Ljubljana and Home

Yesterday morning we finally backed away from the buffet, checked out of our hotel and caught the local bus to Porec at 10 am. We were there before 11 and got our tickets to Ljubljana. The bus didn't leave until 2:30 pm so we lounged in the park by the bus station and just behind the marina. Since we didn't want to carry our packs we took turns walking around the marina and seaside promenade, which is very nice. The time actually passed fairly well.

Our bus stopped in quite a few towns up the coast to Koper, in Slovenia. Crossing the border only took a few minutes. Since it was a hot, sunny August Sunday, every little beach looked busy. Some, like Portorusz, made us glad we hadn't stayed there, they were so packed with people. The traffic on the little coastal road was heavy as well.

Once we got on the main highway to Ljubljana, the trip went much faster. We arrived in Ljubljana a little after 6 pm and walked less than 10 minutes to the hotel we had used here before, which we had already reserved.

Since we were really tired from the trip, we had a quick shower and walked down to the old town for a light dinner. We went to a restaurant we had been at before for pizza, which was good once again. Then we were home shortly after 9 for a good night's sleep. We have a room facing the street this time so it's a little noisy but it didn't really bother us.

Today, after some fruit and nuts in our room, we set off to find a bank, of which there are many, to change our leftover Croatian kuna into euros. It seemed awfully quiet for a Monday morning. Finally, we learned that today is the Assumption of Mary national holiday in Slovenia. We had read that before but forgotten about it. Anyway, the currency exchange at the train station was open so we were okay.

After about 11 or so, things started to open up. All of the offices and many stores are closed but there are lots of restaurants and a few grocery stores open.

We had coffee and ice cream on an outdoor patio overlooking the river and then wandered around a bit. After a brief stop back at our hotel to pay the bill in euros, we bought a beer and a burek around the corner and ate lunch in a park. Then we went along the main street of the old town to find a suitable restaurant for dinner. We have two possibilities, both of them specializing in traditional Slovenian food.

It's a fairly hot day so we're just cooling off in our room before dinner. Tonight we'll pack up and be ready to go out the door before 5 in the morning. We'll catch the 5:20 shuttle to the airport from the bus/train station. Our Adria Airways flight to Zurich leaves at 7:45 arriving there at 9:00. It's a small plane and if the weather is clear like it was when we arrived, we'll be able to look down on the Alps pretty well all the way.

Then we have almost 4 hours before our Swiss Air flight leaves at 12:50. It's an 8 hour and 10 minute flight to Montreal arriving at 3 pm. By the time we get our luggage and get through customs we'll either get a 4 or 5 pm bus arriving in Ottawa at 6 or 7 pm. Dylan will pick us up so we should be home by 9:30. Altogether it will be about 23 hours devoted to getting home. Wednesday might be a slow day.

We've had lots of adventures and had a good taste of Slovenia and Croatia. We're very happy with the trip but home won't be so bad either.

Vacation in Istria

Monday August 8th 2011, Istria
On Saturday night we had a really nice anniversary rehearsal dinner at the Penzion Mayer Restaurant in Bled. It’s a beautiful sort of Bavarian style place with an outdoor patio under a post and beam roof. We got a good picture of us but we can’t send it because the internet here is too slow.
Sunday morning, we got up before 5:00. The day before our host had given us yogurt, muesli and fruit to keep in our room fridge because he knew we were leaving before he could make breakfast. After breakfast in our room, we walked the 5 minutes or so back to the bus stop and caught the 6:26 bus for Ljubljana.
We arrived in Ljubljana shortly before 8:00 and bought our tickets for the 9:30 bus to Istria. Altogether our bus tickets cost 58 euros (about $83 Cdn) which, again, is a cheap way to travel.
Having taken the bus through Istria before, we knew where to get off, as long as the bus took the same route. Luckily it did and the driver stopped where we asked and left us at a crossroads, a few kilometres from our hotel.
Anita held out our sign that we had made; I stood behind her and we set our big packs behind a concrete highway divider so it wouldn’t look like we had too much stuff to fit in the car. In less than 5 minutes, a young guy who worked at a hotel near the one we were going to, stopped and gave us a ride. He even drove a bit out of his way to drop us at the reception building for our hotel. So, our plan worked perfectly. Hitch-hiking is like riding a bicycle, you never forget how.
At check-in, the desk manager got our names and found our reservation. Then he said, “We have a problem. The hotel is fully booked…….I’ll have to give you a suite.” So we have an upper floor suite in a building with 5 other suites in it. We have a nice bedroom, big living room and big bathroom. There are French doors from both the bedroom and living room out to our private balcony which is over 20 feet long (I counted the floor tiles). This won’t be hard to take for a week.
Last night we had a great meal at the buffet with complimentary beer and wine. Since it was our anniversary, one of us (not me) indulged a little too much and has a slight headache today. After dinner, we sat down by the water, listened to a guitar/bass duo play some good music and even danced a bit on the grass. A really nice anniversary.
This morning after our buffet breakfast, we went for a long walk along the shore. We’ll soon go up to the reception building to post this and check our email. Then we’ve got some serious relaxing to do.

The Julian Alps

Friday July 5th, 2011, Bled Slovenia
Last night we went out to Gostilna Pri Planincu (which means “By the Mountaineers”), an informal bar and restaurant that has good Slovenian pub food. We had a wiener shnitzel and a veal with roasted potatoes. Not fancy but good. After dinner we walked up the street to Smon Slascicarna, a dessert place, for the Bled specialty, a layer of cream and a layer of vanilla custard in a crispy crust, called kremna rezina. Excellent dessert.
Last night was the start of the Okarina Etno Festival Bled in a park right by the lake. Solar System, an electronic funk/dance band from Colombia played. They do a really good live show meant to get everyone dancing but the music just isn’t for me. Anita liked it better than I did.
This morning we got up, had breakfast and caught our tour bus down the street at 9 am. There were 15 of us, mostly Brits, on a big luxury tour bus, plus the tour guide and the driver. We did a sort of clockwise tour of the Julian Alps from Kranskja Gora, a ski town northwest of here, over the Vrsic summit and around through Triglau National Park. Then we went northwest into Italy and back into Slovenia and home.
Our first stop on the way up to the pass was at the Russian Chapel. During WWI, the Austro-Hungarians used Russian prisoners of war to build the road up the mountains and the fortifications to defend against the Italians who were on the Allied side. Ten thousand Russian prisoners died from the cold, harsh conditions, overwork and avalanches. This chapel commemorates them.
Of course, the Russian dead were just a drop in the bucket. The Italians tried to invade Austria-Hungary, which included Slovenia, through the Soca River Valley and up the mountains. Austria-Hungary, with the high ground, defended against 11 major Italian offensives over 2 ½ years from 1916. Some of the mountainside bunkers are still visible. With the help of Germany, Austria-Hungary finally launched their own offensive against Italy and pushed them back. Soon after, Austria-Hungary and Germany were defeated by the Allies anyway and Italy was awarded this region, which they held until after WWII. So the whole Soca Valley war was for nothing. However, 22 nationalities fought here, 300,000 soldiers died, 700,000 were wounded and 100,000 were declared missing in action. Sixty thousand died in avalanches in one winter alone.
Our tour guide told us that a recent forest fire could only be fought by dropping water from helicopters. It was too dangerous to send in firefighters on the ground because the fire kept exploding bombs that were left in WWI.
This is known as the Isonzo Front in Italy. Not long after he got out of high school, Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver for the Italians here. Those experiences were the basis for his later novel “A Farewell to Arms”.
We stopped at the summit of the Vrsic Pass for coffee. It’s very beautiful. Then we started back down toward the Triglau Park Information Centre to the south. There isn’t 100 metres that’s straight on this whole road. Most of it is still the same road the Russian prisoners built, with modern maintenance. The whole narrow 2 lane road snakes around the mountains and it‘s all really steep. It’s only open in the summer due to snow and avalanches. There are 24 switchback or hairpin turns on the way up and 26 on the way down. On each one, our tour bus had to use the whole road. If anyone was coming the other way, they had to back up because the front of our bus would either be almost touching the retaining wall on one side or the little guardrail over the steep mountainside on the other. This went on and on. Once again, I took the window seat. We had beautiful weather and the scenery was spectacular.
The Park Centre was okay but not that interesting. Then we went down to the town of Bovec for lunch. Bovec is a small town with at least 4 or 5 whitewater rafting companies.
After Bovec we stopped at an old Austro-Hungarian fortress, the Kluze Fort that Napoleon’s troops managed to conquer. There’s a really deep gorge right beside the fort and iron rungs and tunnels built into the cliffs.
After that we crossed into Italy and stopped briefly at Lago del Predil, a mountain lake resort. It wasn’t that interesting and by that time the sky had clouded over a bit.
On the way back we stopped just west of Kranskja Gora to see the 2nd largest ski jump in the world. It used to be the largest but was eclipsed by one in Norway so now the Slovenians are building a 2nd one on the same site to regain their title. They have had many world championships here. There have also been lots of World Cup ski races in Kranskja Gora.
We didn’t get back to Bled until after 5:30 but we had a great day, saw lots of stunning alpine scenery and learned a bit about the history of the region. Well worth it.
Saturday August 6th, 2011, Bled
Last night we went to Pizzeria Rustika in the old town for a great pizza. Then we walked down the hill to the music festival in the park. By the time we got there, “The Men They Couldn’t Hang”, a sort of electric folk/pub music band from England had already started. They were really good and had the crowd right into it. We stayed out past 10 o’clock (unusual for us) even after our long day of touring.
This morning we had the breakfast buffet here and, while we had a chance, asked our host for some cardboard and a marker. When we got back to our room I made a sign for tomorrow’s destination since we might have to hitchhike the last few kilometres to save time. It’s either that or take one bus into the big bus station where we’re going and then another one back to where we’re staying out on the Istrian coast. So, for our 35th anniversary we’ll likely be hitchhiking, just like we both did when we were teenagers. At least this time we have some money.
After we got organized, since it was a little overcast and we didn’t feel like doing any major touristing, so we went for a brisk walk around the lake. On our way, we found the Mayer Penzion Restaurant, where we want to have our anniversary rehearsal dinner tonight. It looks really nice and the menu looked good with at least reasonable prices, so we made reservations.
After our walk, we came back to our room for lunch on our balcony and then walked back to the old town for a decaf coffee and a “Grmada”. That’s a mixture of cake, rum, custard and raisins, topped with whipped cream and drizzled chocolate. Really, really good.
We’ve just waddled back to our room and are getting some stuff together for the morning. We have to leave here at 6:00. We’ll be in Ljubljana by 8:00 and should be able to get the bus to Istria at 9:30, arriving on the coast around 12:30.
We’ve decided that we’ve seen all the sights that we set out to see so we’re going to spend a week at the beach in Istria in a resort hotel with breakfast and dinner included. We probably won’t blog much because we know the internet will be very slow. However, we do have lots of pictures for today of yesterday’s trip through the Julian Alps.

Bled, Slovenia

Thursday, August 4th 2011, Bled Slovenia
Yesterday morning, after breakfast and a sauna, we caught the 12:30 train from Zagreb to Ljubljana. The land was fairly flat through western Croatia and then got more mountainous as we followed a fairly narrow river valley in Slovenia. At the border, the Croatian and then the Slovenian police who came on the train didn’t take long to check our passports. Passports from some countries, like Turkey for instance, are checked very thoroughly and the passport numbers called in to somewhere. The Russian visa in my passport always gets a 2nd look but there’s never any comment. There’s nothing like a Canadian passport.
The Slovenian scenery in the river valley was really nice until we were within a few minutes of the Ljubljana station. We arrived at the station at 2:49, intending to take the 3:15 bus to Bled, which we had seen listed on the bus company web site timetable. It was a fairly long walk from the platform to the bus station out front so we were getting tickets at 2:57 when the ticket agent told us there was no 3:15 bus, only a 3:00 and a 4:00. Anita ran to the right platform to stop the bus and I followed as soon as I had the tickets and my change. Luckily we had 20 euros (since we had been using Croatian kuna for weeks) because they only took cash. But it cost only 14 euros for our tickets so we were okay. We just made the bus and got to the Bled Union bus stop about 4:15.
The B&B Mlinar Bled Pension we had reserved had interesting directions posted on their Hostelworld web page. They said (literally):
“Get off bus at Union bus stop (remind driver). There is ribno crossing. Follow the ribno road sign but in the very cross road immediately (after 10 metres) to the right. Then follow the banners “Pension Mlinar” as long as you see the house.”
Oddly enough, all this made some kind of sense when we got off the bus and we found our pension without much trouble. We’re in a fairly new, large house just on the outskirts of Bled. The owner lives on the first floor and has six rooms for rent on the second floor, and a breakfast room in the basement. We have an ensuite room, WIFI, TV, fridge and private balcony. It’s all very nice.
We scouted around a bit last night and ate dinner at some restaurant in the town commercial centre. This centre is built from a design for a town in Libya. When that deal fell through, the town of Bled bought the plans cheap. It’s known to the locals as the “Gaddafi”. After buying some supplies at the Mercator grocery store (of which there are many in Slovenia) we came back to our room.
This morning we had the breakfast here. It was not too bad. We’re only paying about $70 Cdn per night so this is a good deal. It’s only a 5 or 10 minute walk down to the lake and the centre of town.
After breakfast we walked all the way around Lake Bled, about 5 km in total. It took us the whole morning because we stopped a lot and looked around. We saw Bled Castle up on a peak overlooking the lake, the Church on the island in the lake, the Villa Bled hotel and the big rowing centre.
The Villa Bled used to be a royal residence (Habsburgs maybe) but after WWII became Tito’s summer place where he entertained visiting dignitaries from Communist countries during the Cold War. Nikita Krushchev, Raul Castro and others were here.
The rowing centre is a big deal. There are permanent buoys in place from one end of the lake to the other marking off standard 2 km racing lanes. There’s a big rowing club building and dock. In the sidewalk in front of the rowing centre are stainless steel strips engraved with the years that Bled rowers won medals at the Olympics. They’ve won a lot of medals. The world championships have been held here twice and will be held here again at the end of this month.
We also saw a couple of guys fishing. They each had an aluminum tripod stand that holds up to 4 rods. They set that up with a couple of rods and some kind of bait out in the water, just still fishing, then they lay down in a lawn chair nearby and fall asleep. I thought Canadian fishermen were lazy.
After lunch on our balcony overlooking the mountain peaks, we went out and found a couple of restaurants recommended in our guide books. We’ll try one tonight. After that there’s a band from Colombia playing in the park starting at 8:30. There’s a free summer music festival with different groups for the next few nights at least.
Tomorrow we have tickets for a bus tour of Mount Triglav (highest in Slovenia) National Park, the Slovenian portion of the Julian Alps, the Soca River Valley and as far as some mountain lake in Italy. It takes all day but should be very beautiful scenery.

Zagreb

August 1, 2011 Zagreb
Dinner last night was better than the night before, which was a pleasant surprise. The Hotel Plitvice has such a nice dining room, we’re glad the food wasn’t as bland as we originally thought.
After breakfast this morning, we packed up and left at 10 to catch the 10:45 bus. Luckily we were at the bus stop on the highway by 10:15 because a bus for Zagreb stopped and picked us up at 10:20. There are several different bus companies. I didn’t have the timetables for all of them so we were lucky not to have to wait another half hour.
As we travelled through the little towns toward Zagreb, most of them looked pretty good but there are a few houses here and there that are pock-marked from bullets and some houses are abandoned. The fighting was apparently fairly heavy south of Zagreb although not in the city itself. We’ve read that the abandoned houses were probably owned by Serbs who lived here before the war, had to leave and will likely never come back.
It’s pretty country but not as dramatic as the coast. As we got closer to Zagreb the land got flatter and more populated.
We had reserved a hotel only a few blocks from the bus station (and train station) and not too far from the old downtown. We’re staying in the 5 star Sheraton Zagreb in a deluxe room with king bed and with free entrance to the spa. It’s costing us only $113 Cdn per night. It’s a business conference hotel and there aren’t many business conferences in August so it’s cheap. Plus we’re on the “preferred” floor, whatever that means, since I’m a Starwood hotel chain member (a leftover from my years on the road delivering training). Anyway it’s a really nice room. We always check a couple of booking web sites to see if deals like this pop up and every once in a while they do.
We went down to the Konzum grocery store (the local joke is “we konzum the food and they konzum our money”) and picked up some beer and wine. Then we hit the spa. The sauna and steam room are really nice, spacious and clean. After Anita’s finished soaking in the big bathtub in our room (usually we only get a shower), we’ll head downtown for the first time to find a restaurant that we’ve picked from one of our guidebooks.
So far Zagreb itself hasn’t been too impressive but the hotel sure is nice.
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011, Zagreb
Last night we walked about 10 minutes up to Jelacic Square. It’s quite a big square with a huge statue of Josip Jelacic, a Croatian nationalist hero who fought the Hungarians for Croatian independence. The statue was taken down during the Tito years so as not to inflame Croatian nationalism in Yugoslavia but was put back up when Croatia became independent in the 90s. The statue is of Jelacic brandishing a sword while astride his horse. It used to face north toward the Hungarians but when it was put back up they turned it around to face south toward the Serbs.
From the square, we walked up Tkalciceva street. It’s a pedestrian street with lots of restaurants and bars. We had seen one brew pub, the Pivnica Medvedgrad, listed in a travel guide that promised hearty pub food at reasonable prices. We found the place without much trouble. It was the one full of students and younger travellers enjoying .5 litre beers during the long happy hour for only 9 kuna per beer (about $1.80). Anyway, we ordered one plate of “pub sausages with overdone beans” and one plate of cicevapi (little rolled spiced meat sausages), all served with a basket of heavy bread. None of this looked very appetizing (I’d hate to say what it really looked like) but it sure was good. And cheap - with 2 big beers, wine and tip only 140 kuna ($28 Cdn). We liked it so much we’re going back tonight. It was a good change from the seafood and gnocchi and stuff we’ve been eating.
After our usual breakfast this morning, we wandered down to the spa and steam room again. Then it was off to the train station, less than 15 minutes walking, to get tickets to Ljubljana tomorrow. We’ll travel by bus from Ljubljana to Bled tomorrow afternoon.
We walked up through a long park and ultimately back to Jelacic Square. From there we followed a guidebook self-guided walking tour of the old town. It’s quite pretty in spots but there’s not a lot of it. Since our 35th anniversary is coming up soon, we couldn't resist a picture in the doorway of the Museum of Broken Relationships. Anita also got a picture with a statue at the market. There is a huge market here in a parking lot with lots of meat shops, a fish market and everything else food related in a building underneath. After an hour or so we stopped for lunch in a little café, walked over to the big cathedral and then home. Soon we’ll go back to the sauna for awhile and then out to dinner. Our train doesn’t leave until 12:30 tomorrow so we have lots of time in the morning to get packed.
We wanted to see Zagreb since it’s the capital and biggest city in the country. A few things are impressive but there’s really not a whole lot to see. We’ve pretty much covered it today. Tomorrow Lake Bled in the Julian Alps.