Aura on Tour-a | Love in Ljubljana
Tell me about your favorite city and I will raise you one Ljubljana. In a world where many people don’t even know Slovenia exists, and where many more discovered cities seem content to rest on their laurels (I won’t name names) Ljubljana is that girl spending every night at the rink and is about to win Olympic gold before you ever learn her name. She’s Kacey Musgraves before the 2019 Grammys, waiting for you to be ready for her poise and talent. The Dragon City is Daenerys Targaryen building her army while a bunch of children in the West squabble over a chair. Ljubljana is here to prove that not only does Slovenia very much exist, but that, with a proud but humble joie de vivre, she’s existing much better than you.
Triple bridge over the Ljubljanica River
Is this feebly disguised travel article/love letter a design post? Step one foot inside the old city and the answer is clear (it’s a yes – a solid, emphatic, gold buzzer yes). Not only is the Ljubljana air abuzz with creative energy – from the pastel buildings, to the cafés lining the central Ljubljanica River, to the weekly Odprta Kuhna food festival where no two of the nearly 100 vendors are allowed to make the same dish – but the attention to quality and beauty in everything from notebooks, to homewares, to water bottles, to logos and packaging, is leaving the rest of us in the dust. I don’t have a design shop in New York where I want to buy as much as I do in The Gud Shop. I certainly don’t have a bread shop as chic as Osem Pekarna (frankly, I don’t have a bread shop at all).
Words of wisdom outside The Gud Shop
Whatever Ljubljana decides to do, it does it the best. It’s a small city, so you don’t necessarily get the vast options of New York, Paris or London. But without sacrificing small city charm and personality, what they’ve done is filtered out the noise and distilled your choices down to only good things. If they start a bakery, it’s going to be the best bakery. If they start a food festival, it’s going to be the best food festival. Ljubljana boasts what may be the only cocktail bar in Slovenia. But it may also be the best cocktail bar I’ve been to anywhere.
The cool kids get their caffeine on at Moderna
Deserved attention and acclaim are a wonderful thing. But too often we look at awards and top 10 lists to find quality, and miss the truest gems – the people, businesses, cities that are trying. The quality that wins an award, after all, is exhibited before the award is given. Nothing is guaranteed afterward. Ljubljana proves this in spades. Emboldened by a relatively recent revitalization project – in which, among many other things, cars were banned from the old city center – Ljubljana is doing everything it can to earn its place among the cosmopolitan cities of Europe, and in so doing has surpassed them. On the flip side, as designers, as artists, and as entrepreneurs, we owe it to ourselves and our crafts to learn Ljubljana’s lesson. No matter how big we get, or no matter how big other people get around us, we must remain unwavering in our devotion to quality, and to pushing ourselves ever higher.
Ready to immerse yourself in the creative energy of Ljubljana? Check back soon for the Aura Travel Guide!
