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Somehow I managed to get vacation time from work for two weeks in February 1998, and decided to use a good part of it to go to Slovenia, a place I’d always wanted to see, but most of my family and friends had never heard of.

Ljubljana/Lyubyanka-What's the Difference?

Tony
2004-01-28 10:10:43

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Somehow I managed to get vacation time from work for two weeks in February 1998, and decided to use a good part of it to go to Slovenia, a place I’d always wanted to see, but most of my family and friends had never heard of.

I flew to Vienna, the easiest entry point to Slovenia. My uneventful flight got me to the very efficient airport early in the morning. I got on an extremely modern and roomy airport bus, and collected my thoughts.I was back in Europe, but in a new place entirely. The tensions of everyday life in New York and recent disasters in affairs of the heart suddenly seemed distant and less overwhelming. I was on vacation!

I wasn’t staying in Vienna for long, and considering my mood when I arrived, that was for the best. I would discover Vienna was aloof and neurotic soon enough, burdened by its history: glorifying it as well as repressing much of it. Still, as I made my way to the pension I’d booked, I could see it was a beautiful and elegant place. And very quiet.

My hotel was just a simple pension, three floors up in a Jugendstil building that had seen better days. The elevator didn’t work, although it was beautifully designed. The pension landlady wouldn’t let me go to my room until noon. I had arrived early, and “rules are rules”, especially in this part of the world. She told me she would put my bag be in my room for me. I would’ve preferred she put ME in my room with my bag, but I decided it was pleasant out and I could explore the city a bit and come back at noon.

I walked around for several hours, looking all around Vienna’s Altstadt, seeing the immense Stephansdom, and making my way over to Sudbahnhof to get my train ticket for Ljubljana. I had an authentic lunch of wurst, potatoes, and sauerkraut, and then went back to the hotel. I try to book places that have bathtubs, because at home I have only a shower in my apartment. Taking a long ...