Ljubljana Date Night

It’s been a quiet week for us, but Chantelle and I actually managed two date nights (likely our only two date nights while we’re here this time), while the kiddos played hide-and-seek and made paper boats with our babysitter, Sara.  On Sunday evening, we happened to catch about fifteen minutes of a documentary that was being shown on the street about life in Ljubljana in the late 1970’s.  At that time, there was nothing here: no restaurants, cafes, or shops, and as a result there were no people…it looked like a gray, deserted city.  Interviewees in the film talked about how they went to the train station to drink because there was nowhere else to go.  It’s difficult to picture this given the center of activity the old part of town has become, from the open-air market to a three-on-three basketball tournament in Preseren Square to a Friday evening of packed cafes and live music all along the river.

One of our favorite places for date nights is Mackalonca, an outdoor café down below street level on the river, where the view to the south is weeping willows on the river bank leading to the Cobbler’s Bridge, and the view to the north is the lighted Triple Bridge and Preseren Square.  And of course, perched above on the opposite side of the river, in the midst of the trees on the hill, sits the castle.  We spent a good portion of last night at the Mackalonca reflecting on our experiences here, the changes from the spring of 2011 to today.  As vivid as it is, it is still hard to believe the level of naivete with which we operated when we first arrived here.  It may not be night-and-day difference, but it's at least night and early morning.  We could spend an entire blog reflecting on this (and maybe we will), but a single sentence from last night sums up the basic sentiment:  “I will miss this when it is finally over.”  Whenever that is, for whatever reason.

I cherish everything about my experiences in this part of the world in the past two-and-a-half years, not the least of which is that I got to share them with my wonderful bride.  We haven’t had many date nights here, but they always seem to reaffirm why we came here in the first place.