Waiting for the Christmas market in Ljubljana, Slovenia

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After seeing little hints of the approaching Christmas for a few weeks in the towns and cities we’ve been in, today the season exploded in a big way in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana. For Masayo and I the first half of the day was spent in Bled, where we took one last look at Lake Bled and its attractive island church, before leaving the Julian Alps and heading down by train to the capital. My blood sugars were pretty good for the first half, but as usual I made some poor choices and ended the day with some highs.

At breakfast in the Pension Union dining room in Bled my BG was 135, much better than most of my readings in the last few days. Our breakfast was again simple and filling, and for the fourth day in a row we surreptitiously fashioned sandwiches for lunch out of the bread and meat we didn’t eat.

We packed up all of our stuff – I remembered to take the insulin out of the refrigerator in our room and put it back into my bags, half in the big backpack and half in my day pack – and checked out.

We left our big bags with the Pension Union staff so we could take a final look at beautiful Bled. Masayo hadn’t properly seen Lake Bled yesterday like I had so we walked along the southern shore, far enough for her to see the Church of the Assumption of Mary on famous little Bled Island. It was as amazing as yesterday – a view like that somehow never gets old.

Finally it was time for the bus down to the town of Lesce; we got our bags from the pension and thanked the super kind owners who had given us such great service. The bus stop was right outside and the trip only took ten minutes.

After 40 minutes of hanging around Lesce-Bled station our train for Ljubljana arrived and we sat down for the hour-long ride. At 1:00 pm, aboard the train, I checked my BG and was 105. Seems great, right? Well I thought it felt too low, like it was actually dropping, so I ate a Snickers bar and some juice. Then I ate the breakfast sandwich and took some Humalog – but it’s hard to convince myself to take much insulin while I’m “feeling” low, even if my reading is pretty good.

I would come to regret this decision.

We got to Ljubljana (pronounced like “lee-yoob lee-yana”, kinda) and walked about 1 kilometer to our hostel, Viva Rooms, which we’d found on booking.com, the website that I seem to use exclusively now as we move around Europe.

Viva Rooms is a small, no-frills hostel. There is no breakfast or common room, but it has an excellent location near the center of town (Ljubljana is pleasant and small) and the staff is very genial. There are no room numbers; the rooms are named instead. Ours is called Joy, and inside is a quotation (in English) from Richard Wagner painted on the wall:

Joy is not in things, it is in us.

Neither of us was feeling particularly joyful, for various reasons. But Ljubljana would see that we got over that pretty quickly.

We hung around the room and worked online, me updating photos for t1dwanderer.com, At 7:00 pm I realized how poor my insulin choices earlier on the train had been: I was 275 and not happy at all about it.

It was time for our first meal in Ljubljana and we found a nearby restaurant that seemed cozy and tasty, and the prices weren’t bad. I had chicken, large chunks of cheese, and vegetables, and Masayo and I split a bottle of carbonated water. As is usual for Slovenia, the waiter also brought us a big basket of bread. The food was quite delicious and it was nice to have a real meal. I took my Humalog shot at the table, hoping I’d be okay by bedtime.

(I wouldn’t be.)

Afterwards we strolled around Ljubljana and that’s when Christmas hit us with full force. Ljubljana is a youthful city, owing to the large student population from the university, and the town center was lavishly decorated. A gigantic tree, covered in sparkling white lights, dominated the plaza , and nearby buildings were festooned with blue and white lights. Snowflakes, swirls, and stars hovered in mid air on invisible wires.

People and families, young and old, were packed around the famous three bridges that cross the narrow and quiet Ljubljanica River, or listening to merry accordion music near food and drink stalls. Many were sampling cookies and/or hot mulled wine. It kind of seemed like everyone knew each other, but I’m sure they didn’t – people in Ljubljana are just naturally friendly, at least when they’re full of hot wine on a cold and busy Christmasy evening.

As Masayo and I passed down a side street we heard a brass band and saw that it wasn’t prerecorded music on a speaker – there was a real brass band oompah-ing cheerfully away on the side of the street to the delight of the crowd, some of whom were dancing.

My blood sugar woes were tempered considerably by the festive outdoor atmosphere of Ljubljana – all this fun just down the street from our lodging at Viva Rooms that, though on a main street, was somehow not noisy.

Unfortunately my actual diabetic luck was still poor – before bed I was an aggravating 246. Another glancing blow to absorb, medically and psychologically. I took some corrective Humalog and drifted off to sleep – happy to be in a capital city as fun and friendly and manageable as Ljubljana, Slovenia, and looking forward to a day of better diabetes luck and more fun experiences tomorrow.

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