LJU: Under Construction

So. I've officially survived day 1 of my "Grand Tour" and had good feedback for the training I gave. Unfortunately, either the airconditioning in my hotel room has made me sick (I have a sore throat) or I cought the nasty Angina virus that has been going around in Vienna - I blame the plane and should have used my long-haul flight "magic potion". Anyway, I got to experience a new part of Ljubljana as I'm staying at this shiny new hotel that not even the taxi-driver at the airport had heard of. Unfortunately, my stylish room neither has a bathtub (although the rainforest shower is very nice) to fight off cold symptoms, nor a kettle for making tea, although I really, really would have loved at least one of these amenities. However, they make really nice coffee:

The hotel, where also the training was held, is located in the middle of a not-so-nice (architecture-wise) commercial district and when I returned, feet soaking wet from heavy rain, from a walk around that area on Monday night, I saw the light on in the top floor of the hotel (see picture below). I knew exactly why. Somebody needed to put in a nightshift as the conference floor was nowhere near finished when we were shown around that afternoon. On Tuesday morning, everything was in perfect shape and there were no technical glitches, either.

The room - those that are finished and in working condition - are nicely decorated. I could have sneaked in some extra slumber-party guests as I have a spare queensize bed:

I got quite excited on Monday night when I discovered some of the shop signs at the mall opposite the hotel, but unfortunately, the M&S was tiny and didn't stock any food and the Bata didn't have any interesting stock either. Well, good for my wallet!

I went to quite a few of those malls, but a) I wasn't really in a shopping-mood after basically a whole day at the McArthur Glenn outlet in Parndorf - an experience which always makes me age a decade and feel more exhausted as I had run a marathon and b) I didn't want to pay full-prize for any brands I knew I would be able to get on sale in a few days time. The only things I bought were two faux leather belts for a total of €12 as I quite like Bershka for cheapo finds and we don't have that shop in Austria. I'm always reminded of my weekend in Amsterdam with the Mermaid and Coco years ago when we had to hunt "the perfect black pair of skinny black jeans" in Bershka for the Mermaid. She didn't buy it right away in the first branch but then we didn't find that one again and it took us a while until another one materialised...

Last night, I went to dinner with the Slovenian colleagues. If you're ever in Ljubljana, I can more than recommend the place, CUBO, where we ate. I had the best tuna steak I have ever eaten, preceded by the best pâté (we shared it and I had announced that I don't really like pâté much...well, I've changed my mind), followed by home-made ice-cream in the flavours tarragon (!), apple strudel and almond. Mouthwateringly yummy. We had red (!) sparkling wine as a starter as well.