I first saw love locks, or padlocks used as declarations of eternal love, in South Korea. The wire fence on the N’Seoul Tower overlooking the city has thousands of padlocks and bike chains affixed to it by Korean lovers. I thought it was an adorable idea (because I thought Koreans were adorable).

Then I started seeing padlocks on bridges everywhere: in Rome, Prague, Cologne and on the Pont des Arts in Paris. The novelty wore off, and I stopped looking for them and taking pictures.

That is, until I arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the first stop on this year’s Big Trip. In the pristine, charming center of this little gem of a city, one bridge made me sit up and take notice of love locks again. It’s called Mesarski Most, or Butchers’ Bridge.

Kick-ass. Bronze. Prehistoric. Creatures. How awesome are these?!

For the first time ever, I found myself regretting not having a padlock to fix on a bridge. And I am so not into that kind of thing. But I could totally get into protecting our love with a set of sharp bronze jaws.

These thoroughly fascinating grotesques are the creations of Slovene sculptor Jakov Brdar. In addition to the fossil-like creatures, Brdar’s art appears all over Butchers’ Bridge, such as these flat bronze pebbles with faces, which were strewn along the railings…

… and three visually arresting sculptures: Prometheus, the Satyr, and Adam and Eve.

Later, Marlon and I happened upon another work by Brdar at the Ljubljana central station, where we caught a late afternoon train to Maribor. One look at this grille set into the ground and there was no mistaking it was by the same artist. It’s a memorial to James Joyce, who spent one night at the Ljubljana central station on his way to Trieste, Italy on October 19, 1904.