CANKARJEVO NABREZJE FLEAMARKET 

CANKARJEVO NABREZJE FLEAMARKET, Ljubljana
When: Sundays, 8am-2pm

Ljubljana’s weekly “bosjak” is the icing (or perhaps secondhand bauble) on the cake of the Slovenian capital. Although Ljubljana is thick with attractive baroque and Habsburg buildings and boasts a youthful, prosperous population who congregate in the ever-proliferating riverside cafes, the city remains under-patronised. The Slovenians might bemoan the number of people who still confuse their country with Slovakia, but for the fleamarket fan such unfamiliarity can only be a good thing: the crowds are thinner and the bargain count is higher in Ljubljana. Moreover, the market setting, along the old town embankment of the Ljubljanica river, could hardly be more conducive to strolling, the natural form of fleamarket ambulation.

Best buys: various reminders of bygone imperial glory in the form of Habsburg jewellery, crockery, furniture and paintings. (A friend has decorated the walls of his otherwise minimalist London pad with portraits of forgotten Europeans extracted from fleamarkets throughout the continent - to surprisingly satisfying effect.) Mementos from a later period of domination than the Austro-Hungarian empire include silver pocket watches stamped with the hammer and sickle and, for those of specialised tastes, fading framed photos of Marshall Tito.