Before I get into Day 5 of our Slovenia trip, a quick story.
On Wednesday night, Brooke, Sami, Genie, and I all went out into the city to find dinner. Originally, we were thinking that we wanted Slovenian McDonalds, (it’s awesome, don’t knock it), but on our way there we changed our minds and decided that cevappi, a spiced sausage better known as a Balkan, not Slovenian, dish sounded better.
To get our cevappi fix, we stopped at this hole-in-the-wall place that only had a grill, a window, and some counters. 
The guy in the restaurant greeted us in Slovene, and we responded in the limited Slovene that we’ve learned before letting him know that we speak English. He hesitantly responded by telling us that he knew very little English. While this didn’t seem convenient, we agreed that we would just find a way to communicate and get our cevappi.
We ended up having a 20-minute conversation with this guy while he made our food. He spoke very good English, and we learned that he had been born in Serbia before moving to Budapest, and now Ljubljana. And, on top of that, the cevappi was absolutely outstanding and I plan to go back.
In a microcosmic moment, that experience represents our trip so far. Whenever a challenge arises or something seems inconvenient, our needs are met and exceeded. This country amazes me.
Today was a day that I’ve been looking forward to since the start of the trip; today, we visited the Ljubljana castle that overlooks the city. Ever since we got to Ljubljana, that castle has been staring at us from atop its perch and just inviting us to come visit.
But, before we visited the castle, we took a walking tour of Ljubljana, led by our tour guide Minka. A highlight of the walking tour was the
library that we visited. I don’t remember hearing the name, but I zone out a lot. (The blog editor knows it’s the Semenska Knijzica, a Baroque library that at one time held a 1:1ratio of books to citizens of Ljbuljana.) I’m not kidding when I say that this was the coolest library I’ve ever stepped foot in. Books are already cool, but I’m telling you that this place made books seem cool
Next we moved on to the castle
While the castle was more touristy than I was expecting—there were glossy signs on every door, railings and glass windows all over the place, just stuff like that—the view from the top tower was special. As the highest point in a very not tall city, the view from the tower allows you to see one-third of the entire country of Slovenia. Landscape and rooftops stretch on for miles and miles, and there’s even a faint glimpse of Austria to the northwest and Croatia to the southwest. On a clear day you can see Mount Triglav, the country’s highest peak.
After visiting the castle and finishing our walking tour of Ljubljana, Ellen set us free for the day with the only rule being that we had to be back in the hotel by sundown (she didn’t even tell us we had to follow the law [editor’s note: but she did teach the rule about no jaywalking and being smart]…best group leader of all time).
Every Friday in the city center of Ljubljana is an event called Open Kitchen. Local restaurants all come and each one gets a food stand. They’re all grouped together in one of the town squares and just cook food for whoever shows up and orders.
Although we were all free to eat wherever we wanted, 
I don’t think anyone chose to eat a meal that wasn’t at the Odprta Kuhna (Open Kitchen). My two meals consisted of filet mignon and potatoes (lunch), roast pork and potatoes (dinner), and double chocolate strawberry gelato (dessert) across the river at Kakao.
Ryan Eisenauer, a sophomore, remains undecided about his major. However, his hobbies include writing—particularly about sports—watching sports, playing sports, thinking about sports, hanging out with his golden retriever puppy, and bothering Ellen. Ryan enjoys sports, so his cultural presentation is on sports in Slovenia…go figure.