Friday, November 29, 2019

Baylor Family Croatia, Slovenia and Trieste 2019, Chapter 10: Ljubljana's grand old train station and the current status of my ghosts.


Previously, Thanksgiving dinner in Ljubljana.

One of the bedrock, greatest-hits-variety stories from my Euro odysseys during the era of the 1980s is the tale of arriving Friday evening by train in Ljubljana and being greeted by scores of drunk young Slovenian army conscripts.

12 Days of Slovenia & Trieste (Part 4): In 1987, Ljubljana was an introduction to Yugoslavia.


Diana is sick and tired of hearing me repeat the saga, so it will suffice to say that 32 years later, I was thrilled to revisit the scene. The station building dates to 1849 when the railroad from Vienna to Trieste was being completed.

I didn't realize that since 2003 there has been a small commemorative plaque at the station honoring a migratory writer's mistake.

On 19 October 1904 (James) Joyce and Nora Barnacle spent the night in Laibach. En route from Zurich to Trieste Joyce and Nora got off the train in Laibach (now Ljubljana in Slovenia), thinking it to be Trieste, and had to spend the night in a park.

These days it's probably difficult getting away with spending the evening in a park. Not that I've ever done that sort of thing traveling ...











And so we were off to Lake Bled.

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