In which Ljubljana provides an unexpected absence; a snowfall covers everything and the world changes.
Even in the dead of winter, the city of Ljubljana is picturesque. The greyest of skies cannot dampen the bright colours and whimsical patterns that gild the buildings or the crystalline blue-green hue of the city's main river. As you meander through the city centre, you may get the faint but undeniable sensation that there is something different about this place, an uncanny, yet soothing absence.
Eventually you realise that the thing missing is the ever-present visual clutter we have meekly accepted as part of our urban landscape, cars. Slovenia’s centre is a car-free zone during the day, and it’s hard to emphasise how drastically it transforms the atmosphere. The senses are now free to take in the beauty and life of a city without the hyper-reflective, unnaturally smooth artefacts copied and pasted into our field of view at every turn, the incessant hum of engines and tires that we are rarely given respite from.
If you’re lucky, a snowfall might appear overnight and blanket the city in its chilly embrace. As you walk outside you could almost believe you are in a different city, one imbued with an otherworldly quality. Your senses are now given the world through a dampened filter. Footsteps are a muffled crunch, flakes of snow tap gently on the hood of your jacket, everything is still, colour and noise siphoned out of it. You take this opportunity to savour the quiet tranquility, passing through this liminal state before normal life once again dominates your attention.
