The Ljubljana Podcast

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.

Slovenes love Balkan fast food, and cevapcici is the classic—the hamburger of the Balkans. Of Turkish origin, cevapi are small sausage-shaped meatballs made of ground meat and are super good and easy to like—if you like burgers, you’ll like these. This episode is all about this, the most popular fast food in Slovenia. You'll hear from Peter Hajdu, Slovenia's grill guru, and Mate Jankovic, Croatia's most famous chef. And…I recommend a “Cevapcici Crawl” to taste the best of Ljubljana. I've outlined an itinerary to do a walk through Ljubljana sampling cevapi along the way. The more friends the merrier. Stops include: Bascarsija, Chevap, Sarajevo 84, Leskovaski Zar, Das Ist Walter, Saraj, Cad, Dubocica, Savska, Portal, Hallo Leskovac...and maybe some surprises.

This episode is sponsored by Odprta Kuhna, a great place to grab cevapi on Fridays during the tourist season, and by Hotel Mrak, where I like to stay when cevaping my way around Ljubljana.
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.

This episode is all about learning Slovenian as a second language. It’s considered difficult to learn by many, but is it really so tricky? To find out I spoke to two anglophone expats to hear of their ex-perience, as well as with two leaders of the Center for Learning Slovene as a Second Language, part of the University of Ljubljana. Whether you’re just language-curious or trying to learn your-self, you may be surprised at what I learned. I’ll also share some of my own adventure stories in speaking the language—one I never studied but speak, well, fluently-ish, as long as it can be con-sidered fluent if I have at least one grammatical error in every sentence. Welcome to the Ljubljana Podcast: Learning Slovenian edition! 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.