The venue

Participants will be staying in Hostel Celica. Celica ('A cell' in English) is an artistically renovated former prison turned into a hostel, situated in the centre of Ljubljana. We will also use hostel's seminar room for most of our 'intellectual' activities ;).

Celica was appointed as the hippest hostel in the world by Lonely planet in 2006 for it's unusual accomodation offer and the vivid atmosphere. You can experience to sleep in one of 20 artistically renovated former cells with bars on the door and the window.
Besides cells there are also multi-bed rooms (4, 5, 7 beds per room) with bathrooms, a dormitory (12 beds) with a male and a female bathroom and a wheelchair friendly room for up to 2 physically challenged and 1 accompanying person with wheelchair adjusted bathroom.

The hostel also has a very interesting history. The building used to be a military prison from 1883 until 1991 when Slovenia claimed its independence and the military barracks were left empty.
In 1993 the authorities of Ljubljana City started to demolish the building despite the initiatives of Metelkova Network who wished to turn it into a multicultural centre. To prevent the demolishing, a group of approximately 200 Metelkova Network supporters occupied the buildings and virtually protected them with their bodies. The city authorities turned off the water and the electricity to make them leave and many of them did due to the unbearable conditions. But the most persistent stayed…
A group of them, including Janko Rožič, architect, were joined in the Sestava Association with the idea to turn the former prison that used to confine people into an open and welcoming place, a meeting point for international travelers. The project was later financially supported by the City of Ljubljana and the Student Organization of the University of Ljubljana. The creative planning, renovation and transformation took 10 years and during that time more than 80 artists from all over the world participated in the project. The first travelers spent the night in Hostel Celica in 2003.

In case the explorer within you wants to know more about this interesting place, you can read and see more on http://www.souhostel.com/en/index.html.