For the last couple of months, my friend T’s reaction to my blog and Facebook posts spewing forth on the marvels of whatever place I happen to be at the moment in have been predictable. They’ve all been variations on the theme “Ljubljana is better.”

So naturally, arriving here, I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of agreeing with her. I’ve been to some very appealing cities. Porto is the most stunningly situated geographically, rising up from either side of a steep river canyon. València has the grandest architecture, from gargoyle-spouting gothic cathedrals to curvy, airy postmodern concert halls. But I challenge anyone, on a beautiful sunny late spring day here, surrounded by appealing little cafés, nubile young women in short shorts and tight tops, pedestrianized streets, bike lanes, and miles of hiking and running trails just steps from the main square, not to fall in love with pretty little Ljubljana.

So there you go, T. Ljubljana is my new favorite. Stop being so smug about it. Pbbt (sound of me sticking my tongue out).

• Rent: 4.5. Average rent of a one-bedroom apartment of the city center as of today (9 June 2018): $589.28.
• Walkability: 8. Ljubljana is the only city I’ve been to so far where bikeability negatively impacts walkability. You really do have to be constantly vigilant to avoid stepping in the path of a bicycle that is no doubt whizzing by at this very moment. I could see the bikes actually becoming an irritant if I lived here long enough.
  

  Not a car in sight! Should be a pedestrian’s dream, right? Well, at least cars stay in their lanes. You can predict when one might cross your path, or you its. Bikes, however, can approach silently (Ljubljana cyclists seemingly never bother with the bell) from any direction at any time. See this guy with the dog? Bet you he’s watching behind him for bikes (2 June 2018).

• Dating: 10. I’ve hesitated in the past to give out 10s for anything. But I’m confident these Slovenian women cannot be topped for hotness. That may be the only thing I agree with Donald Trump about.
• Food: 7. As I discussed in my last post, Slovenian cuisine benefits from its position in the extreme northwest of the Balkan Peninsula, smooshed up against the Alps of Italy and Austria. In addition to the excellent Austrian-style sausage I enjoyed here, T. and I ate a sumptuous dinner of Balkan-style grilled meats (accompanied by the tastiest baked beans I’ve ever encountered) on 5 June.
  

  Besides dinner for two, we got two lunches and a dinner out of the leftovers (5 June 2018).

• Ambience: 8. Ljubljana’s cityscape isn’t spectacular, but its many tidy pedestrian streets, cafés, and parks make it a hugely enjoyable place to wander around.
  

  You really get the sense here that the residents of Ljubljana are loving life (6 June 2018).

• Transit: 6. Between Ljubljana’s tiny city center, its plethora of pedestrian-only streets, and my friend’s car, I never actually used public transportation here. There’s no subway here, but I saw plenty of buses.
  

  Busy Slovenska Cesta is open only to bus traffic (4 June 2018).

• Health care: 5.4.
• Nature: 9. Castle hill and Tivoli Park are both a short walk (or an even shorter bike ride) from the center of town, and feature hiking and running trails, steep hills, and plenty of shade.
  

  Tivoli Park’s trails are just a wee bit too steep for cycling (at least on a one-speed bike-share bicycle like this one), but provide miles of challenging running and hiking (4 June 2018).

• Internet: 8.
• Crime: 8.2. The crime rate in Ljubljana is absurdly low, if Numbeo‘s data is to be believed. I find that plausible. With all these cafés to sit at, and all those beers and tiny cups of coffee to drink, who has time to commit crimes? (Other than vandalism, of course. In Europe, there’s always time to spray-paint something.)
• Language: 3. Slovenian is pretty similar to Croatian — in other words, it presents a number of tongue-twisting consonant combinations to Americans. “Thanks” in both Slovenian and Croatian is “hvala.” That “hv” is a tricky one. (Words like hvala, or Ljubljana for that matter, remind me of the classic “Bosnian vowel air drop” article in The Onion back in the ’90s.) And my friend T. informs me that Slovenian grammar is even tricker than Croatian.
• Bikeability: 10. Another 10! There’s no way any of the other cities on my itinerary can possibly compete with Ljubljana here. It’s not just that there are designated bike paths and bike lanes all over the place, even in the ‘burbs. Or that it costs just €1 for a week of rides (or €3 for an entire year) using the local bike-share bicycles. Rather, it’s that so many people here cycle everywhere. It’s very rare indeed to be a lone, nervous cyclist in a sea of cars.
  

  Even here at a sprawling suburban mall… see the maroon-painted lanes on the road? Yep. Bike lanes. Nobody in America would be caught dead biking to the mall (4 June 2018).

• Friendliness: 7. With such a pleasant city to live in, low crime, all those endorphins from biking everywhere and, unlike most other former Yugoslavs, no recent memory of a bloody war against their neighbors, I suppose it’s not surprising that people here seem pretty welcoming. As elsewhere in Europe, you’ll see local yokels, even in the “big” city, stopping in the street to chat or at least exchange greetings. And one day when I decided to walk around with my earbuds in, listening to music, it struck me that I couldn’t recall seeing anyone else in the streets wearing earphones or headphones. In Washington, D.C., it seems like most folks you see walking to and from work or the Metro have some device in their ears, shutting out the outside world. I know people (women mainly) in the U.S. who wear earbuds that aren’t even plugged into anything, just to avoid being pestered. I think it says something about how people here are less wary, or that they just enjoy the ambience here as much as I do. (To be fair, just as many people’s eyes are glued to their phones here as in the U.S. But their ears are much more likely to be open.)
• Pollution: 8.2. The lowest level of pollution of any city I’ve visited yet, by a wide margin, again according to Numbeo.