I just want to go back a little to a post that I made a couple of weeks ago, relating to the above painting of Peter Kozler in the city museum of Ljubljana.
AI is very heavily overdone at the moment, but it’s hard to get away from the imagery and content that it can produce. I’ve started to see some museums and galleries using it more frequently to add further depth to their collections, and I like that innovation.
This is how AI has responded to my request to bring him to life as a modern day person and to have him stepping out of the portrait. It might not have done a perfect job, but I like the option to interpret so many exhibits in a different way. This feels far more human to me, I rather think that it has brought it to life.
I had one more night in Ljubljana than the others, so I decided to stay at the Art Hotel before moving to the Ibis Styles. I arrived a little late in the evening and received a text from the hotel reminding me that I needed to check-in relatively promptly as their reception didn’t open late. I received this message when just about to enter the hotel, but I was fortunate that there were no earlier issues with the railways or Flixbus.
The team member at the reception desk was helpful and friendly, so the check-in process was efficient and easy. It was a relief to get to the hotel safely, as it had been quite a journey over a few days to get here from Rome, all without any transport issues fortunately.
The room was clean and comfortable, with a bath in the bathroom which I always consider preferable. There was also a kettle, which isn’t something that I can always rely on and indeed the Ibis Styles didn’t have one (well, they had their own, just there were none in the rooms).
I popped to Lidl for a healthy evening snack.
The view from my window over the hotel’s little outside seating area, although it was a bit wet for anyone to want to sit there.
Breakfast in the morning was included in the room rate and I’m perfectly content with bread, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, gherkins and peppers, so this worked well for me. They did have some apple strudel, indeed it’s visible at the top left of the photo, but I forgot to go back for some.
A nice light breakfast with orange juice and yoghurt. I did get myself quite a few more tomatoes and olives, I might well be able to live just on those. Well, assuming Greggs was still open so that I could get a chicken bake or three.
You could pay extra for some more items and perhaps a coffee from the machine should have been included as the filter coffee that was provided was a bit, er, unappealing. I was entirely pleased with the breakfast arrangement overall though, with the room price being towards the lower end of the scale.
Anyway, I very much liked this hotel and found that the welcome was friendly, there were no noise issues and everything was clean and tidy.
And with that, I went to meet the others as they were arriving in Ljubljana, so I’ll now jump back to Trieste where I temporarily left the story….
I can’t say that I ever really look forward to using Flixbus, there’s usually some sort of issue attached to their journeys which just makes things difficult. However, the journey from Trieste to Ljubljana is relatively quick by coach and hard by any other method, so given it was reasonably priced, I booked it.
In the above photo is where it’s meant to leave from, at the downstairs of the coach station. They make very clear on the ticket location not to wait outside the coach station.
And here’s the Flixbus that stopped outside the coach station. Fortunately, someone came in and told everyone waiting that the coach was departing from outside, but it was a bit of a faff for those with luggage to have to move at short notice. Apparently this isn’t actually where it usually stops, I have no idea what their logic was that night.
Flixbus doesn’t always force people to have a seat reservation, but they did on this service. And, it was the usual mess and chaos, although my window seat was free and I didn’t have any issues. An upset lady did though have a problem as her seat was already taken and a staff member came over to resolve it, then he realised that about six people were in the wrong place and it would be too difficult to fix without ending up playing some odd form of Jenga on a moving coach. With that, the coach pulled off and the poor lady, by now quite upset, fell over. The staff were very friendly, but Flixbus makes very little simple.
And safely into Ljubljana…. I will continue to try and avoid Flixbus, they’re a public transport option of last resort for me as there’s nearly always something that’s a problem. But maybe I’m being unfair as I just prefer trains……
It was the morning of my birthday, so what better plan could I have than to travel on a bloody Flixbus? Four of us were taking the ninety minute journey to Trieste where we spending the evening before all flying back the following day.
I’ve used Flixbus many times and I always dread it, as their policies seem odd to me. I boarded and then tried to take the seat they told me to sit in, which annoyed the lady next to me I think as it soon became apparent that the coach was nearly entirely empty. Steve, Susanna, Bev and I were scattered around the coach, their whole reservation strategy is just a nuisance. I don’t understand why it can’t be an optional thing like many other coach companies such as National Express.
Bev and Susanna just boarded the coach without showing their tickets, as they’re like that. Steve and I thought we’d board properly, but Bev and Susanna soon rushed off to the ticket collector when they realised.
There are USB power outlets on the back of some seats, but they didn’t work.
Safely in Trieste where it was wet and rainy. The staff members on the Flixbus were polite, the driving seemed entirely acceptable and the coach was sort of clean. It was only a ninety minute journey, but for as long as Flixbus keep forcing seat reservations on people, I’m going to try and avoid travelling with them.
We were all staying in Accor’s Ibis Styles for the three nights that we were in Ljubljana, a conveniently located hotel just a short walk away from the bus stop and railway station.
The set-up here is a little different to the usual Ibis Styles arrangement, as they also have a hostel on the seventh floor which means more social areas are provided for the entire hotel. There is a rooftop bar, which I confess that we forgot to visit.
We were all on different floors, but I think that the rooms looked the same. The bathroom set-up is very Ibis Styles… My room felt functional and bare, but it was clean and I had what I needed. Well, other than a welcome gift….
The view from the hotel over to Ljubljana Castle.
I had been fortunate to obtain a favourable rate that also included breakfast, although the others had booked room options without the breakfast. I didn’t intend to miss out though.
I didn’t bother with the hot options as the cold options were plentiful, but there were some eggs and sausages as well.
Bread, blue cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, salami, croissant, bread and butter, all really rather lovely.
I always find it handy when they do this. I went down between 07:00 and 08:00 to fit in with the others and it was always quiet.
And my welcome drink, which I picked up on the final night. It’s not a beer that I’ve had before, but it was dark and interesting.
As an aside, I liked the lights outside the room which clearly indicated to the cleaning staff who wanted the room cleaned. I opted to just collect the 100 Accor points every night by not having the room cleaned, as every little helps…
I really rather liked this hotel, the staff were friendly, the room was clean, there were no internal or external noise, everything worked properly, there was a nice welcome drink and the breakfast was of a decent quality. I’d certainly stay here again if I come back to the city, which I likely will.
After the excitement of Lake Bled, Bev and I finally got back to Ljubljana and I suggested this restaurant as the one we had planned to go to had already closed.
It’s a Balkan themed restaurant and I liked the quirky layout inside. It was a larger restaurant than I had realised, so we didn’t have a problem getting a table.
It’s not the normal view when dining at a restaurant, but it all added to the atmosphere. Bev meandered around the restaurant taking photos of the decor and she was on good behaviour all evening, hardly complaining about anything.
Chicken schnitzel is one of my favourite dishes, so I went for that and it was keenly priced and looked suitably appetising. The chicken was tender, the coating was crispy and the chips were fluffy inside and firm on the exterior. I also got a pot of ajvar as I rather like that, it’s mainly based on roasted red peppers.
The beer is the Osječko Nefiltrirano Točeno Pivo, a lager which was clean and refreshing, it’s as reasonable as I’ll find a lager to be. It was all decent value for money, I think the meal, beer and ajvar came to around £13.
The service here was friendly and the venue felt properly rustic and authentic, with the food being hearty and full of flavour. This was our last dining experience in Ljubljana and it certainly didn’t let us down.
Following busgate and over three hours after we were meant to catch the bus back to Ljubljana, I’m pleased to write that we were successful.
Rather than stand at the bus stop waiting for the fifth bus, we went back to the cafe that we were in earlier and Bev acquired us some chicken strips with fries.
And a healthy and warming hot chocolate.
The lake was peaceful at night and the area was becoming ever quieter.
It’s not a very clear photo of Bled Castle, but it gives the impression of its beauty.
Even at this time, with relatively few buses left, the bus filled up and people were left behind. We were fortunate on this one and a local lad said I could stand next to him as he said he was getting on it regardless. Bev, as she’s fearless, told a group of four young ladies off for barging their way past her to get on. We were pretty near the front of the queue and so easily got on and it was a relief to be honest, as I wanted to get some food in Ljubljana before the restaurants closed. Unfortunately, the Indian we had planned to go to was closing by this point, but I had another restaurant plan.
Safely back, but not before I managed to get off the bus and realise it was the wrong stop and we had to get back on again. The driver of this bus was calm and collected, so there were no dramas, although everyone at the airport was refused boarding and there was a minor altercation there as well.
We had anticipated leaving Lake Bled with our pre-paid tickets so that we could get back to look in a couple of churches in Ljubljana before going for an evening meal. We assumed that there might be a bus that we could catch…..
I’d add that I wasn’t initially planning to take many photos of this, so I was a little slow to capture the whole arrangement, although there’s a video in part two that gives a taste of things to come.
There was a relatively orderly queue at the bus stop, but it became apparent that some people had already been waiting for two hours. There was excitement when the bus to Ljubljana pulled up, but in an act of what generally felt like incompetence, the bus driver pulled up mid-way along the bus stop and opened the doors.
This led to the worst incident of bus rage that I’ve ever seen. A passenger hit another passenger and another was physically assaulted by being pushed. A rush of customers forced onto the bus and the driver lost control. Those waiting for two hours were visibly upset and none of those got on. Those that had just arrived were able to board, but the driver looked upset and confused, somehow as if he had managed not to realise that this was inevitable. There were numerous altercations with customers between themselves and some yelling at the driver. The driver started yelling back, closed the doors and drove off, although he didn’t have much choice by then as his bus was full.
One group of what appeared to be Portuguese tourists shouted at a local saying “we’ve visitors, we get priority” and this poor local lady said “we get priority, I’ve got to get to work, you could get a taxi” and I’m afraid I do feel that locals should get priority here as public transport should serve their needs. The aggressive passengers won here, but I’m pleased to say that the local lady did just board.
The next driver was very sensible and he stopped at the obvious location to allow passengers to board. But, the previous driver had made his life impossible, there was fear from passengers that they wouldn’t be getting home and a child’s throat was grabbed by another passenger as a rush started. There were two quite serious altercations between passengers and this frankly shamed Arriva Buses as this was entirely their fault.
At this stage, Susanna and Steve managed to board, but Bev and I didn’t. I’m quite relaxed about this, things happen for a reason, so we decided to wait for one more bus.
And this was the real problem bus.
The driver stopped there. Complete madness as now some people had been waiting for three hours and he boarded passengers who had just got there. But, in the next post I have a video of this, as it all became quite exciting.
Our Sunday excitement was a day trip to Lake Bled to have a meander around the lake and to have the famous cake that I’d never heard of as it had somehow passed under my cultural radar. We started in the bus station buying a ticket with cash as we thought that was the only way of doing it, as well as our unwavering commitment to outdated payment methods…..
Susanna wrongly said that it was too cold, but I don’t think she tries hard enough to enjoy slightly cooler temperatures.
Bev excitedly waiting for the bus, which are operated by Arriva every thirty minutes.
There was something of a queueing system in operation, but what became clear quite early on is that there were more customers than the coach could possibly take. There will be more on this theme later, but for the moment, all four of us made it on board. Around fifteen people were just left to wait for a later bus.
It transpired that we could have bought bus tickets on the bus using cards, but there we go… The situation was confused and boarding was laborious, so we left fifteen minutes late.
The mountains come into view.
I was talking to this passenger in red about taking trains across Europe and he said he had been surprised at how bad Deutsche Bahn have been. I wasn’t, they’re bloody dreadful. Anyway, more mountains.
The bus was a fairly useless service for many as it was full from the start to the end, with no-one getting off en route. That meant that it drove by every single stop where people were waiting, including the airport where around ten people had wanted to get to Lake Bled. It was all very sub-optimal, but more on this theme later as it got much worse.
However, the bus in the morning worked for us and we were at Lake Bled after around 70 minutes, with the temperature being moderate and we could then start our planned walk. What could possibly go wrong?
Styled after the David Hockney work ‘The Bigger Splash’ from 1967, this sizeable artwork in the main atrium of the museum is by Zmaga Lenárdiča.
This seems to be one of these artworks that has numerous meanings depending on who is looking at it. There is maybe a statement on the water has gone, perhaps climate change or a suggestion that hope has declined since Hockney’s painting. Or it could mean that there’s something important about the elements that are visible and invisible, as Hockey’s initial work didn’t show any individual. Instead of the exuberant moment Hockney captured, this piece has the eerie and drained stillness of whatever happened after. Or it could mean that no-one normally captures the scene after it happens, when the spectacle has gone.
And my theme, if there is one here, is that it seems common for humans to find meaning in any given artwork. It’s not likely the meaning that the artist intended, but the viewer can walk away thinking there is meaning.
I asked AI to create a similar image and explain its meaning and why it chose what it did. It, rather cleverly, responded by saying that sometimes things don’t have to have meaning. And it delivered this image and I’m actually rather impressed at this philosophical line it went down….
