Vegan in Slovenia: Ljubljana and Beyond

If you've ever seen a picture of Lake Bled online you might be thinking "wow, there's no way that it can be as beautiful as it looks" but it can and it is! I was lucky enough to spend a few nights camping there before heading to the Punk Rock Holiday festival. I swam. I walked. I hiked. I took far too many photos. It was a blast. 

One of the best things about Lake Bled is that despite it being one of Europe's more popular, not to mention beautiful, tourist attractions it really wasn't all that busy. There's a super easy to navigate path running the whole circumference of the lake, about 6km, and then there are some more challenging trails just off of that.

Our campsite choice for this adventure was Camping Bled mainly because it's the only campsite in the area. It's fantastically located right by the lake though and there's a little jetty, a beach bar & cafe and a shop right there. The shop was stocked with a surprisingly large amount of vegan products including Joya yoghurts and milkshakes as well as soya milk, freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, pulses, legumes, rice cakes etc. 

One afternoon we took one of the more challenging trails from the southwest corner of the lake up to the Osojnica viewpoint which was described in our copy of Lonely Planet as a short but steep climb which I almost agree with, it sure was steep but I'm not so sure about the short part. At times it was incredibly steep but there were more mellow patches and the the view down to the lake and the island makes it so worth it. On the route Nick and I took you caught glimpses of the lake the whole way up, it was wonderful.

I enjoyed a Clif bar when we stopped at the top! I'm addicted to the Crunchy Peanut Butter version, it's one of the only kinds I buy now because they can't confirm that their chocolate isn't sourced from child slaves in west Africa so that means no more choc chip for me. I was also super irritated to discover that the banana bread flavour contains chocolate chips because I really wanted to try it. I use The Food Empowerment Project's list to check out my chocolate and whilst I'm not perfect at only eating chocolate based things from the good list I am trying my hardest.

After our time exploring Lake Bled Nick and I headed to Slovenia's capital city Ljubljana to meet up with Tabitha, one of my BFF's, who we were going to the Punk Rock Holiday festival with. If you haven't checked out my blog post about that already you can read about the ups and downs of the fest' here. 

Despite being a capital city Ljubljana is one of the more peaceful places I've visited on this trip. Tabitha treated us to a couple of night's in an Air B&B because she's too nice and also because she cares more about being able to shower the morning before heading to a festival for five days than we do. When we drove into the city late-ish on a Saturday night I was sure that we must be in the wrong place or at least staying on the outskirts of town because whilst I wouldn't call the streets deserted they were so empty. It felt strange! 

Because I've taught her well Tabitha used the map function on Happy Cow when picking out the Air B&B (aren't vegan friends the best?) which meant that we were an easy ten minute walk from 100% vegan restaurant Nyama. We rocked up for breakfast and ordered smoothies and sandwiches which is a great way to begin any day especially because with your sandwich order you get not one but two sandwiches!

I went for a classic combo of Cheese and Ham whilst Nick went for a more breakfasty (or so he claims) Peanut Butter and Banana. These were such a great start to the day, I need to get my shit together and make breakfast sandwiches more often. Usually I'm not functional enough to make a sandwich until I've eaten which leaves me in a tough spot when it comes to the breakfast sandwich! One of the best things to do after such an epic breakfast is to head out and walk all over a new city so that's exactly what we did.

The streets were definitely busier that day as we made our way around the city's main tourist attractions but not a whole lot busier, not the kind of busy I've come to expect from a capital city in the height of summer. We explored the castle, made Tabitha take her first selfie, checked out numerous dragon based statues, drank radler (okay, that was only me), wrote postcards and walked through all of the city centre streets and over all of the city's bridges. We had a super fun afternoon.

Does every single city with a bridge have one of these now? I suspect so!

We decided that as we'd enjoyed the food, friendly service and convenient location so much at breakfast that we'd head back to Nyama for a late lunch. The great menu also factored into our decision making, we were so tempted by so many things when we were there at breakfast time that we kinda had to go back! I chose the carbonara because in my mind it is pretty much the perfect meal. Pasta, creamy sauce, faux ham and a few veggies for colour / decoration. 

It wasn't the best carbonara I've ever had, I use a helluva lot more cream in mine, but it was filling and tasty and I definitely enjoyed it. Nick also rated his curry and Tabitha her mushroom stroganoff with polenta both of which certainly looked great. After some maxing and relaxing at the Air B&B our stomachs started rumbling again and as we were situated within a reasonable distance of the city's main Loving Hut we headed there for some more food.

As it was late in the day they were out of a lot of the menu items we were excited about so we settled upon hot dogs and burgers. These didn't seem like the most exciting choices especially as we knew we'd be eating a whole lot of burgers over the next week but these are always solid options right?

Well lemme tell you that the cheeseburger was one of the best burgers I've ever eaten. I've literally never been more pleased that a restaurant was out of everything I actually wanted to eat! I'm actually still upset that Nick and I were sharing both things and I only got to eat half of one of the best burgers in the world. I wouldn't recommend the hot dog because it comes with salad (nooooo!) and also I just told you that the cheeseburger is one of the best I've ever eaten so if you don't order it you're basically an idiot.

I decided to take a punt on dessert too as the burger thing had worked out so well and I choose something that I normally hate, tiramisu. My dessert nemesis! People are always shocked when I tell them that I hate tiramisu but I don't like coffee or rum or, normally, cream so it's not super surprising that this dessert is usually low down my must eat list. It also usually contains some kinda cream cheese which is a flavour that I hate in sweet food, like, seriously detest. Never make me cheesecake. I'm not kidding. Anyway, as I was on some kinda cheeseburger high I thought what the hell, let's give this one a whirl and holy wow. I thought that it was so perfect that I suspect you'd hate it if you like traditional tiramisu.

It was Speculoos Tiramisu (something else I also usually dislike... well, I like the biscuits themselves but strongly dislike the spread) and it was neither overly sweet nor cheesy. It was just a very light and airy whipped cream (I'd guess it was rice based) in-between two slices of speculoos flavoured cake topped with a mix of sweetened cocoa powder and speculoos crumbs. It was perfect. If I could have fitted in two I definitely would have.

As well as having the one of the best cheeseburgers ever and the only tiramisu I've ever liked this branch of LH has a fridge stocked with vegan meats and cheeses (get some VioLife slices and any of the frankly enormous Uzená sausages) and it's right by both the train and bus stations making it the perfect place to grab some take out if you're travelling around Europe by train.

After out brief sojourn in Ljubljana it was time to hit the road and head for Tolmin to spend a week hanging out in a field by a river listening to ear shatteringly loud punk rock. We were excited and raring to go but we needed to stock the van up with food just in case the festival's vegan options were lacking / expensive. We hit up the Mercator supermarket close to Ljubljana airport and found one of the best stocked selections of vegan food we'd seen in any European supermarket. 

As well as there being accidentally vegan items dotted all around the store there was also a huge refrigerated section full of vegetarian and vegan products. We loaded up a basket with crackers, tofu, seitan steaks, seitan burgers, freshly squeezed juices, chocolate puddings, soya yoghurts, garlic bake rolls (imagine a snackable garlic toast!), Manner wafers, Pom Bears, savoury spreads, margarine, peanut butter and even a brand of Radler made with vegan Union beer. As an aside I use the Vegaholic app to check out which types of alcohol are vegan - it has all of the info stored offline so you don't need a wifi connection or 3G to scope out the list. You can check out all of Barnivore's recommended app's here to find the right one for your device. 

As I mentioned already I wrote a whole blog post about Punk Rock Holiday but it was basically a whole week of watching bands, reading by the van, chowing down on ridiculously delicious tofu burgers and hanging with my homies. Good times. Mostly.

Read this book!

Beauty tip: Haven't washed your hair for five days? Throw on a bandana!

Whatever your reasons; punk rock, a love of beautiful scenery, a desire to explore a city that isn't stuffed full of tourists, I would highly recommend heading to Slovenia. It might be a small country but it's packed full of so much natural beauty that it's almost unbelievable. I kinda want to move there just so that I can wander around marvelling at how gorgeous everything is whilst eating tiramisu!

Punk Rock Holiday, Slovenia

The first thing I looked into when planning this summer's European adventure was whether there were any punk festivals happening that I just had to attend. Punk Rock Holiday was in the right place at the right time and with the right lineup and everything fell nicely into place. One of my BFF's was even able to fly into Slovenia from the UK to hang out for a week which was brilliant and not just because she came bearing mix CD's and bourbon biccies although that was a definite bonus. The van did us proud surviving without an electricity or water hook up for the whole week and providing us with perfectly chilled drinks and morning soya yoghurts the whole time. We had a blast hanging out but our week at Punk Rock Holiday didn't come without issues and challenges.

Living in the real world can be a challenge once you've had your eyes opened to all forms of oppression and it's impossible not to look at the world through a critical lens. As someone who identifies as an intersectional feminist and who is aware of (and further educating themselves on) critical theories surrounding race and gender I feel like my lens is wide open. In a lot of cases it would definitely be conducive to my enjoyment of situations to be able to switch that awareness off but honestly, I've tried and it's impossible.

I've been into punk music since I was 16, so over half of my life, and if you've met me or read this blog for a while this'll come as no surprise. For me punk isn't just about the music but the politics behind it. Not every band I like is political, Less Than Jake are all about the dancing, but as I grow older I like the music I listen to to have more substance. I've been attending gigs and festivals to get my fix of live music since I was 17 and have attended V Fest, Reading, Glastonbury, Ozzfest, Groezrock, Slam Dunk, Boomtown and, most recently, Punk Rock Holiday.

Punk Rock Holiday (henceforth referred to at PRH) has been running for four years now and I'd heard a little about in the last couple of years as people I know via social media have attended. PRH has by far the most beautiful setting of any festival I've attended being as it's situated in the Slovenian mountains next to a fast flowing (but utterly freezing) river. The stages are shaded either by trees or by canopies the festival organisers have thoughtfully constructed and, as I veteran festival attendee, I was excited to discover that there were no timetable clashes at all! The smaller beach stage ran from midday until around 6pm and then the main stage hosted bands between 6:30 and 2am. I was able to check out all of the bands on my must see list - Against Me!, Anti Flag, Madball, Teenage Bottlerocket, War On Women and Less Than Jake, as well as spending plenty of time discovering awesome new-to-me bands like Not On Tour, Siberian Meat Grinder, Ratos De Porao and The Decline to name a few.

Wood chips also mysteriously appeared overnight to cover any dangerously slippery patches of mud and they somehow had better wifi serving the camper van area and the main stage than the majority of the campsites I've stayed at this summer have had in their reception areas. This was super awesome because when it costs £1 to make a call to your friend's phone having the ability to fire off an iMessage is important. PRH also had a more environmentally aware crowd than at any other festival I've attended - I think the beautiful location contributes to that as does the €1 cup deposit you pay for any alcoholic beverage but it's also the only place I've ever seen people putting out their (totally gross but that's a whole 'nother thing) cigarettes and depositing the butts into the nearest bin.

From a vegan and sober ally perspective this festival won over all of the others I've been to, yes almost every single one of the other 5000 people there were drunk the majority of the time but people were better behaved in their drunkeness than at any other festival I've been to - nobody set fire to any tents or gas canisters, nobody tipped over any portaloos or tried to destroy the lighting rig and yes, depressingly, this did come as a surprise!

PRH is also incredibly vegan friendly and there were good drink options for the sober walking among us. Every single stall at the beach stage was 100% vegan and the food was both varied and of excellent quality. I was able to get my fix of tofu burgers, juices, kebabs, hummus and roasted vegetable sandwiches and raw vegan ice creams whenever I fancied.

There were also salads, seitan kebabs and raw cakes and you were allowed to take your own water bottle into the arenas where the bands were playing. That's something that's been a no-no at other fest's I've attended and it's one of the more rage inducing things to have your reusable water bottle confiscated by security to then have to spend the day purchasing plastic bottles of water that are more expensive than beer - I'm looking at you Groezrock.

Despite these great things I ended up feeling deflated, irritated and angry on so many occasions during the week because of the rampant sexism I saw coming from both festival attendees and the bands themselves. As a woman who has been involved in the punk scene for a long time it wasn't entirely surprising but as I've recently been moving in more inclusive and socially aware circles it definitely brought me back to the real world with a bump, no, a crash. I was left with a feeling that despite PRH being pretty left of mainstream when it came to the lineup, environmental awareness and prevalence of vegan options that it was ultimately pretty damned mainstream when it came to it's politics. Sure, I saw plenty of anti fascist and anti racist flags, t-shirts and pin badges which was great but where were the people challenging the sexism (and, to a lesser extent, ablism) coming from both the bands and their fans? I ended up giving up noting down instances of sexism because it was just too exhausting (and my phone battery kept dying) but here are just a few examples:

• I was wolf whistled at five times whilst bending to apply suncream to my legs at 9:30 in the morning.
• Whilst walking with a female friend a man had a quick discussion with another man about whether we were hot or not before waving a "Spank Bank" sign in our direction.
• Whilst War On Women (one of the handful of bands featuring female artists) were playing a man shouted "thanks for the nipples" at the lead singer.
• A man kissed my female friend on the cheek whilst she was sleeping outside her tent.
• One band asked if everyone was enjoying the beach and pointed out that they all were because of all of the "hot chicks" he further went on to explain that he's had "enormous balls" all day because of the way the women there looked.
• A man onstage used the term retarded to describe the way a fellow bandmate was acting
• I spotted one man walking around wearing a "Boob Inspector" lanyard.
• When the drummer and bassist of one band messed up a song the lead singer called them "girls" in a derogatory tone.

Even writing that felt tiring and experiencing it was even more so. One moment I'd be enjoying a pop punky tune, dancing in the sun with my friends and the next I was being reminded about how much sexism, ablism and objectification there is in the world and that despite being surrounded by "punks" nobody else even seemed to notice. These microaggressions added up and conspired to give me a less than perfect view of what could have been a close-to-idea festival.

The white male led punk scene has a lot of work to do if it wants to be more inclusive of women and people of colour and that has to start at the top with the people putting on shows and festivals like PRH. If no consideration is made at that level to include more bands featuring women (including women of colour) the scene itself will remain unchallenged and unchanged. Five bands featuring women on a 56 band lineup is a pitiful and inadequate attempt at inclusivity and I would hope that nobody would suggest that it's because there aren't great bands with female vocalists, guitarists, bassists and drummers out there because there are and they aren't hard to find.

I have since read more about the festival Fluff Fest which takes place every July in the Czech Republic and has an anti sexism and sexual violence policy in place - I haven't been (yet!) but I would assume that such a policy stretches to the things bands say on stage as well as the behaviour of attendees. This must foster a safer space and therefor attract a more radical crowd who are more empowered to challenge sexism when it does happen. I would like to see Punk Rock Holiday adding such a policy so that it can be an enjoyable holiday for everyone attending.