Ljubljana

The golden princess of the great town stood in front of her castle. Her eyes wandered over the scenery in front of her. A city full of beauty lay between green mountains. The princess smiled with glee and said loud and proud, “All that you see belongs to me.” 

“What did you say, my love?” asked a dark female voice, and with her words she unintentionally destroyed the magic of the moment. The golden princess turned into her original form, and as her seven-year-old self, she looked back to where her mother was sitting on a bench, enjoying the view. 

“I said, all that you see, belongs to me.” 

The woman laughed her warm laugh and held her hand out for her daughter. “Come here, sweetheart.” 

Willingly, the girl danced back to where her mother was sitting with the half-unpacked picnic. After she settled in the arms of her mother on the bench, her mother asked with a smile, “So, my love, explain to me why all we see belongs to you.” 

The girl smiled back and said simply, “Because it carries my name.” 

“Ah, yes, well, you see, my little Ljubljana, you are not wrong. But you were named after the city and not the city after you. This town existed long before you, and it will still be here after you and I are gone. So, it doesn’t belong to you alone. It belongs to all the people who live here. All the people who take care of it. It belongs to the inhabitants who make it a lively place. Do you understand that?” 

“Yes, Mama, I do, but why was I named after Ljubljana if it doesn’t belong to me?” 

“Well, my dear, you know that I was born in Slovenia, right?” She waited until Ljubljana nodded and then continued, “You see, I was born here in Ljubljana. My parents and I lived here together. I spent a lovely childhood here. Everything here reminds me of a peaceful and happy time. You know I used to come here, to the place where we are sitting right now, with my parents to have a picnic." 

“You mean like we are doing right now?” asked the little girl while looking at her mother with big eyes. 

“Yes, just like we are doing right now. But back then this bench wasn’t here.”, she laughed and gesticulated vaguely to the busy cafe behind them. “Not to mention, there wasn’t a coffee place up here or these other tourist things. It was very peaceful.” 

The girl looked around. She observed the people at the coffee place and the tourists walking by. “But Mama, it is peaceful here. Everybody is happy. Aren’t they?”

“I guess you are right. It is peaceful here. Everybody enjoys being here. No, you are right, sweetheart. It is just different from when I was young. But that does not mean it is better or worse.” Lost in her own thoughts, the woman looked into the distance. Her little girl followed her gaze and looked at the mountains standing in full green. It was a beautiful place. She loved how the little buildings just popped out in between the different shades of green. It seemed magical. A magical place. But then she remembered what her mother had told her before, and she had to ask, “But Mama, why did you leave Ljubljana?”

The woman, interrupted in her thoughts, looked back at her girl and smiled sadly, “Well, you know that my parents, your grandmother and grandfather, died.” She waited for her daughter's acknowledgement and continued. “So, my parents died when I was around your age. And after that happened, someone had to take care of me. I would have loved to stay here in Ljubljana, but the closest relatives of my parents all lived in Germany, where my parents were originally from.”

Ljubljana swung her legs excitedly, “You mean like me? I am from Germany.” 

“Yes, you are, little one. So, after my parents’ death, I went back to Germany to live with my grandparents.” 

“Grandmother Gerda and Grandfather Wolfgang!” interrupted the little girl. 

“Exactly. Grandmother Gerda and Grandfather Wolfgang. They took me in and gave me a new home, in a new place far away from my beloved Ljubljana.” 

“So,” Ljubljana thought about her mother’s story and nibbled on her lower lip, “does that mean you named me after this place because you lived here as a child?” 

The woman reached forward and brushed a strand of hair behind Ljubljana's ear. “In some ways, yes. I called you Ljubljana because it is my childhood home. It is where I lived with my parents. And I thought it was a good omen to give you a name that I associate with happiness and joy. But that is not all. Do you want to know why I also named you Ljubljana?” 

“Yes, of course!” came the quick response. 

“Do you know what the symbol of the city of Ljubljana is?” 

“Yes, I do. It’s a dragon, am I right?”, answered the girl excitedly. 

“You are absolutely right.”, said the mother with a smile. “And do you also know what the dragon is standing for?”

“No.” Ljubljana shook her head. “I don’t know. What is it standing for?” 

“The Ljubljana Dragon,” said the woman while standing up and lifting her daughter with her so that she stood on the bench looking towards the city and the endless green of the mountains, “represents power, courage, and greatness.” She looked at her daughter with a gaze full of love. “And that, my little Ljubljana, is what I wish for you. I wish that you know your own power, that you stand with courage in front of this world, and that you live a life of greatness.” With those words, she kissed her little girl on the forehead. And Ljubljana answered, beaming up to her mother, “I will do all that and more, Mama.”

Story and cover photo by India Wittmershaus.