I found the article below on the Usenet group rec.travel.europe. I reposted a reply, wherein I agreed and commented that "now beautiful, charming Ljubljana will be overrun with Amerikanskis and other tourists. Ah well, it was sweet while it lasted." I also agreed with the author's comment regarding their desire to be American. I saw some graffitti when I was there that said - in German no less - "Everything is good in America."
Published in the Globe & Mail, Canada's national newspaper (author Andrew Cohen):
In a world in thrall to fashion, cities have become as trendy as couture. The taste makers and trend setters circle the globe like argonauts, alight in unknown places, and declare them hip - which is surely the beginning of their undoing.
So it was with Prague a few years ago. Now, as everyone knows, Prague is passe. Searching for a successor, the argonauts have anointed this pleasant town [Ljubljana] in one of Europes newest, tiniest nations.
If Ljubljana is considered the next mecca for expatriates and backpackers - the emerging capital of cool - it is probably because it so resembles the crowded, jaded Prague before it was "discovered".
It, too, has age, beauty and style. While the face of new Ljubljana bares the scars of Stalinism, old Ljubljana is a charming mix of the Baroque, Gothic, art nouveau and neo-classical, of quaint squares and leafy parks.
Slovenia was the most prosperous of the Socialist Republics of Yugoslavia. But when it declared independence in 1991, it disavowed the East. Now it trades with Germany (the mark is the unofficial currency), Italy and France, and looks to the European Uniion and NATO.
In Europe's nursery of nations, Slovenia is a wunderkind. While Slovakia (with which Slovenia is often confused) continues to struggle five years after leaving Czechoslovakia, Slovenia succeeds.
Small nations have big complexes. Forever insecure, they seek legitimacy abroad in international bodies (Slovenia is now a member of the Security Council); at home, they affect sophistication and worldliness.
Some capitals are poseurs, but not Ljubljana. It has been around too long and done too much to put on airs. Independence has confirmed what it always was: the bona fide seat of the Slovenians (a homogeneous people of 1.9 million), a cockpit of culture, a station of commerce, a place with a past.
It is a past of artistic, scientific and commercial achievement, Slovenians hasten to remind you, that is divorced from the wasting rivalries of the Balkans, from which they are geographically and psychologically distinct..
In fact, while its erstwhile compatriots were killing one another in Bosnia, Slovenia hunkered down and remade itself. "We're a stoic people," said Polonca Skodic, an irreverent observer. "We take things as they come and we get on with it. After independence there wasn't euphoria, just realism."
Ms. Skodic compares Slovenia to Switzerland. The people are industrious and hard-working. They also have little sense of humour and a suspicion of foreigners, even as they appear surprisingly cosmopolitan.
Consider, for example, the city's social calendar. In November, it played host to a film festival; an international book fair following the annual one in Germany (Frankfurt after Frankfurt); expositions on hairstyles and fashion; a furniture fair; and a conference on information technology, which seems natural in a city in which one firm alone sells 30 computers a day.
For a city of 330,000, Ljubljana is remarkably endowed. It has two symphonies, three art academies and seven theatres. The National Gallery exhibits national painters. The Opera House offers opera and ballet. The aply named Cankar Hall - a horrendous example of the School of Brutalism - is the city's main cultural centre, entertaining visiting troupes.
Through the city's cobbled streets, the sense of energy and creativity was striking. Bistros of marble, glass and wood, which look to New York. Cafes offering gateaux and strudel, which look to Paris and Vienna. Fast-food restaurants serving hamburgers, which look to the pockets of chain-smoking youths, who want to be Americans.
Along the deep banks of the Ljubljanica river, knitted with ornamental bridges, entrepreneurs are restoring crumbling Hapsburg villas and filling shops with crystals and skis. A nation of farmers has become a nation of artisans and traders, fuelling economic growth of 4% a year.
All this seems to be unfolding naturally, as if it has always been this way in Slovenia. In a sense, it has. The truth is that for this ambitious people, success isn't new and size doesn't matter - as the world will learn when it discovers Ljubljana.
Here are some photos of Ljubljana I took when I was there.
I had the best time in Ljubljana of anyplace I've ever been. I was completely on my own and in a country and a city that liked Americans. And, since I am half Slovene, I felt very much at home. I could live in Ljubljana for the rest of my life, and just might!
Lonely Planet has some info on Slovenia, too.
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