It's the Economy, Stupid

On a sidenote - I checked my bank account for the first time since leaving (and was a bit nervous before doing so...) but was pleasantly surprised to notice that I am comfortably under budget so far. It pretty much made my day.

sLOVEnia

After a couple of days in Belgrade I moved on to another unintended destination: Slovenia!

On my train ride out, I had one other passenger in my cabin - a 25 year old Serbian guy; at first I didn't have a great feeling about this. We got to talking and by the end of the train ride were laughing and joking together. We exchanged email addresses and he emailed me last night to see if I wanted to go out to a bar since we were both in Slovenia - unfortunately I didn't get the email. Though it's nice to be building an international network.

The capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana (Lu-bli-ana) and it's fantastic. It is definitely my favorite city so far within the past 5 weeks of travel. I only ended up coming here because I will be in Budapest for the weekend to meet up with my friend Julie, and didn't want to spend a full week in Belgrade - even though the most attractive European women by far have been Serbian women - so I had to find a new destination for 3 days. Slovenia is also the only country I hope to return to during this trip, once leaving it.

Last night I was out at a local Slovenian bar and met a small group of locals who were all finishing their studies just as I had, and spent the evening with them, talking and listening to a Slovenian rock band (who played a number of classic American rock songs!). They pay about $2,000 (USD) to go to graduate school here, and regular University... is free.

The photos on this page are of a small river that cut through the city in the first photo, and of a dragon flanking one side of a bridge in another area of the city. Ljubliana is the supposed location of where Jason, "ancient Greek mythological figure, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece." founded his city as well. Thus the dragons are a representation of his heroism in his quest.