Same thing, tried dipping my toes a couple of years ago, payments would often fail, gui inexistent, etc. But we've come a long way since then.
For starters, download bluewallet and get some free sats to play around with:
https://lnfaucet.com
https://fixedfloat.com/lightning-faucet
Quite a rabbit hole you're falling into. And no, there's no public ledger.
