Ljubljana

KIM: Yesterday in Ljubljana was the secondary school graduation day. All of the kids paraded from the Kongressi Trg throughout the city, dressed in orange and black t-shirts and blowing whistles incessantly. What a racket! They all proceeded with abandon at their own pace. It was an all-day-and-night-long free-for-all. At one point, I retreated to a shady square to try to escape the noise, or at least I hoped it would pass, but several of the girls appeared at the next bench with a bottle of wine and a set of keys. I thought maybe they had a corkscrew on the keychain, but they only had keys and proceeded, without regard for my observation, to try to dig the cork out of the bottle. They were still at it when I left about ten minutes later! The weather today was beautiful, after a thunderstorm the previous night, so I headed over the dragon bridge for the funicular to see the castle on the hill. From the castle courtyard I heard people speaking Slovenian, Croatian, German, Hebrew, British and Australian English, French, Russian, Japanese, and other languages I didn’t recognize also! A group of children formed a circle in the courtyard with one boy in the center and began to sing happy birthday in Slovenian, turning their circle around the boy as American kids would while playing ring-around-the-rosy. The hundred or so adults milling about the castle grounds all became quiet to listen and the little birthday boy put his hands over his eyes until it was all over. Then they frolicked off and everyone went back to their conversation! Earlier in the day I photographed the river and some building frescoes. Thursday night I attended an art opening at a downtown bank lobby. Turns out the artist was an American graphic designer named Luba Lukova, whose work I have seen many times. She was at the show and I was able to speak with her and a few of her associates. It was a very nice evening. Friday evening I attended a concert of the Slovene Philharmonic, featuring soloists from the National Academy of Music, including a young double bass player who did a great job of the Koussevitsky Concerto. I met two of the four bass players in the orchestra. One from Croatia and the other from (of all places) Planina! This morning I’m catching the 8:35 am train to Zagreb, Croatia to meet up with Anastasia and Shelley…