Grajski trg/Castle square, Maribor

One of the oldest squares in Maribor

Grajski trg (pronounced as "Grais·key terg") or Castle square (formerly Floriansplatz) is an old medieval square in Maribor, named after the Maribor town castle, which is partly located on the square. At the time, when Maribor was still surrounded by a defense wall, the square was located at the northeastern part of town close to the Graz gate (Graška vrata), that stood on the neighboring Freedom square (Trg svobode). The Castle square today is one of the most vibrant parts of Maribor's old center. You have a hotel, shops, restaurants and many cafés, where especially in summer, people of Maribor like to hang out. In the castle is the Regional Museum Maribor, while in the center of the square you can admire the St. Florian column, a monument dedicated to the patron saint of firefighters. It was placed here in the year 1700 after a devastating fire from a year before. It's a popular meeting point today.

Let me show you some photos from 2010:

Hotel Orel and some clothes shops, that opened in recent years.

The Castle square from north to south. The green building at the end is Naskov dvor.

The column of St. Florian from 1700 (photos from August 2010).

Castle square on a November morning. You can see many cafés already opening.

If you visit Maribor's Castle square, you will see these historically important buildings:

1 Maribor castle (Mariborski grad)
2 Column of St. Florian (Sv. Florijan)
3 Scherbaumhof (Scherbaumov dvorec)
4 Nasko manor (Naskov dvorec)

5 Hotel Orel

[My MARIBOR page][My SLOVENIA page][Info source: Sloveniainfo][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Out to lunch

After the drive back from my best friend's wedding, my dad and I decided to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. My dad has never been so I thought I'd treat him to some pho. He's not much of a noodle person so he went with the coconut curry chicken instead (which turned out to be really delicious!)

After lunch, we walked off the meal at the mall. I came across the perfect section- Hello Kitty!! Yeah! And everything was 50% off (at Sears.) I just had to get these HK boots. They were only $10!!! (after the sale price!) Can't beat that!

A good Thanksgiving!

How was everybody's Thanksgiving? I hope we all had families and good food surrounding us. As far as mine, everything went pretty well. I ate so much that I my body was fed for 3 days!

The last 2 years I haven't brought anything to contribute to the table so I thought I'd whip something up this year. I thought long and hard on what to bring but nothing would come to mind! I wanted to make some type of Korean dish but then I thought, "What for? No one's going to look forward to Korean food. It's all about the turkey, stuffing, and yams this holiday." 

So, I went the "American" way and made some wings with a pasta salad on the side.

 

The chicken was pretty easy to make. I just bought some wings, added the seasoning, and threw them in the oven for 25 minutes at 450 degrees. I also added some sugar, onion powder, and chopped serrano peppers to give the seasoning a little more kick.

Next is my pasta salad. Once the chicken was done I tasted one and wasn't really impressed. Feeling insecure I decided to make another dish just in case people started to think I sucked at cooking.... *haha* I swear, I just found some ingredients around my house out of panic and made this on a whim. It turned out sooo good and tasty!!

For this recipe I got-

*1 box of pasta

*1 cup of broccoli

*1/4 cup melted butter

*1 cup spinach

*2 tbsp garlic herb seasoning

*1 tsp pepper

*1 dash of sea salt

*a handful of chopped pepperoni

*3 large pickle spears chopped up

Cook the pasta according to the directions. Once it's done cooking add all the ingredients together. That's it, folks! You got yourself some great and easy pasta salad!!

There was so much food I didn't know where to begin!!!

Parts of the old Maribor map

A map for you to find Maribor's old treasures easier

Mouse-over the marks to get the name of the building as well as the year it was constructed. More on my MARIBOR page.

Bachelorette party!

One of my best friends is signing over her life getting married tomorrow. It's amazing how fast time flies and you realize that you're an adult now and have control over your own life. Yes, adulthood; such a complicating thing. And to think I thought being a teenager was hard!! Hahaha. (Well, mine just had a lot of love drama... T_T)

Before the big day we celebrated with the traditional bachelorette party last week. Of course with me being the maid of honor, I had the stressful pleasure of hosting the whole thing. The turn out wasn't as big as I had anticipated for the games I had planned, but it still turned out to be just as fun.We all hung out at our hotel suite, went out to dinner (sushi of course ^_^), took 3 hours to go out (hahaha), and then hit up the c-l-u-b-s! It was a great girls' night out! It will probably be the last one as well....... >_<

I came up with the idea of use wearing all black while the bride-to-be could wear whatever she liked to stand out. She picked the perfect color. "Lady in red...." :) I don't know why this pic turned out so fuzzy??

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I will stuff my face until I pass out!! On a brighter note however, I will be giving thanks and counting all the many blessings in my life! (As should everybody else..... :P) One blessing that I am most grateful for is my health and the health of my friends and family......... Enjoy your holiday, everyone!!

I don't know about you guys, but Thanksgiving is where I get the best food from the American side AND the Korean side!! So, I'll be enjoying turkey with my bulgolgi as well!! Ahhh, life is good!!


P.S. Pumpkin pie is my favorite dessert of all time!!! Yum!


P.S.S. I hope North Korea and South Korea don't go to war!! :(

Finger Shoes?

I was at the gym this morning when I came across something very....odd. This woman was wearing these weird looking shoes. The best way to describe them are gloves for feet perhaps? Then after seeing her, I saw like 2 other men wearing them! Hmmmm...are these the next Crocs?? Well, can't knock 'em till you've tried them, right? Let me tell you. I used to knock on Crocs all the time..........until I received a pair for myself. Those shoes are so darn comfy!!! BUT...and I do mean a big BUT!!! I do not wear them casually to the mall, or out to a restaurant, or anything like that. My Crocs are only permitted when taking out the trash, checking mail, or making a quick run to WalMart (because no body cares about what you wear at Walmart. Hahaha) I must admit though, their style has definitely switched up in the last 2 years.^_^

How do you guys feel about these???

Only girl in the world ( that I like)

"Who can tell me where Barbados is at?"- my anthropology professor
*silence*- students in my class (including myself)
"Ok............ Being that it's a Caribbean island who can tell me what the climate and vegetation is like?"- professor
**more silence**- students
"Does anyone know anything about Barbados???" - frustrated professor
"Yeah! Isn't that chic....uhh....Rhianna. She's from there!!"- student proud of his answer
"Hahahahaha"- the whole class

That was a funny moment in my class on Thursday.^_^

Music has definitely changed in the last 10 even 15 yrs. The mainstream music played on the radio isn't my exact cup of tea if you asked me. Too much blabber and no sense making lyrics make up a lot of these songs that brainwash our youth today. (Do I sound like a concerned parent or what. *scary* Signs of aging....) R&B hasn't really shown any true rhythm since the late 90's in my opinion. If someone were to ask me who my favorite group/singer was back then I could give you a big list (then again when you're 12-13 yrs old which boy band don't you like?? haha) Today my favorites are slim.......almost slim to none. One singer though, I do admire and give her a lot of credit. Ever since she came out almost 8 yrs ago my ears always cooperated with her music. Rhianna, you're great! Such exotic sex appeal this Barbados queen has.

My Breakfast

Fried egg with seaweed inside. 

Scrumptious!

Cold weather = Hot cocoa

The perfect season for hot cocoa and the perfect remedy to a good night's sleep.

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows

Yes. I am a nerd.I like Harry Potter movies.So what?? Thanks to work I haven't been able to see the new movie yet but I'm slowly trying to squeeze it into my schedule. Not that I would want to wait in line for 2 hours and to be sat right behind a bunch of squealing girls or rowdy kids.The best time to go is like a month or so after the movie's main release date. However, I cannot wait that long...................no, sir.........................

The kiddies are all grown up *tear* and the movie series is almost over. Nooooo!!!!

 I'm loving Emma's new do!! So chic! I guess we all must grow up eventually. :(

Winter Fashion- Korean Style 3