Background: For the next few days I was mainly doing the tourist thing, although I did briefly stop by one place in Milan and had an all too brief experience of Ljubljana’s vibrant nightlife, otherwise I was mostly enjoying craft beer and some great Italian food. In fact other than MetalDays there is not much in the way of metal bars for the remainder of this trip. Meanwhile in the present day I am about to embark on another festival in Germany (which I will write about in due course), so I intend to try and finish off writing about this trip before I set off tomorrow morning (!) and finally finish this, nearly a year after I was actually there. This will be a condensed account of my experience travelling to Ljubljana, which started by catching a very special train…

July 21 – The Bernina Express and Milan

I decided to leave Switzerland in style, first by travelling down to Chur to get the train down to Tirano, just over the Swiss-Italian border, on the Bernina Express – a metre-gauge railway line over the Alps, taking in some breathtaking scenery over the course of four hours. The line itself is a UNSECO World Heritage site, and it is easy to see why:

From Treno I had a long wait for a rail replacement bus due to engineering works, before finally getting a train to Milan where I was going to be staying the night. It was evening so all the main attractions were shutting so I tried looking in the guidebook for somewhere to eat and not getting very far, in fact my time in Milan became a bit of a farce due to struggling in the heat and public transport issues, plus the place I sought was also more expensive than I though and was solidly booked for two hours. Still had a good time photographing the sights though:

I eventually returned to near the central station and had my tea, and made it to Headbangers Pub, although I wasted an hour waiting for trams that failed to turn up and then made my way though the heat to finally walk over there, the fact I had gone to all this bother spurring me on to follow through. It looked really cool inside (and thankfully it felt nice and cool after the oppressive heat) – I can imagine this being a mecca for metalheads across the region:

That evening it was more rock in general including some good female-fronted grunge and indie music, which I enjoyed over the course of two colas. Sadly I would not get a chance to revisit this place even though I would pass through Milan one last time since they would be shut on that day, which was a shame, I would like to see this place when it is busier. Anyway I was tired and exhausted after a long day of travel so made it back to the hostel for a second shower before turning in for the train to Trieste the following morning.

July 22 – Trieste

I decided to take it easy in Trieste so didn’t really look for any bars, instead just taking in the sites of a beautiful and laid back city, with some nice parks and beautiful churches, in particular the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, watched the sun set on the Molo Audace and enjoyed some great food in the city’s many restaurants:

July 23 – Ljubljana

Slovenia pretty much wowed me with her stunning beauty as soon as I crossed over the border. As the train made its way to Ljubljana I was bedazzled by the beautiful gorges and trees for mails around. Even better was discovering that the train’s final stop before the central station was just five minutes away from my Airbnb. After checking in I did yet more sightseeing, noting there wasn’t an ugly building in sight, at least not in the city centre or anywhere that tourists go. I had goulash for my lunch and then went over to the castle:

After I had finished looking around this amazing city, I sought out a bar, and first came around Lajbah, a very nice craft beer place. I was enjoying a delicious pint before I was informed that members of our group who were travelling to MetalDays were over at Nostalgija, which was just over the river Ljubljanica, so I headed over and made some new friends over some more great beer.

Left: Me at Lajbah with some Slovenian craft beer. Right: Night time at Nostalgija.

And this concludes that part of the adventure, next stop is MetalDays, where I will write about my great time there. But as far is this entry is concerned, it is goodnight from Ljubljana.

INFORMATION

Milan

• Headbangers Pub: Via Tito Livio, 33/A, 20137 Milano MI, Italy. Open 20-01 Mon, 20-02 Wed & Thurs, 20-04 Fri & Sat, Sun 20-01, closed Tues. Website Facebook Instagram E-mail

Ljubljana

• Lajbah: Grudnovo nabrežje 15, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Open Mon-Fri 11-00, Sat 12-00, closed Sun. Tel: +386 30413016. Website Facebook Instagram E-mail
• Nostalgija Vintage cafe & Live music bar: Krakovski nasip 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Open Mon-Thurs 10-12, Fri & Sat 10-01, Sun 10-17. Tel: +386 31507750. Facebook Instagram