Saturday morning, and the steep hike, for an unfit misfit like myself, was predictably unpleasant. But in the most pleasant sort of way. Stunning views. According to SLO wiki, it’s 1903m (6243ft). This is the view to the east, with the well-known Logarska dolina (valley) down to the left. All things considered, one of my favorite pics shot in October.

More shots to and from the top are on flickr here, and a few more on Facebook here.

My meticulously selected dandy dozen+ for the month, all shot in Slovenia, is here.

Previous pic(k)s of the month: [Sep 09] [Aug 09] [Jul 09] [Jun 09] [May 09] [Apr 09] [Mar 09] [Feb 09] [Jan 09] [2008]

Kamniško Sedlo 11, originally uploaded by pirano.

A nice write-up late last month in the Financial Times about Santomas, one of Slovenia’s priciest wineries. I’ve tried several and don’t think that they’re unworthy of their €10-25/bottle price tags, but as UK wine writer and consultant Caroline Gilby points out, they, and others like them, are not at all an easy sell internationally:

Personally I like the Santomas label, but they are on the pricey side and need to be hand-sold by people who can explain they are wines unique to that corner of Slovenia. It’s the position for most Slovenian producers, as they are unlikely to be able to hit the volumes and pricing required for true mass market exposure, they need a niche.

The winery’s website is here, and some reviews here and here.

merlot, originally uploaded by pirano.

Construction of a new bridge over the Ljubljanica, mesarski most, connecting the central market with the river’s north bank, began late last month. Here’s a video via the daily Dnevnik of what it’s going to look like.  More about this and related projects here.

France Prešeren, Slovenia’s most famous poet and writer, would have been 209 today. Above is a pair enjoying a mid-afternoon snooze last Spring in the square in Ljubljana which bears his name. Words and phrases he molded form Slovenia’s national anthem, a sing-along most consider a drinking song.

So, in the name of Prešeren, who lived to be  just a few years older than Elvis, let’s praise and remember good song writing.

Ljubljana 0154, originally uploaded by pirano.

About 30,000 people turned out for a demonstration on Saturday organized by Slovenia’s major national trade unions. Their key demands included raising the minimum net monthly salary to 600 EUR. They also voiced their opposition to a proposal which would increase the retirement age to 65. In the near term, both are very likely to fall on deaf ears.

It was raining most of the day, the hardest during the half hour or so I was there. But many managed to stay dry.

Ljubljana 0174 (top), originally uploaded by pirano.

I went to a birthday/bowling party last week in Ljubljana’s Šiška neighborhood at an alley/pub located in the basement of a multi-purpose building, a typical example of the drab uninspired socialist architecture prevalent here in the 60s. The place had the cozy and welcoming feel of a neighborhood bar, and with its thick light brown paneling, an aura of a 70s suburban basement rec room chic.

On the way it was misty and dark, a slight chill to match the light drizzle. Walking across 9 May Square –can someone tell me the significance of the date and why this square next to an elementary school is named after it?– I felt like I was taking a stroll through a cheezy cold war movie. That was before I saw the cool fallout shelter door next to the bar entrance, just a few meters to the right of two pinball machines.

When the alley decides to hang up its sets of nine pins for good, or simply decides on a flooring upgrade, I want to be around for the disposal sale so I can get my hands on something like this, made by William Stranger of Stranger Furniture.

Via Inhabitat :

Check out a slide show here. Excellent stuff!

Small, but growing. Here’s a screencap of the current network. Map here, and Wlan ljubljana website here (Slovenian only).

FYI for travelers, there’s also free wifi in Ljubljana’s Pučnik (formerly Brnik) airport, strongest on the second floor of the recently constructed departure lounge.

Borrowing from Andrew Sullivan’s ‘View From Your Window’, today’s daily pic is just a quick snap out of the home office window where the first snow in the area can be seen in the hills just east of Ljubljana.

Another shot of Slovenia’s Central Bank, more specifically its telamones, taken on Saturday while waiting for Bill Clinton. Another shot of the bank and more about the building here.

Ljubljana 0170, originally uploaded by pirano.

Over a couple glasses of wine this afternoon, Bill Clinton chastised me for my rather lame efforts with my LJ Pic of the Day chore, so I promised that I’d resume the project with an image of him.

The former US President popped into Ljubljana today to say hi, and to collect a reported €100,000 ($147,318) for a 45-minute lecture. (As a point of comparison, George W. Bush hit the lecture circuit at home last week, an event for which organizers charged $19, but not per person. That was the ticket price per office.)

I didn’t see and haven’t read much about his lecture, but among the more memorable quips was in reference to the ongoing Adriatic boundary dispute between Slovenia and Croatia. Paraphrasing from a Radio SLO report:  “The current dispute won’t matter much in 50 years if we allow the sea levels to continue to rise.”

This was Clinton’s second visit to Slovenia, and while his stroll around town turned a few heads and attracted a few waves, the crowd didn’t quite compare with the one that turned out for Queen Elizabeth’s after-tea walkabout here last October.

Clinton in SLO 02, originally uploaded by pirano.

200 meters to go: Caroline Cheptanui Kilel on the way to a race record at Sunday’s Ljubljana Marathon, where she clocked 2:25:24, the 14th fastest performance in the world this year.

There’s another handful of other shots from the marathon here.

Caroline Cheptanui, originally uploaded by pirano.

We’ve had some nice early evening colors over the past few weeks. This was taken eight days ago, looking towards the south.

Ljubljana 0166, originally uploaded by pirano.

We’ll try to kick-start this daily chore again with this, spotted near Kinoklub Vič a few weeks ago. I’m delighted to note that the square on which it’s located is still called Trg mladinskih delovnih brigad, or Youth Workers Brigades Square. Recently renovated and reopened over the summer. [map] [now showing (scroll down)]

Nice gun!

Ljubljana 0168, originally uploaded by pirano.