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Roscoe King - mob: 0439761815 - a/h: 07-54446000 - email: Roscoetfdq@gmail.com - PO Box 505 4557
Chew Ate Eat - for your party menus
Food Torque - try the recipes from our food engineers
Travel Lobotomies - sort your flash packing and triptological travels
Looters Locker - buy from the dilly bag of collectivity
The wicked, weird and wonderful - as the cool-chaser
picks up the new and traks the webs developmental sites
Crash Pads - Check your baggage into flashpackers’
heaven - villas to cabins at mates rates.
Exiting Rovinj on the excellent
Croatian bus service motoring
easily through the green
countryside of the Istrian
peninsular toward Ljubjlana via
Italy requires two border
crossings. A form of efficiency
Yugo style existed as the
Slovenian control demanded all
bags be brought outside and
opened for inspection even though
it was a cursory glance at best.
Small glimpses of the coastline
are visible and in next to no time
the bus was in Trieste which is the
connection point for Slovenia.
Departure time provides space for
a whistlestop tour of the city and
escape from the collection of
drunks domiciled inside the bus
station on their weatherproof
sipper seats. Tour du Trieste
reveals an atypical Italian city in the
dreaded grip of siesta severely limiting
spending capacity but nurturing some good homely cafes on statue saturated piazzas. Carbo loading Italian style on the
lunchtime special fixed price menu sometime throws up a culinary gem when least expected so the stop was not wasted. In
no time the bus was climbing the hilly suburbs above Trieste into alpine vegetation no doubt exhausting the driver as he
took a 30 minute unexplained break after 20 minutes driving leaving passengers to sit in the bus and contemplate their navels.
The road trip into Slovenia is through green pastures, conifers, neat housing on small plots amidst a background of high
mountains, scenic valleys until finally arriving at the bus station not far from the town centre. Ljubjlana in May is full as
Europe wakes up to this most unassuming and friendly capital and accommodation roulette commences in the cheaper end
of the flashpackers market. The madcap full on place to stay is the old military prison called Hostel Celica (‘Selechia’) unique
restored cells as rooms but was fully booked other than dormitories. The staff understood the reticence of older trippers to
communally bunk and do their best to enquire at the Park Hotel nearby which has hotel rooms and 2 floors of hostel on the
upper floors. The Lonely Planet had a less than salubrious write-up but a room on the 12th Floor with toilet is a haven
passed easily by the health police at E20 pp. Room is a four bunker but the management was ok on a three night sole
ownership and informed that the hotel extends a gratis internet connection for 15minutes. This is the equivalent of a YMCA
penthouse with no towel changes and makeup own beds but no discrimination of the wealth deprived is practised as the E 80
rooms share the same free brekkie in the dining room. The Park hotel has its share of German and Russian tour groups and
the two lifts suffer groanmogrifacation as the fatzinkrammers
cram the lift whilst marching to and fro to tour destinations. A
Noosa Heads T Shirt shone out amidst the Siberian safari suits
and soon elicits a ‘gidday you from Oz’ forging the eating and
drinking companions for that nite.
Lubi-town is possibly the smallest Capital, (population
280,000) in Europe but the fluency in English of anybody
below 30 years old is complete and every opportunity to
help with any enquiry is met with pleasure. The city wakes
to a crisp morning and the market along the riverbank from
the Four Dragons Bridge to the Triple Bridge is the best
seen in Croatia and known parts of Italy. The market has
both fixed and collapsible sectors and is sluiced by high
pressure hoses at night so the polished tarmac is ready yet
again by the next day. The vegetables tiered in barrows are
gigantic, redolent of slow maturation, interspersed with
clothing venders and other merchants spread about the
square. The shoppers wander down the riverbank beside the
meat vendors domiciled in fixed buildings followed by
delicatessens and shops of nuts and dried fruit. All around is the Slovene café scene a raft of one drink table sitters, in
deference to the Italian ideal of charging extra to sit, as they seem to encourage the client to squatting rights. Maybe
nothing Italian should be mentioned as the fascists had taken the country in World War Two and strung a 32 kilometre
barbed wire enclosure around the complete city.
The best way to get acquainted with most
capitals is to take the “Red Bus” tour but
in Ljubljana’s case the equivalent is an
open boat tour on the river beneath the
Triple Bridge. The main precincts are
easily remembered as old town square;
town square and new town square are
all within 500 meters so the history
lesson is Ljubjlana done over in half an
hour. Historically the buildings are not
as old as other parts of Europe due to
the original wooden structures being
replaced by sturdier models in the 17th
Century. The sites from the boat are
enchanting and the city revels in the
love of poetry and architecture but
treasures its musical background with a
great passion.
The young Slovenian girl who narrated
the tour was the grand child of Anna
the model for the nude statue in
Preseren Square named after France
Preseren the foremost romantic poet.
Preseren was 33 and fell in love with Julija
16 but her mother married her off to a rich
merchant to thwart this romance leaving him forever to mourn his lost love. The square named in his honour has his statue
gazing onto the bas-relief of Julija and his sonnets make up the Slovenian National anthem and his death the national
holiday on Feb 8th.
This city of art and cultural passion pops up variety in unexpected places but the catalyst is
cobblestone Preseren Square as the chill of evening reveals male and female nude models
posing for artists over a 3 hour period for charcoal impressions. In a weird sense of
incongruity strung up high across them was an ariel bombardment of white fibreglass
humanoids dive bombing the square. People movement increases markedly as night
falls and groups of young people wander down to the river banks to start a form of
seated passigiata and groups of youth in black tees gathered in the parks. Throw the
student graduation time into this mix with the fashion of blowing high pitched whistles
and the synchronicity of normal city life is not found much elsewhere. Posters are
strategically advertising all forms of entertainment from Laibach the legendry
Wagnerian rock group, puppetry, local folk groups and concerts by the Slovenian
Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Orchestra is based at the Academia Philharmonicorum along the riverbank and was
established in 1701 one of the oldest in Europe with a special series of performances
throughout May. A presentation from the Akademije Za Glasbo with prodigies of cello,
flute, double bass performing solo with the orchestra brought out the Musical glitterati
in force accompanied by the shouts of bravo from the majority of young attendees. A
special performance came from Maja Savnik in a spellbinding long session as she
walked her way around the violin with a smile and demeanour that was almost rock
starish. Slovenian society with mid European values inherit a maturity in performance
arts that are an integral part of community life casting an allure for all visitors
Ljubljana Fort is the omnipresent structure hovering over the town and in its many
incantations forms a part of Slovenian national culture and is almost a besieged tourist
site in its own right. Beginnings in the bronze age, birth place of a German king, home
for 5 centuries for the Habsburgs , a prison ,a ‘Castle Republic’ for 5000 of the lower
classes before reverting finally in 2000 to the Ljubljana Festival. A cable car provides easy
access to cafés and vantage points over the city and then one can meander through the trees back down to the market
square providing a consummate overview of the area filling out locations and visiting points.
This is a town of bridges from the triple bridge which connects the old part of town with the new town square to the four
dragon’s bridge which has two dragons at either end. The locals tell a tale that proscribes the legend whenever a virgin
crosses the bridge reputedly the dragon tail wags so free love lurks undoubtedly as at no stage did I see a movement.
Churches abound usually of Italian origin but the most astonishing
door at the Church of St Nicholas has the carved bronze
depictions of 5 popes exposed onto the outside like a macabre
death watch.
The food is of Austrian derivation although the ajvar and
relishes from throughout the Balkans add structure to
every protein laden platter as the inevitable healthy meat
portions abound. The student haunt of Bacchus restaurant,
café, nightclub and any other nomenclature of drink
service was passed on as the best value in Ljubjlana and
the meal de jour would have fed most of the Sudanese army.
This is a town of cafes and summer must be mayhem as the chill of night did not stop every seat being utilised. Patrons ate,
drank and chattered as barstools were perched along the stonewalls of the river plus tables were manned outside every
building as music saturated the surrounds.
No trip to Slovenia is complete without the obligatory trip to Bled and Bohinj (‘Bokhin’) almost the symbols of every tourist
postcard or poster that represents the country. The bus or train connections are easily accessible and no problems are
insurmountable as all staff speak English and make efforts to promote goodwill. The bus takes off every hour for Bohinj and
is reached in two and half hours passing through Bled on the way so that one can stop and catch a return after walking the
park. There is an Austrian or Swiss feel about the place with lodges and hotels on a flyfishing river and hiking tracks to
waterfalls through the alpine vegetation. The ubiquitous disappearing bus driver struck again 30 minutes mid trip into a
hotel for some sort of sustenance but at least a good pivo from the spina (beer on tap) is available to pass the time. The
usual nonchalant commute worthy of the vista commences slowly back down the valley past the cable car that soars into the
mountains to the closed ski fields and into Bled.
Every photo of Bled does it justice and the chocolate box scenery around the lake is a gathering point for the myriad tourist
buses with vantage Villas gathering the well heeled into their bosoms on the waters edge. The best view is to walk the 7
kms around the lake at whatever pace suits stopping off in varied cafes and drinking haunts to contemplate the view.
The scene competes with itself as the different hues and colours of
the lake takes in the dappled interplay of the background
changes. Light, trees, churches, towers create divertive
backdrops of reality but Bled will never bleed like other tourist
icons as the natural wonderment is unable to be enhanced
further by the intrusion of man. It is a retroactive experience
which lights up the primordial urge to get to the next photo op
and wonder if Neanderthal man had a few digital thoughts as he
marrowed out the odd mammoth whilst pondering future church
sites.
The small church on the island dates back to the 10th century,
but the present building was built in the 17th century.
According to local tradition, a husband who can carry his newly
married bride the 99 steps up from the dock into the church will
be ensured a happy marriage, and ringing the bell in the church
will fulfill one of your wishes. The bier halls on the lake road
were as busy as a hoffbrau haus on Hitler’s birthday particularly
with the Vulcan’s motor cycle club filling the environs of the
grounds contemplating culinary heaven. Walking leads to the search for food back up in the sedate setting of the village but
nothing can dilute the beauty of the spring flowers and foliage in a kaleidoscope of retro colours.
Bled castle is perched 150 meters above the lake and is first mentioned in 1004 making it one of the earliest castles in
Slovenia. The castle is a tourist attraction with historical printing presses, early excavations of the ramparts capped out by
great views of the Julian Alps and all parts alpine.
It is an easy day’s travel to these parts and in a brief tour Slovenia allows a glimpse into its psychology and it explains why
subjugation by Tito was never complete. The pace of life is sedentary, serene and the ease of slipping into town makes one
feel like a perennial Slovene traveller as no overt pressure seems to intrude.
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