One of the busiest streets in Ljubljana
Čopova ulica is very famous and one of the busiest streets in the old centre of Ljubljana. In tourist guides, you will find it under the name Matija Čop's street. For those of you who are not familiar with Slovenian history, Matija Čop was very important person for our country, especially in the terms of the Slovenian vocabulary. He helped to improve it when they were still designing the Slovenian language. He was also a good friend of France Prešeren, our most important poet, whose statue stands at the end of Matija Čop's street.
With the Nama shopping centre on one side and the Prešeren Square and Tromostovje on the other, this street connects a few most beautiful sights of Ljubljana. To know more about all of those sights, I will describe them in my next entries. From any point on this street, you will see the beautiful Ljubljana castle, peacefully resting on the top of the hill.
They renovated the Matija Čop's street a few years ago, and while they were doing the works, the street was closed, which took a few months. They put a new cobblestones, because there was a lot of old ones missing, and they were very slippery because of their age.
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From a model to the street artists and homeless people
On this street, you will find everything – from a hostel, to a gallery, clothes shops, chocolate shops and so on. So let me take you on a virtual walk through Matija Čop's street. We will start on France Prešeren's square and move towards Nama shopping centre. When you start walking towards the entrance into the street, you will notice a model of the old Ljubljana city centre in stone on a little platform. It was made about ten years ago, when the new major of the city was elected, and this was the first thing that he did as a major. The model clearly shows all the important buildings, and all the streets are clearly marked, however, it is a bit hard to orientate at first, because the model is turned to the opposite direction as the actual city orientation is.
After this model, the street officially starts. This street is so lively that you will not know where to look at. The first thing that you will notice, are several buskers, earning their money by doing different things. The most common instruments, that you will see, are violin, guitar and accordion, which is a very popular instrument in our country. You will also see many homeless people, begging for money. Not only on this street, there are many homeless people in the whole city of Ljubljana. The situation got worse when the crisis started.
Tresor and the chocolate shop
When walking up the street, you will see that on the right side, there are mostly restaurants at the beginning, such as everywhere present McDonald's and a kebab shop. On the top of the Kebab Shop, there is a sports shop called Tomas Sports. Also on the right side of the street, there is a hostel, called Tresor. It is a bit expensive in terms of hostels, but it has an amazing decoration inside! Furthermore they have certain events on their page and on Facebook, e. g. Yoga classes or concerts you can go to.
After the Hostel Tresor, you will see a chocolate shop on the left side, where they are selling an excellent chocolate, and you can also see how they are making it. They are also selling chocolates with various things inside, such as chilli, meat, carrot and other weird things, that you never thought of as a chocolate filling. However, one tiny chocolate bar will cost you six Euros, but if you would like only to degustate some of the tastes, you pay two Euros, and for that price, you can try six different kinds of chocolate (of course the pieces are really tiny).
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Two quite well-known Shops and some music after
On the opposite side of this chocolate shop, you will find two very famous shops. One of them is H&M, which I am sure of that all the girs here are familiar with, and the other one is Müller. This H&M has five floors, and it was opened only a few years ago. Each floor offers something different (clothes for women, clothes for men, accessories, underwear and swimwear and clothing for kids). Müller is a shop, where they sell cosmetics, perfumes, things for home and gifts. It also has five floors.
After H&M and Müller, you will notice a small store, that is selling CDs. Always when I pass by, the shop is full of people. What I love about this shop is, that you have comfortable chairs inside, where you can sit and listen to the desired CDs, and you can also order a coffee. I think that this is really a good place to relax, and many young people are coming there. Besides the collection of the new CDs, they also have the ones of the older music groups, and also the ones of the less – known artists, for example local bands.
On the opposite of the music shop, there is a shop, called Orsay, which is quite famous in Slovenia and even in other countries. In here, you can find fashionable clothes for a small wallet, but it depends on the time of the year, what kind of clothes they are selling. If we move on, there is another nice and recognizable clothing store, called Tally Weijl.
Sending some letters and seeing the elephant
At the very end of the Matija Čop's street, there is a big building on your left, which is the main post office in the city of Ljubljana, and the building is one of the oldest in this part of the city.
On the opposite side of the post office building, there is a luxury building. This is hotel called Slon, which means elephant. It got its name from a real elephant, who was once at the place, where the hotel is nowadays. One of the past majors of Ljubljana got it as a gift and decided to keep it there.
So, this would be the end of our virtual walk. On the other side of the street, you will see the Nama Shopping Centre, and another clothing store, Zara, which offers fashionable party and evening clothes.
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As I have mentioned before, Matija Čop's street is one of the busiest streets in this part of the city, and there are a lot of pickpockets, especially on summer evenings. So when you are walking there, take care of your belongings.
There will also be a lot of people, selling stuff like roses, bracelets, and even drugs. They can be really annoying and sometimes, they will follow you to the end of the street or until you enter one of the shops. This is a very common problem in Ljubljana, and there are a lot of police officers walking around, but the problem is still present.
