June 20th, 2011 admin
Only 3 days left and then I go home. <sad face> In some ways it’ll be nice to get home and off the road, but if I had a travel companion I could definitely see staying indefinitely. If I return to Europe soon I’m definitely going to approach it differently and try to stick to one or two countries. The experience is more fulfilling when you can get a hang of the language and communicate with other people there. Otherwise it really feels like you’re just going through the tourist motions and that gets kind of old. You need a travel partner to keep things interesting, otherwise its not much different from traveling on the road solo for business and 3 years of that was enough.
As for Trieste, the storms broke yesterday and the stiff winds moved through. Now its sunny and absolutely beautiful. I mean beautiful! 80 degrees with a slight wing off the Adriatic, only a couple small wispy clouds in the sky. What more could you ask for?
Checked out the “modern” art museum today, but most of the collection seemed to be from the 1800s to early 1900s. I guess when you have the history that a country like Italy has, this is modern. Other than a few interesting pieces I was underwhelmed.
The coffee culture here is irresistible. I basically stopped drinking coffee a few years ago because it made my nervous system freak out and I imagine I looked a little like a meth addict. Well on this trip and especially in Trieste I start every day with an espresso. Its just what people do. I’m hoping this doesn’t become an expensive habit of mine. I don’t need to become one of those “Starbucks” feigns who always have a paper cup in their hand and seem to be jonesing for their next fix just to make it through their day. I guess I could cook my own up.
One major thing missing here, bicycles. I started noticing this yesterday and I kept my eyes peeled today, but Italians (in Trieste at least) have replaced bicycles with motorized scooters. I can’t say I like the change. Even though Berlin became sort of a madhouse having to navigate the psychotic bike riders and in Ljubljana you never were quite sure which direction they were coming from it made city life so much more enjoyable. A bike really doesn’t make noise other than the subtle ring of a bell. These damn scooters sound like un-muffled weed-whackers and stink like them too. Its simply obnoxious and these damned things are everywhere. Its not like the city is particularly big such that scooters are a necessity. You can walk across the downtown area in 30 minutes at a leisurely pace. They city does rise into relatively sizable hills once you leave the core, but still these are not adequate replacements.
Pics below the fold
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June 19th, 2011 admin
Bonjourna – So we were planning on going to a town in eastern Slovenia referred to at Puh-Tooeey (Ptuj). It literally sounds like the sitting sound. Sadly, the Tour De Slovenijia was going through at about the same time and last minute planning was impossible. The next plan was to head to Trieste Italy the next day after doing the Julian Alp – Soca (So-cha) valley loop. Well the heavy rain forecast and a strange 3PM check-in limitation at the place in Trieste resulted in us nixing that idea and we ended up driving direct to Trieste, via a detour through the homeland of my great grandfather. It was stormy the whole time, but a white-knuckled driver managed to navigate us and our little Peugeot 306 through the narrow switchbacks in the high country of west-central Slovenia (not unlike South central LA – joke). We started in the industrial city of Kranj, stopped and got temporarily lost in Skofje Loka, climbed through the mountains from Ziri, and descended into Idrija. Eventually we got spat out onto the Slovenian highway which requires buying something called a vinjeta (a pass) that costs a small 30 Euros for a month. Fines reach as high as 800 Euro for not having one. Gulp! We got one.
After passing the exits for the cave (maybe next visit) we arrived in very Italian, seaside Trieste, Italia. For a town of only 200k it sure seems a lot larger. The storms have finally passed, but we had a chance to walk around a bit and suss out the restaurant scene. Once again, Sundays in Trieste are like Sundays in Slovenia. Everything is closed and quiet. The city has a much different feel. Not only does it feel larger but it feels older. You don’t see the modern influence as much and it seems more continuous. Don’t get me wrong there are still some “beautiful” pieces of 1970s architecture, but they are the exception rather than the rule. In Ljubljana you only had to leave the old town to quickly become immersed in the neighborhoods of “communist” Yugoslavia.
Here are a couple pics I snapped today. Light was pretty flat so hopefully tomorrow I can get a couple better ones as the weather is supposed to be beautiful. Did I mention the stiff sea breeze here is amazing….
Picks after the jump and more on Jimmy James Joyce and his times in Trieste…
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June 19th, 2011 admin
We did the “Lakes” of Slovenia. Essentially the only two lakes that are around constantly in the whole of the country. According to our road side geologist (mom) there is one larger lake in the Karst region (note: only this region in Slovenia can be called the Karst with a capital K. All others are mere siblings of the one and only Karst in SW Slovenia), but that lake is gone half the time because the water drains into the limestone formations below it on a regular basis.
So anyways, we went to visit the primo Slovenia tourist destination Lake Bled. It is a mountain lake at the foot of the Julian Alps just 45 minutes from capital Ljubljana. It may be more of a tourist trap than Ljubljana itself, featuring a casino right on the lake, all the usual touristy nicnacks, and of course lots of tourist buses. The town of Bled has a series of Tito era hotels that dot the “new” part of town, and the old town has a few older buildings, a church, and well that’s about it. Otherwise there is a cool looking castle on the hill that provides great vistas of the lake (but only if you pay the fee to see the castle or hike around the side of the castle where a hidden gem of a viewpoint sits). Lake Bled is also home to Tito’s relaxing vacation home, which is now a hotel, and also has a little lake in the middle that people can take little human powered boats to. There’s a church on the island that weddings are held on quite regularly. Below are some pics of the area from the castle and a path that encircles the entire lake. The pictures with the little “mansion” looking thing that is partly hidden is Tito’s nice little retreat. You can see the mountains in the background of a number of the pictures, but only vaguely since the weather was moving in the whole time and a mist hung over the tops of the peaks.
Click for more pictures words, and more……
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June 17th, 2011 admin
Small town Slovenia was the place. I arrived in Radovljica on the the local commuter train, surrounded by little kids on there way to a camping trip in the mountains. At least that’s what I surmised from the backpacks and sleeping pads and the energy bubbling over from them. Lets just say its awkward when you realize you’d have a hard time communicating with a 10 year old because of the language gap. I guess I’d be a preschooler? The train station was a short 100M trek up the hillside to the old town which is nothing more than a single city block of older buildings within what used to be an old town wall (Medieval maybe). Nice little church, number of Gostilnas (usually restaurants serving somewhat authentic Slovenian food with lodging available).
We were staying at the Hotel Lectar (a Gostilna) and since I beat mom here I went upstairs and lounge in front of the wonderful creation called TV. My first real dose in over two weeks. What did I watch? Tennis and how ball point pens are made. I know lame. We ate in the Hotel’s restaurant which is well reviewed, but also quite pricey. Nice little patio that looks out over the town at large and in the distance you could see the mountains.
Day 2 went for a walk around the town (for which I have pictures below), grabbed some lunch at Avgustin Gostilna where we joined the local policemen for a drink. We all took our afternoon siesta, who said you needed to be in Spain to take those.
Looks like our Slovenian travel plan is at risk because of the Tour De Slovenijia is going through the town we hoped to stay in. As a result, no vacancy. Might check out Trieste after we do a loop through the Julian Alps and down through the Soca valley (the WWI front where 1Million died).
Today (the 18th) off to Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj.
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June 16th, 2011 admin
So I left Zagreb and the Hobo Bear hostel behind on Wed. to head back to Slovenia and on Thursday and meet up with mom and Michael (if they ever make it from France – Jury’s still out).
Here’s my pictures from Zagreb. Mostly around the upper old town area. There was a giant market that they have in a central area and I would have tried to capture it, but it was all umbrellas. They were selling all kinds of stuff and unlike the central Ljubljana market it seems geared more for the general populous rather than just the tourists and the wealthy.
Pal’d around with an Aussie who was definitely a Jeff doppelganger. Couple Icelanders also. They were talking about how crazy the volcanoes have been recently. The most recent one wasn’t too far from one of their country homes and they said you couldn’t see a foot in front of your face because of the ash. Sounded pretty crazy. Apparently there’s a couple big volcanoes there that are long overdue for their regular eruptions and one of these caused issues in Japan the last time it erupted (and it lasted for a full year). Yowzers.
Back to Slovenia though. Slovenian border guards were a little more ornery on the way in than they were on the way out. Imagine the quick round trip had them suspicious that I was a “smuggler”. Hah! Only of Matruschka dolls. On the way to Zagreb poor American kid got in a little trouble with the conductor. HE had a Eurail pass, which is usually good for a fixed number of days from first use. Well, his was printed lightly and a conductor at one point had darkened it with a pen. Uh oh! The Slovenian Conductor wasn’t so sure about this and the kid started breaking down. Apparently he had no money and this was his only means of getting to Barcelona. Now maybe he was pulling one over on the conductor, but I’m sorry if you are going to travel overseas and you DON’T have a little emergency fund for these types of emergencies you probably shouldn’t be traveling or else suck it up and deal with it. You’ve got to expect there might be something that disrupts your perfect plan and be able to roll with it. This kid did not look prepared to do that. He did have 4 days of provisions in his bag that he announced to all us passengers. Definitely made me hungry but then I figured it was undoubtedly the same bag of crappy, boring noodles. After disappearing with the ticket and freaking the kid out the conductor finally returned and said good luck. I’d really like to see him deal with that in someplace a little sketchier so to speak. I doubt they’d be as forgiving with the explanation.
Today I checked out the Slovenian Modern Art Museum. First, what does an exhibit on arctic survival buildings have to do with modern art? There was not a single piece of SLOVENIAN MODERN ART in the joint. I thought maybe the little tech exhibit was just small piece but apparently the actual slovenian stuff is stuff away in some closet someplace. The current exhibit was about some Canadian initiative to help the native Inuit survive in a sustainable fashion as climate change impacts effect them. There was some competition to design modular living spaces for them to use that maximize resources use. It was interesting, but I don’t think I would have normally spent 5 Euros to see what amounted to a science fair exposition. Oh well.
The Tour De Slovenia starts today in Ljubljana, but sadly I’ll be on my way to Radovljica to meet mom. 
The track is getting all setup and it looks pretty cool. It starts and finishes right in the old town, so it has a very tour de france feel to it. Oh well. Maybe net visit. Ok that’s all. Off to the country-side.
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June 14th, 2011 admin
Few preliminary thoughts:
- If Slovenes don’t seem to work too hard then Croats in Zagreb at least, really don’t seem to work too hard. The streets were packed yesterday and today with people shopping at all kind of trendy looking stores, drinking coffee and beer, and mingling in the main square. I’m wondering where everyone else is because these definitely aren’t all tourists, actually very few seem to be tourists.
- Zagreb feels a lot bigger than I expected. I expected it to feel like a slightly larger and rougher Ljubljana, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Everything is taller, denser, busier, and a little more metropolitan. I’m very impressed. Hopefully I’ll have pics to demonstrate, though I try to avoid looking like certain tourist groups that seemingly take pictures of everything including almost getting hit by trams in the process….ummm you’re doing something wrong.
- The pigeons here are aggressive little fuckers. I was taking a brief load off this morning and the pigeon came over and started pecking at my pocket. I haven’t had to worry about any pick pockets all trip, but here some damn pigeon is trying to steal my money. Damn that little bugger. I’ll get him!
- I found the Tolkien bar! Inside joke, but it was nowhere near where the girls insisted it was. I tried to tell them, but no one listens to Brian. That might be the appropriate approach most of the time though.
- They’ve got damn good donut type things here. I’ve been gorging myself on them since I love me some good donuts. Crispy Creme, bleck.
- I’m staying at a hostel called Hobo Bear and its interesting. It at least has 10-15 second automatic shut off showers, unlike the place in Ljubljana where you had to hold the button down or continually hit it again to get through a shower. Definitely not the most straight-forward experience.
- A fairly fun group here last night. Ended up going searching for the random bar (mentioned earlier) unsuccessfully so with about 8 of us. Ended up at some bar area that overlooks the city in the Upper town and listened to some local band sing. There was a guy from Portugal with us and he observed that they were singing traditional Brazilian and Portuguese songs very poorly. But the crowd was eating it up in this open air park with outdoor chandeliers hanging from the trees. Was pretty neat.
- Checked out the Croatian Modern Art Gallery today already. Fairly large collection spanning about 1800 to 2000. Some interesting stuff in there, but it seemed like they were always maybe 10 years behind the movements in other places, i.e. Cubism, etc. Not to say the stuff wasn’t good, just interesting that it seemed to take hold a little later here. Lots of folk influence in the work also, sometimes subtle and sometimes more explicit.
All for now, Do Videnije
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June 14th, 2011 admin
Here are some of my pictures from Ljubljana. I’ll have more when I return in a few days, but these are at least a starting point. I was too busy lounging to even take pictures. Just like the other Slovenes apparently. First couple are from the hill where the Castle sits right above the old town and the Ljubljana River. Next few are areas along the river where there are tons of outdoor cafes, etc. Also, a few a little farther down in the Krakovo area where its a little quieter. Nice place to chill out.
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June 13th, 2011 admin
Leaving for Zagreb, but yesterday was my last day in Ljubljana, at least until Wed. It was Sunday and on Sunday most everything shuts down except for some of the street cafes and some of the restaurants. People go to the smaller street flea market and otherwise just relaxingly chill out in town. At one point a country-wide referendum was passed to make all businesses close on Sunday. Apparently they realized mandating this might be a little foolish and they promptly repealed this. After reading an English language Slovene magazine it sounds like the referendum threshold here is very low, so low that many think it needs to be raised to eliminate some of the more frivolous proposals from being pushed through. I can feel for this since its gotten very tiring in WA having to deal with crazy man Eyman’s constant barrage of gov’t cutting initiatives. He is the reason we have a republican form of gov’t and not a strict democracy (a la ancient Greece). People love things in isolation, but often don’t realized the greater implications. Elected representatives are supposed assist in this regards.
Ok enough political commentary. I experienced a nice afternoon thunderstorm that pushed through, that then promptly broke out into sunlight again. I’ve been able to find the best salads in Ljubljana of anywhere in my trip so far. In Germany they always were iceberg lettuce with some light mayo concoction. Most of the places I’ve found in the city here give you a real, high quality salad. Here here to health. I wasn’t sure a steady diet of wurst, kabob, and pizza were going to result in positive experiences for me or my fellow travelers. Gotta eat your veggies kids. Keeps the scurvy away.
Before the storm hit I walked to the more southern part of the central district into an an area called Krakovo. In one of the guide books it refers to the area as having more gardens than homes. Well this is certainly accurate. No more than 5 minutes from the center of all the tourist activity and you have 2-5 lot sized gardens where people are growing all manner of things. Many were out tending to their gardens, making sure whatever they’d be eating later was in good condition and not being eaten by something else. Out along the river in this area, a nice path appears and the river bank opens up a bit so you can just kind of relax along this lazy urban river. Would have been a nice place to relax a little longer, but the rains started coming.
I’ll add a few more pictures from Zagreb, but until then Cao.
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June 11th, 2011 admin
These are pics from the train ride from Munich to Ljubljana. They are through a train window so there might be a few with my ugly reflection. I apologize ahead of time, but I’m pretty sure I shaved, so maybe that improves things. We went from Munich via Salzburg, Interlocken and Villach to Ljubljana. These are all either in Germany or Austria. I hope to have Julian Alps pics to follow once I meet up with my mom. They’ll be much higher quality I imagine.
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June 11th, 2011 admin
Here are some of the photos of my time in Munich. Completely different feel from anywhere else so far (not really for the better). Some of the pics of a more modern building are actually of an Opera House … I think. It was an interesting modern building. That’s one thing I do like about what I’ve seen in Germany, interesting modern architectural design that doesn’t just look like a steel and glass box (the modern day version of Soviet era concrete boxes).
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