Slovenia - Pretty much all of it

LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA

Sorry I haven't written, but I haven't been able to get to an internet connection really - my dad and my Slovenian family have kept me far far too busy. I think I will have to write these posts on my iPhone, as I am doing right now. These things are pretty nifty - I can update my podcasts over wifi, so I'll never be without my NPR! (Hi Lindsay!) My number's on the right, feel free to call.

I'm glad for the NPR, because I'm going through a news withdrawl. I'm getting the shakes without my daily dose of the Orange Satan. Who's up in the polls? What insane attack is Hillary pushing now? What does the Democratic party want me to think?! I DON'T KNOW!!! AHHH!!!

I turned on BBC after a few days and suddenly there are riots in Lhasa, explosions in Albania, tornados in Atlanta - I leave for three days, and the place goes to hell! Oh man these riots are crazy. I love the fact they're finally taking a stand, and I love what a slap in the face it is to the chinese, but seriously, now?! They've had 49 years to rise up, and they choose three months before I want to come? I was looking forward to Tibet more than any other area of China! On the one hand, I want them to succeed, but on the other hand, if things don't calm down soon the Chinese won't let me go.

But getting back to the trip. (Oh yeah, I'm in Europe :-) ) Ljubljana (pronounced Loo-bli-ana) is fantastic, and Slovenia is unbelievably gorgeous. The whole country is the size of Connecticut, and old Ljubljana is about the size of downtown Hartford, so the whole place is really easy to get around. And we've been everywhere. I've been exhausted this whole trip - Dad hasn't let me rest since we landed.

Day 1

Ok, so, a summary of what's been going on. The flight into Vienna was fine - I sat next to this adorable Polish grandmother who didn't speak a word of English, and had an impressive beard and moustache. She was too frail to put on her seat belt, so I ended up helping her quite a bit. Her family would come up to check on her every now and again, and they expressed their thanks with gestures. I thought it was a good start to the trip. :)

We landed in Vienna, picked up our rental car, and drove to Graz, Austria. It was OK, but we didn't have much time to spend there. Not to mention that no matter how enthusiastic my dad was, I was in no mood to do anything but sleep. One thing I did notice was the very high number of lingerie shops, something true in Ljubljana too. It's really distracting, actually; they all remind me a bit of Shayne. Nearly one out of ten stores must be a lingerie shop, and damn sexy lingerie too. European women sure must know how to dress, that's all I'm gonna say.

We drove to Ljubljana, and on the way we caught our first sight of the Alps. They're as big and beautiful as anything in the Rockies. I could go on, but this post is so long already, and there's so much left to say. Just take a look at the pictures, I wouldn't be able to do it justice anyways.

We got to Ljubljana, walked around a bit (look at the pictures - it's so quaint, so cute, so pretty), got my phone up and running, and met Uros (pronounced Oo-rohsh), one of my relatives who showed us our flat. It's a huge apartment which Marta, my grandmother's cousin lives in (she's off at the coast). Immediately we were whirled off to a ethnic-punk concert Yes, an ethno-punk concert. They're name is Orlec, and my grandmother's cousin's daughter's husband, Iztok (pronounced Ish-tok), travels with them and does their photography on the side. He's actually a director for the state television, but he loves Orlec, and I have to admit, they're pretty bitchin'. You have never seen such intense accordian - he was stomping and jumping and oh man it was amazing. The girls were cute (you'll notice I focused on one in particular in my photos), the all white audience could not dance, hard as they tried, and they played a song at the end written by a Slovenian-American in our honor. It was great, but when I got home I collapsed into bed.

Interesting sidenote - they're much more lax about some things here. Sonny, Uros's pregnant wife, was drinking when we went backstage, and nobody said anything! Everybody drives fast and smokes here, too. My dad's having a blast.

Day 2

The next day we got a tour of Ljubljana from Iztok, who is an awesome guy. Beard, leather jacket, carefree attitude, former champion gymnast, the guy's a rockstar. The whole family really loves showing us their country - it's great watching them try to recall their 7th grade history lessons. He took us up to Ljubljana castle, on the top of a hill in the center of town, and the views are simply stunning from there. The entire city is surrounded by forest and mountains and green, green farmland. We then had a traditional, and delicious meal of a veal leg. It was massive, meaty, and without a bit of veggie garnish. I like this country.

It's facinating to talk politics here. I have a feeling this is because my family was fairly well off in communist Yugoslavia, with Iztok, the state jounalist, and Nevenka, his wife the judge, but Iztok actually preferred communist rule. He was allowed to travel anytime he wanted, he and his children had more security, and he felt like there was much more prestige in being a Yugoslavian than a Slovenian. There was much less commercialization, much less of "this fucking competition, constant struggling." Though, everyone agrees the architecture sucked.

We were going to go to Ptuj (pronounced pitooey), but I finally forced the issue, and Dad allowed me to sleep. Thank god. I was so tired I hadn't really enjoyed anything. All I could think about was sleep. After this I felt much better. Jesus, this is supposed to be a vacation!

We went to an modern classical accordian concert (the accordian must be the national instrument), and while it was very minimalist, dark music, it was really good. The artist managed to incorperate the non-musical sounds of the instrument, like the clacking of the keys or the whoosh of air through the bellows in a really haunting way.

Day 3

We got up early (again), and finally met up with Roc and Ziva (pronounced Gee-va), who had come up to New York a few years ago. They had been busy until today. We drove to the coast to visit Marta and have a family lunch. We stopped off at Piran, one of the oldest towns in Slovenia. My god, the whole country is mountains and valleys! It was postcard views at every turn.

Piran is one of three towns on the tiny Slovenian coastline, a very Italian-influenced tourist town jammed onto a tiny peninsula jutting out into the Adriatic, with mountains and walls keeping inland invaders out. My camera's been getting alot of work.

After climbing up the walls and grabbing some delicious coffee, we actually crossed into Croatia, where Nevenka's brother, Matiesh, bought some land and has lived as a farmer for the past twenty years. Gorgeous, spectacular, blah blah blah. They had two dogs, and they reminded me so much of Sirus... I miss her. I met Marta, and though she didn't speak a word of English, she was absolutely charming. She made the most spectacular lunch! Just course after course, veal and pork leg, salad, octopus salad, potatoes, soup, and potizca, a delicious local sweet bread for dessert. Afterwards she told us about our family history.

Apparently, my great grandmother, a beer baroness, fell in love with a miner. This miner went to America, and sent back a ticket for my great-grandmother. Her family found out, and disowned her. She went anyway. The miner had told her he would meet her at the pier, but the day of her arrival, he had to work, so he sent his mining buddy to pick her up. The buddy went, and ended up stealing my great-grandmother!! My great-grandfather was a scoundrel!!

Day 4

The next day we slept in a bit before meeting Roc and Ziva at Skofja-Loka, a famous medieval town. It was cool, we had coffee there, but afterwards we were to drive to Bled, in the mountains, and we decided to take the backroads. What. A. Trip. Weaving up hundreds of feet, few guardrails, looking upon cloud-covered mountains echoing into the distance, and the valley below dotted with tiny villages, it was the prettiest landscape I have ever seen.

Finally we reached Bled. It was cloudy, but you could still make out the tiny island in the middle of the lake, and the spectacular church perched upon it, surrounded by Alps. This is where Tito vacationed, and you can see why.

We had a local dinner made up of sausage and meat in Bled. Roc is interesting. Shayne would have run away with him. He is always going on about how the country has become far too capitalistic. He was livid that the restaurant we ate at, one of his childhood favorites, was selling t-shirts. T-shirts! On the way there, he was talking about how inescapeable advertising is nowadays. You pay for the movie, and then the greedy theatres make you watch ads! Ziva actually works at an ad agency, and I have a feeling she doesn't agree with the rest of her familiy's views, but she keeps her mouth shut. Roc seems like the kind of guy who'd get killed in a revolution.

Then we came back to the flat, and that brings you up to date. This probably should be split up into a few posts, but I can't cut and paste with the iPhone, so oh well. I promise to write more frequently, if only so there's less to write each time!

Ok. It's late, I've got to sleep. We're getting up early to go to Ptuj. I miss you guys tremendously, please write!