The Ljubljana Podcast

Welcome to your specialty coffee guide to Ljubljana. Noah and special guest Alexander Nino Ruiz, a Colombian architect turned coffee expert who runs Crno Zrno in Ljubljana, set about on a "coffee crawl" of the city, visiting selected cafes known for specialty coffee. If you are a coffee lover then this is the episode for you. It is also published shortly before the Ljubljana Coffee Festival 2026.

To learn more about the cafes we visited, click on their websites:

Pražarna: https://prazarna.com

Specialka: https://www.specialka.coffee

Čokl: https://www.buna.si/kavarna/

Cafetino: https://www.cafetino.si/en

Stow: https://mgml.si/en/city-museum/cafe/

Črno Zrno: https://www.crnozrno.com

And to read Noah and Alex in their 2017 guide to coffee in Ljubljana in Sprudge magazine, click here: https://sprudge.com/ljubljana-guide-115144.html

Their more recent guide to Ljubljana in Standart is only available in print editions.

To learn more about the Ljubljana Coffee Festival, click here: https://ljubljanacoffeefestival.si/en/

To explore Goat Story and Stow Roasters, click here and here:

https://goat-story.com

https://stow.si/en

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

Have you tried making Slovenian food? Baking potica at home, cooking with kranjska klobasa, or making bread the old fashioned way, with sourdough starter? This episode is about Slovenian food, but more specifically about adventures in cooking it. To learn more I invited two special guests who teach the world to cook Slovenian specialties: Michelle Pusic Ryall (of Slovenian Kitchen or Slovenska Kuhinja) and Anita Sumer (best known for her Sourdough Mania cookbooks and channels). Videos and photos by Anita have accumulated more than 40 billion views! And Michelle has over 65,000 enthusiastic, proactive followers who love her stories about Slovenian heritage, cooking, and tradition. Want to know what to eat but also how to cook the best of Slovenia? You are in the right place!

To learn more about Michelle Pusic Ryall, visit her website: https://sloveniankitchen.com

Her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWbwklUV3xSPnjgxTksThWg

Her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shop.sloveniankitchen

Her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sloveniankitchenbymichelle/

To learn more about Anita Sumer, visit her website: https://sourdoughmania.com

You can take courses with her, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sourdough_mania/

And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/105999451593628?ref=NONE_xav_ig_profile_page_web

And order her award-winning cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Sourdough-Mania-Anita-%C5%A0umer/dp/1911621939

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

What is it like to represent Slovenia at the Olympics? To find out, in this special episode of The Ljubljana Podcast, we spoke to Lila Lapanja, an alpine skier raised in America who competed for Slovenia at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. What is it like behind the scenes for an Olympian representing Slovenia? Tune in to find out!

To learn more about Lila, click here: https://www.lilalapanja.com

Learn more about our sponsors this season. 

When Noah stays in Ljubljana, he likes to stay at Hotel Mrak: https://hotelmrak.si/en/

If you are in Ljubljana on a Friday from June through October...and are hungry...then go here, to Odprta Kuhna: https://www.odprtakuhna.si

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

Today, we’re talking about one of Ljubljana’s greatest success stories—one that started as a local food event and became a national movement. If you’ve ever wandered through the Central Market on a sunny Friday, following the smell of sizzling meat, truffles, or freshly baked burek, you’ve already found it: Odprta Kuhna, or Open Kitchen. This episode features interviews with Open Kitchen founder, Lior Kochavy; British former expat, writer Sam Baldwin; and American poet and traveler, Anna Rose Welch.

To learn more about Open Kitchen, click here: https://www.odprtakuhna.si/en/about-us/

To learn more about Sam Baldwin and his book on living in Slovenia, "Dormice and Moonshine," click here: https://breghouse.com/2024/05/20/book-launched-dormice-moonshine-falling-for-slovenia-is-out/

To learn more about Anna Rose Welch, click here: https://theadroitjournal.org/2018/11/12/conversations-with-contributors-anna-rose-welch/

The Ljubljana Podcast is sponsored by Open Kitchen and Hotel Mrak, my preferred hotel in Ljubljana. Learn more about the hotel by clicking here: https://hotelmrak.si/en/hotel/video-stories/

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

To learn more about the Brina Festival, held on 21 June 2025 (check the website for dates in future years), visit: https://www.visitljubljana.com/en/visitors/events/events-in-ljubljana/brina-festival/

Some of the recommended bars in this episode are:

Silk & Fizz: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g274873-d32708549-Reviews-Silk_And_Fizz-Ljubljana_Upper_Carniola_Region.html

Kolibri: https://www.kolibri-bar.com/

Pop's Aperitivo: https://aperitivo.thepopsplace.com/

To learn about Open Kitchen (Odprta Kuhna) which runs every Friday from June-October at Pogacarjev Trg (next to the main central market), visit: https://www.odprtakuhna.si/

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

Visitors to Ljubljana with an eye for design and architecture cannot help but notice the striking buildings, bridges, and urban design of Ljubljana's genius loci, Modernist mystic architect Jože Plečnik. This episodes provides a self-guided walking tour through the city center that lasts around one hour--a perfect introduction to the "eternal" architect's work in the heart of the city. Your guide and the podcast host, Noah, wrote his doctoral thesis on Plečnik, so you're in good hands!

We recommend that you start your visit at Hotel Mrak and then cross the square to Krizanke. From there the tour includes: 

-the monument to Napoleon

-the National and University Library

-Vega Street

-Star Park

-Prešeren Square

-The Triple Bridge

-the Ljubljanica River embankment and bridges

-Tržnice Market

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

Jorg Zupan's restaurant is Aftr

Igor Jagodic's restaurant is Strelec

Jason Hartley can be followed here.

Jake's GUTS Magazine is here.

Riki's amazing mountaint hut restaurant, Pr'Jurju, is here.

And the obviously very popular Olimpija Burek is here.

If you'd like to follow my updates and activities you're welcome to sign up at https://noahcharney.substack.com/

You might also enjoy any of the three free podcasts I host about Slovenia:

-Feel Slovenia (the national tourism podcast)

-The Bled Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.

This podcast is not only about Ljubljana, but also about interesting folk who live in Ljubljana. And it doesn’t get any more interesting than Slovenia’s most beloved musician, Vlado Kreslin. Kreslin is a national institution in Slovenia, having achieved the status of folk hero.  Songs from his albums, and based on his published poetry, have inspired films and novels. I could describe him as Slovenia’s answer to Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan (in fact he opened for a Dylan concert), and that would give you a sense of how universally popular he is, from teenagers to grandparents—everyone knows and appreciates his songs. He’s also been a friend for more than a decade, Everyone can agree on the transcendental power of words and music.

In 2007 my wife and I wrote to Vlado Kreslin, simply to say that we were great fans of his music, and to ask if I might interview him for a magazine article.  My wife is Slovenian (and is the producer of this podcast), and I had been introduced to Kreslin's music by Slovenian friends.  To our great surprise, Kreslin wrote back personally.  I had somehow imagined that any major star would be surrounded by an entourage of “handlers” who would respond to emails on his behalf.But Kreslin is down-to-earth, a fan’s dream.  He once performed a private show for a fan from Texas who flew to Slovenia to see him perform, but who had arrived too late to see the real concert.  We quickly became friendly. 

Kreslin’s thirty-year career has spanned performances with R.E.M. and Bob Dylan and concerts around the world. While he is most associated with Prekmurje, the flatlands of Slovenia by the Hungarian border where he grew up, he lives in Ljubljana, which is where I met up with him for today’s episode.

Talented in languages and music, Kreslin studied first in the 1970s to be an English teacher, but his love was always music.  He performed in a number of bands through the 1980s, including Martin Krpan (named after a legendary strongman of Slovenian folklore).Kreslin’s innate charisma and nuanced voice made him a natural front man for these bands.  An avid poet, he wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music, while playing guitar and singing lead vocals.  The poems, many of which are lyrics, take on a new meaning when performed with music, much as a play is fascinating to read but benefits from the interpretation of an actor. My wife translated his poems into English and, in 2009, when I was teaching at Yale, he was invited to the university to receive an honorary fellowship. It was great to have him there and Slovenian expats came from far and wide, delighted at the chance to see someone who is nationally beloved, the sound of home.

It was after Martin Krpan, when Kreslin set off on his own, that he truly emerged as an artist.  He began to perform with some of the musicians who had played at his grandfather’s restaurant in his youth, in the Prekmurje village of Beltinci.  They formed what became known as Beltinška Banda (the Band of Beltinci), and some still play with Kreslin, even into their 80s.   Kreslin also encourages young musicians, and his new band was dubbed Mali Bogovi (Minor Gods).  Seeing Kreslin perform on stage is a union of eras.Beltinska Banda plays alongside Mali Bogovi, octogenarians beside twenty-somethings.  Their musicianship is without question but the tie that binds them is Kreslin the vocalist and writer, the bridge between generations. 

I caught up with him at his home in Ljubljana, where he first asked me if I listen to records.

A chat with Kreslin is really the best way to get to know his personality. That and listening to his music. He has many albums, but the one I recommend is a three-CD set (remember when people listened to music on CDs?) called Koncert. It’s a live concert recording and the one that I had forever in my car, until cars stopped coming with CD players. But since you’re most likely to listen to music on a streaming service, then have a listen to Od Visine Se Vrti, Iz Gorickega v Piran, and Namesto Koga Roza Cveti. Kreslin kindly gave us permission to play a song at the end of this episode, to give you a taste of what he’s all about.

When you come to Ljubljana, seeing Kreslin is concert is just about the best thing you could do with your ears. I go every year and get goosebumps each time. He is Slovenia incarnate, truly a legend, and more importantly, a really nice guy. We’ll send you out with my favorite of Kreslin’s songs, Od Visine Se Vrti, Vertiginous from the Height, which is the most beautiful love song I know.

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and consider also checking out Noah's other Slovenia-focused podcasts, The Bled Podcast and the gold award-winning Feel Slovenia, the official podcast for the Slovenian Tourist Organization.