IN LOVE WITH LJUBLJANA

I fall in love with this city and stay six days in the end, despite the rain that falls thick and heavy for half of the time I'm here. There's a great reggae party at one of the Metelkova bars one night, though it's shut down around 2 a.m to the dismay of many a skanker. 'Turinfest' is going on at the edge of town and every night a different kind of music plays - I go one night and just walk around. There's a great photographic exhibition of street performers at the venue which I gaze long at - Ljubljana is full of photogaphers so I'm told.

I plan to leave on Sunday for Ptuj, a small town near the Hungarian border, but finally the sun has come out and instead I take my guitar to town. I'm playing on the final pedestrian bridge alongside the Sunday market, it's my best day yet and I could play all day but for the choral singers that are drifting back and forth in a boat on the river below. They wear the colour beige well, make it look fashionable even, and their songs enchant all who watch from the bridge above. I'm happy to stop as they pass - it would be a crime to play over their haunting songs.

Anyway, it's on one of these breaks that I'm approached by Phillippe. He's from Switzerland and has been biking through Serbia and Croatia, and has been held up by rain in Ljubljajna for just one night before he heads home again. Turns out he's a bass player, and as we talk more we can't believe it - here comes another one of those spooky coincidences I seem to keep having - it turns out I jammed with one of his band mates and friends in Amsterdam - Danny rasta! Not suprising really - I should be used to such things happening by now - we go for a juice and talk music and travel before I go to check back into my hostel for another night. Seems I'm just not ready to leave this town...

One last busking afternoon on a different street before I go... two boys and a guitar are now on the bridge so I play in the main pedestrian shopping mall and here are some of the things that I see- children, children, everywhere... a beautiful wheelchair bound man that just sits real close and smiles along with me... suited Croatians that dance along the street and pay me in kuna when I play The Beatles for their families... as well as so many Italians that stop and listen on this glorious of days. It's a good day for conversation, so I sit for a chat about the state of the world with Dean from Canada; he has his flute and is very much a Pied Piper sort of guy, playing for the street alone... his sounds drifting down alleyways and lifting the mood of those around.

Me, I play for hours today and it shows - later, as I'm foraging for food in a totally different part of town, a complete stranger calls out across the street 'Nice songs!' to me. It's a great end to my stay in this friendliest of cities, one I enjoyed so much I forgot to see any other part of the country. Never mind, there's always next year...