One of the countries never on my bucket list was Slovenia. In fact, the whole trip, I kept calling it Slovakia 🙈.

BUT it was an interesting little country to explore for the weekend! Joe had been there before, and it was an easy 2 hour drive from Aviano.

We stayed in Ljubljana (pronounced like lyoo-BLYAH-nah), the capital, at an Airbnb we found online. Our host suggested going to the Open Kitchen that is only open on Friday nights and it was my favorite part of the trip! There was music playing and lots of local (and not so local) types of food at the market.

That first evening we walked around the city after dinner and just took it all in! There was a brass band playing randomly in the street, which was also awesome!

The next day, we explored more of the city, starting out with Ljubljana’s main market.

We picked up some fresh raspberries and blueberries (that were delicious) and then toured the Ljubljana Cathedral after lunch. The church was very quiet and had paintings all over the ceiling that made you slightly dizzy to look at (or at least it did for me).

Before hiking up to the castle, we did some shopping and made a quick gelato stop. 😉

The walk up to the castle was steep and a little windey, but worth it — it offered a great view of Ljubljana!

The castle itself wasn’t too exciting. We explored pretty much everything there was to explore. In one corner of the main open area, however, there was a neat little reading area on the lawn. So while Joe fell asleep (I refrained from posting a picture of that for his sake 😉), I pulled out my book and spent an hour or so reading. With a second gelato in hand and relaxing in the shade, it was perfect 👌🏼.

After Joe woke up, we meandered out of the castle to Tivoli Park. It probably would have been way more stunning in the spring, but it was still a neat walk (although my feet were killing me by this point).

To finish out the night, we had dinner at a Thai restaurant and then ended up at a pub crawl! It was a short trip, but Ljubljana was a great getaway for a weekend!