Slovenia

 

Finally made it to Slvoenia.  This country has been on “the list” for quite some time.  Rewind about 11 years, back to 1996.  An ex-girlfriend and I were travelling in Greece, watching the sunset on the island of Santorini.  As we stood there, watching the sun set, two young women were taking photos of each other nearby.  I volunteered to take a photo of them, and they took a photo of us.  A quick snapshot turned into a conversation and soon we were exchanging addresses.  Over a decade later, we are still sending post cards to each other from our travels.

Sabina, one of the two girls, remained pretty faithful with the post cards.  For a few years it felt a bit like a competition, each of us sending cards from far away locations, almost tempting the other one to take on some more travel.  Invites to come visit to Slovenia came and past.  Really, its not too often that you happen to be passing through Slovenia.  But, I always kept it in the “plan” and thought that if I ever had a few days or a week, I’d drop by for a visit.

On that note; to fellow and perspective travellers: when on the road, if you meet friends, stay in touch.  With the advent of email and now even Facebook, it really is too easy to keep your travel friends in contact.  Sooner or later you’ll be passing through (or by) their country, or they to you.  It really is fun to catch up with old travel friends, show them your photos and tell them your travel stories, and to see and hear about theirs.  I have friends all over the world that invite me to come and visit…  if only I could find more time…

As I had said before, the original idea for this blog was to keep the friends and family “in the loop” in my travels; specifically, to “bring them along” while I travel.  So, some of the photos and stories may be a bit mundane, but the idea is for the friends and family to see and understand what I’ve seen.  To that end, the photo above was on final approach to Ljubljana (pronounced Lub-lee-yana, but everyone says it so fast that it sounds like Lub-yana).  So, now know everyone knows what the Slovene countryside just west of the capital looks like…  Please excuse the glare and dirt on the window – both out of my control – LOL.  The photo below was shot in the suburbs outside of Ljubjlana.  The country very much reminded me of Austria, as it should, as Austria is only about a 1/2 hour drive away.   Actually, I think the entire country of Slovenia is only an hour drive top to bottom, side to side.  It really is a beautiful country with pretty green farmland, low rolling hils, mountains on the horizon, and pretty Tudor looking European houses everywhere.

And what does one do when one first gets to Slovenia?  Apparantly, we have a drink!  Sounded great – especially after so many months in a “dry” (no alcohol) country.  It was nice to cut loose and have a good laugh over  a drink.  In the two photos below, Sabina (first photo – middle right) introduced me to her friends and we just had a great time talking and and laughing, oh, and drinking.

The bar was quite crowded and lively with activity.  It was a weekend, and it was rainy outside adding to the festive atmosphere inside.  Everyone was so friendly and they all made me feel right at home. 

Enroute from one club to another, we saw the wreckage of the day.  The wine festival was going on all week and visitors from across the country, and from other countries, were visiting and participating.  While we never did make it to the festival (we were busy touring the “tourist” sites), I did see a map and it reminded me of a walking marathon with wine stops all along the way.  It seems that a designated path through and around town was walked by the participants who stopped and tasted wine all along the way.  Seriously, it was just one big party and everyone was having fun.  The photo below is what remained for the night time cleaning crew.

Before my sobriety failed me, I was cognizant enought to shoot this photo of Ljubljana from one of the bridges.  The pink building to the left is the famous Franciscan Cathedral built in the 1600’s.  Just to the right is one of the famous triple bridges.  Ljubljana was just a wonderful little jem of a city and I was really looking forward to touring around.

Shot some time after “oh-dark thirty” and after many beers and glasses of wine…

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Malta

At last, I finally arrived in Malta.  I’ve been wanting to visit this country for over a decade.  It has always been a strategic spot on the map and as a student of history, I’d always found its history fascinating.  There is so much to see here; centuries of history, some books of the New Testament were written here, it was a home base to the knights during the Crusades, and it has been conquered and re-conquered so many times in the past 3 millenia…

When I first arrived, I took a cab from the airport to my hotel – not cheap, about 35 Euro one way.  The cab driver had his uncle with him and they were “hanging out” for the day.  I listened to them as they spoke Maltese and it reminded me of a mix of Italian, Arabic & Lebanese.  I asked him about the language and he said that it did have some Italian, Lebanese, and Arabic mixed in and it was sort of a hodge-podge mix of Latin & Arabic.  I had never thought about the language before I arrived; perhaps I had just assumed that they spoke English…

The first thing that I noticed about Malta were the tiny streets and alleyways that wove through the city.  Valletta, the capital, had a very Mediterranean feel to it and reminded me, in some ways, of Greece and Italian sea-side cities.  Checkered through the alleyways and streets were restaurants and restaurants – I was in virtual bliss.  After being marooned in a 3rd world country for the better part of 2 or 3 years, I was looking forward to trying some “different” cuisine.

I found a wonderful cafe restaurant with outdoor seating and began looking over the menu.  The woman at the next table at straight black hair and piercing blue eyes.  I heard her talking on the telephone and could not make out the language.  It sounded like a mix of Italian and Russian.  I asked her where she was from and she said that she was from Serbia.

I had trouble deciding what to order because everything looked so good.  I finally settled on a pizza & beer and an artichoke salad.  I can’t begin to describe how wonderful the food was; each bite was an explosion of flavor.  I remembered back to my visits to Italy and Greece and remembered fondly why I love the Mediterranean so much.

It was already late in the day after I’d settled into my hotel and had lunch so I decided to so some walking along the ocean and work my way down to Valletta harbor.

One of the main landmarks is a large casino that sits right out on the waterfront at the end of a peninsula.  As it was wintertime, there weren’t too many beach visitors.  I enjoyed a serene walk along the ocean trying to find a spot to take a photo without trash in it – yes, the beach was covered in trash – an unfortunate testament to the Maltese people and their beaches…

At the mouth of the harbor I found an ancient cannon and paused to take a photo.

The marina was full of yachts and sailing boats and it looked as though many rich Europeans made their second home on this charming island.  Along the harbor there were apartments, condominiums, and hotels.  I can only imagine how crowded this place must be at the height of the tourist season in summertime.

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