By: Miranda Waters

For my birthday we found ourselves in the city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia filled with history dating back to medieval times and bustling with big city energy. Being away from my family on my birthday for the first time was not a part of this trip that I was looking forward to. Other than some walking around town and going out to dinner, I expected the day to be uneventful. I even joked about writing this article thinking that there wouldn’t be anything to comment on; that was of course until it became one of my best birthdays ever!

My birthday started at roughly 6:40am when I received a phone call from my family where my mom sang and wept “Las Mañanitas” to me. I caught up with my family and told them that I had no other plans than to get dinner that evening. After Billy and Sophia woke up we started our morning and then eventually made our way to the shops in the old town where they were very good sports and accompanied me to the many shops that I went to. My birthday present to myself was a small bag of mate- a traditional Argentinian tea- and the straw that you drink the mate with. While shopping we ran into two Austrian guys who were staying at our hostel who invited us to go out to the rooftop bar with them later that evening. 

We got back to the hostel after shopping, drank some mate, and got cleaned up and fancy for dinner. After checking out a couple dinner spots, we landed on a fantastic steak house and ate the hardiest meal that we have had in three weeks. Although the dinner was great, things really started getting wild after dinner.

We walked out of the restaurant and I could hear music coming from down the street. Even though we were supposed to be meeting the guys at the rooftop bar I couldn’t help myself and we ran over to the source. To my delight there was swing dancing in the street! I have always loved watching swing dancing- I have stayed up for hours watching it on YouTube- and I think it is such a beautiful art so it seemed like the perfect present from Slovenia to have stumbled across this affair. Of course, the three of us couldn’t help ourselves and we had to join in, even if we looked a little ridiculous at the beginning. The dancing is so loose and freeing and it is such a counter to the more structured ballroom dancing that was so popular in the 1930s and 40s. I loved joining in and I was also just fascinated at how easily partners would swing one another around always in perfect tempo to the music. I spotted in the crowd of onlookers a German girl who was staying in our hostel who I had met that morning and after she joined us in dancing I invited her to the rooftop bar with us. 

The rooftop bar had the most spectacular view of the city and it was gorgeous to see all the extravagant buildings lit up at night. We had a great time chatting and I was having a lovely cup of tea when I received a text from one of the two British girls that I had met on the walking tour the previous day asking what we were up to. I told them we were at the bar and shortly after they had joined the party. After we got politely kicked out of the bar we said goodbye to the Austrians (they had an early train to catch the next morning) and made our way to meet up with the two American guys who were staying in our room at the hostel who had also coincidently met the two British girls that we had met earlier in the day. 

We found them at a place in the streets where lots of locals hang out to drink and chat. This place was unlike anything I could’ve imagined, it was entirely cultivated by the art and minds of the locals. There was graffiti covering every building on the block, statues of different mediums created and added to the area, an old run-down playground brought back to life with a little creativity, and even a little booth where they were printing and selling custom made t-shirts. 

As if the evening wasn’t complete, one of the American guys got a tip from one of the Dutch girls who was staying in our hostel about a bar called Parliament Pub where she would be that night, so we got up and made our way to the pub. When we arrived it was far more than just a pub, it was a night club with loud music and swirling lights of every color. We found the Dutch girl and made even more friends and danced the night away to Pitbull and some local Slovenian hits. We very easily lost track of time so after one of the longest nights of my life we turned in. It was hard to say goodbye to Ljubljana after such a special night but the owner of the hostel sent me off the next morning with a birthday candle stuck in three blueberries and a beautifully sung happy birthday. 

This birthday taught me to take a chance on the unknown. There were moments when I considered saying no and heading back to the hostel to have a quiet evening but I am so grateful that I took a chance because I made invaluable memories and met some irreplaceable friends. This birthday taught me that the best moments are the ones that are not planned. The spontaneous moments and the surprises are the memories that you’ll treasure most. These unplanned moments are what made my birthday so special. This birthday felt like a gift from the universe, everything just seemed to perfectly work out.