Gosh when I think back to it, Venice seems like a month ago
even though it was just a few days. Our whole stay in Venice seems to be
shrouded in a jet lag induced fog. Our first full day we spent wandering
through the streets, up and over the bridges and taking the Vapareto (water
bus) through the canals to get from one island to another. But boy, is stuff expensive
here! A small cup of coffee and a can of coke at a restaurant can sometimes be
as much as 4 Euro each! I guess that’s what you get when there are more
tourists then actual residents in a place. In total the population of Venice is
around 60,000 but annually tens of millions of tourists flock to this city coming
by plane, train, giant cruise
ships or automobile. But if you manage to stray off the beaten path, you get a
chance to see what real Venice used to be like.
Without all the vendors trying to sell you cheep mementos or tourist
filled restaurants, off the beaten track Venice is almost like a completely
different city.
We stayed in Venice for a total
of 3 nights. Eventually though we had to leave and turn our backs on the
canals, domed cathedrals and the general mystique called Venice. We took a
train to the border town of Trieste where we had some great pizza and tasty
gelato, then jumped on a bus headed for Ljubljana the Capital of Slovenia!
Slovenia:
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| Ljubljana! |
The language here is incredibly difficult to understand it seems like
they specifically put letters together in such a was as to make the words
unpronounceable! For example: Happy
Birthday! = Vse najboljše za rojstni dan! But since it only has an area
of roughly 7,827 Sq. Miles (about 1/10th the size of Washington state)
most people speak English because there are so many tourists and because their
dialects of Slovenian are incomprehensible to each other!
What
a gorgeous place! Our first stop is Ljubljana (j sounds like ye). It’s one of
the smallest capitals in all of Europe but it makes up for it by being awesome,
with countless outdoor Café’s, markets, gelato sellers and beautiful Hapsburg
style buildings. Apparently it was built to replicate the beautiful city of
Prague with its spires on the corners of the buildings and its many bridges
crisscrossing the river. The old city is car free so it lacks the noise and
pollution of most other cities. Instead countless pedestrians stroll through
the cobbled lanes, accompanied by quiet bicycles that wiz past. At the cafes
people talk about the latest gossip while bands play music in the background.
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| Journaling at a cafe. |
So we check into our little
apartment, which we found on “Air BNB”, dropped our stuff off and then went to
look for a place to eat. It was late and the city was completely dead, with
only a couple bars open here and there. It definitely did not look like party
central. Finally we talked to a man who motioned for us to follow him…. Now as
those of you who have read my blog in the past know, we’ve had some weird
experiences following random strangers. But this time we decided to throw
caution to the winds and follow him, he took us into an empty restaurant,
flipped on the lights and set a table for us. W sat there for a while, unsure
of what to do, until the man finally came back with his friend from the bar who
spoke English. The man who had hailed us outside went into the back and started
to prepare our order. Over the course of dinner we chatted away with him and
his wife Natalia they were super nice and even though they hardly spoke any
English and we spoke absolutely no Slovenian we were able to communicate fairly
well.
After a meal of Bosnian style hamburgers on Serbian
bread they asked us if we would like to come over for a drink at their
bar! We tried to back down on the
grounds that we were tired and it was late, but they insisted. So we followed
them into their hole in the wall bar across from the restaurant. Inside was a
great group of local Slovenian’s who were all regulars at the bar. He introduced
us to them and showed us pictures of a friend meeting George Clinton and a
famous boxer that he met. He gave my parents a complimentary glass of wine, and
then another as we chatted away with the extremely friendly locals. Then in
came the guy who shook hands with George Clinton! He was a really nice guy too,
if a little big headed. He showed us pictures of him shaking hands with all
sorts of famous people, we never got exactly what he did for a living but he
sure had a lot of ideas to share on how to make the world a better place, then
in came the famous boxer! Boy are those Slovenians friendly! Finally at like 1
o’clock in the morning we said goodbye to our new friends and walked out into
the night. |
| A view from the Castle |
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