An Afternoon at the Seaside

The Slovenian coast stretches for a whole 46 km, but it packs a surprisingly large amount into 46 kilometers! Our first stop on Sunday afternoon was Koper. At first glance Koper seems to be a jumble of industry, however, if you look a little closer, and enter the town through one of the old entrances, one finds a delightfully preserved center.





What made Koper even more special was that I had with me my own personal tour guide who grew up in Koper, and she entertained us with childhood adventures and anecdotes. Although Koper was quiet, Ziva brought it very much alive, as I could picture a young girl merrily careening through narrow streets on her wooden scooter..

The town is believed to have originated in around 3 BC, and at that time it was an island. The Venetians assumed control in the late 13th century.
Barbabianca Palace, former seat of the venetian tax office 18th Century

Today Koper is Slovenia’s largest coastal town and chief maritime port, yet maintains it’s medieval charm.

Well, dated 1795.

From Koper we drove to Potoroz (Port of Roses), Slovenia’s major beach resort. Although the town is quite modern, it’s history dates back to the 13th century. It wasn’t the sleek hotels that caught my eye, but rather this old tower, sitting in the center of them all.

From Potoroz we walked 2 km down the boardwalk to Piran. Piran is located on the top of a long tapering peninsula that projects into the Adriatic.
Piran has maintained it’s medieval shape and character and was a jumble of arched alleys and narrow streets with tightly packed houses. The town’s center is Tartinjev trg (Tartini Square) and features a marble surface and a bronze statue of the acclaimed violinist Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) after whom the square is named.
Behind the statue is a ruby-red gothic Venetian house (Benecanke Hisa) and this is the oldest preserved building in the square, dating back to the 15th Century. Making our way to the Punta Lighthouse,


I found Piran to be a collection of stone walls, red tiled roofs, interesting visuals that changed moment to moment, and had me stopping to take photo after photo.





Finally, as the light began to fade we began to make our way back to the car, stopping for an ice cream cone (have I mentioned that the best ice cream is here in Slovenia?) and Zoran seemed to pace things to perfectly time the stunning sunset.

What an incredible day at the seaside.

Now THAT's a Nor'easter!

The Kras region of Slovenia (written as Karst in English) is a dry, rocky and thickly forested limestone plateau, scattered with ancient stone villages.

The Karst region is where I went on my third hike in Slovenia. We climbed to Slavnik (1028M). It was an interesting day because once again, I was experiencing Bura, but here in Slovene it is written as Burja. Burja is a downhill wind, in that it blows from a north to north-eastern direction, in gusts, down an incline. This wind is an integral feature of Slovenia's Kras region. Because the region separates the lower Adriatic coast from the Julian Alps range, extreme burja winds often occur there. They have influenced the region's traditional lifestyle and architecture. Buildings in several towns and villages in this region sometimes have stones on their roofs to prevent the roof tiles from being blown off!!
On Sunday Burja was mild to moderate in strength, making our hike up Slavnik very refreshing for me, until we stepped out onto the high plateau. Then, although I was still very much enjoying the wind, my companions were forced to stop and put on weatherproof jackets, hats and gloves!
I have to admit there was a few gusts up at the top that made me grab for some support, to avoid getting blown over!
The views from the mountain hut at the top were spectacular. Slovenia has 46 km of coast and from where we were standing we could see all of it including some of Italy as well. Far off in the distance was a sailing race of over 2000 vessels. From where we were standing the boats looked like tiny stars in the Milky Way the way they were distributed along the coast.


It was a pretty, sunny hike.



Afterwards we headed over to the coast for some lunch and sightseeing. More to follow!



A Slovenian Inukshuk!

The Dog Days of Autumn

The term "Dog Days" was coined by the ancient Romans, who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs) after Sirius (the "Dog Star"), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun. The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise. (Late July - early August, hence "the dog days of summer") The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that that star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.
Today I spent an absolutely delightful day in the company of Urska and Grin (red merle Aussie of the Sept 11th Blog entry) at an Agility competition just north of Ljubljana.
There were about 150 dogs that attended and there is something about dogs that transcends language and culture and I felt completely at home. Before the entrants run the course with their dogs, they are given the opportunity to walk the course without the dogs and plot their strategies.



To an agility uneducated person the exhibitors look like a rather odd club of folks pretending to be airplanes!
Not only were there lots of dogs, but there was even a brave soul with a Siberian Husky, and another brave soul with an Alaskan Malamute.




Both girls had their patience sorely tested, but remained in very good humor as their dogs entertained the crowds by careening around the ring, ignoring commands, and running their own course! But it wasn’t just the northern dogs that had troubles with the course, even marvelous Grin had his own agenda today, and more than once Urska called him a “husky” and considered sending him to Canada with me!
Taking photos of dogs running like wild things is not easy, but I hope these capture a little of the excitement of the day.





Regardless of his behavior in the ring, I have never had the opportunity to spend so much time with an Aussie and understand completely now why so many people with Northern Dogs are drawn to the Aussie. Urska, no need to think of sacrificing a "red dog" on this dog day of autumn, Grin is welcome to come to Canada, anytime!!!!

The cattle are lowing.....

On Sunday morning, I awoke to the bellowing of cows and the jingling of cowbells, reminding me of the hysterical SNL skit, More Cowbell! The rain had stopped, the skies cleared and the day beckoned.
After a leisurely breakfast, Ana, Marko and I set off for a small hike. The entire area where Ana and Marko have their cabin is a national park, so there are strict regulations as to what can be done in the way of renovations and what cannot be done.
Some villages allow no renovations at all, such as the one a few hundred meters from our trailhead.
Our destination? Blejska Koca, (or Blejska Hut) Lipanca (1633M). Autumn is in all her glory on the mountain, but compared to Lubnik of last week, I noticed the majority of the trees here are conifers. So what was providing all the color? Here there is conifer that they refer to as a "pine" that behaves like a deciduous tree by turning color in the fall and dropping all of its needles!


(I am hoping my father will weigh in here at some point and tell me what this tree is!!)DADDY???


After about 50 minutes we arrived at Blejska Koca, an Alpine hut that offers food and lodging to travelers.

This is a cross roads of sorts as from here one can travel in many directions along the trails. Of interest is that an accidental finding of a bronze dagger dating back to 10 century BC below Merzce proves that the alp was settled in the Bronze Age. People, and sheep have been traveling this route for a long time!


Eventually we stopped basking in the sun and made our way down the mountainside again, stopping at the local watering hole for coffee and a shot of their specialty, Pine Schnapps! Yes, that is not a typo; I meant to write Pine Schnapps! Which, surprisingly did not taste like a mouthful of needles, but was quite sweet!
Later in the afternoon I really began to feel like a native Slovenian as Marko and I went out to walk some more, and Marko gave me a lesson in picking mushrooms. Sadly the crop is limited now, as the temperatures have become quite cool for mushrooms. But amongst the pretty poisonous ones,
we did manage to find a few edible mushrooms which we collected and later, Ana prepared for us. What a treat!
We finished off our day by watching hockey on their wooden TV! Ok, I am kidding, it is actually a very nice flat screen TV built right into a wooden frame, which matches the wood décor of their cabin beautifully! The Pogacnik cabin sits in a place of peace and tranquility, its backdrop against incredible beauty.

Trains... Trains.... and MORE Trains!

The rail system here is extremely efficient and a very reasonably priced way to get around the country. Certainly much less stressful on the nerves than driving! At least, on a good day….
I was supposed to be heading to Lesce-Bled on the 12:05 train on Saturday. There I would be joining friends Ana and Marko for the weekend at their cabin in the Pokljuka area. And this IS the destination I bought my ticket for. I asked the ticket seller what track the train would be leaving from. “Track 5" she said.
As I wandered down through the station, with ½ hour to spare, I thought, 'Ok, I think I’ve now got this train thing down!' When I got to the Track 5 there was already a train sitting there, waiting. I looked up at the sign and it read ‘10:28am Venice’. I looked at my watch and it read 11:37am. According to the Internet and the posted departure schedule my train was to leave at 12:05pm. ‘Hmmmmmmm’ I thought ‘Is this my train?’ I know it is common for the trains to start in Ljubljana, therefore waiting at the track before the scheduled departure time. 'I wonder what is with the sign, perhaps they haven’t changed it yet from an hour ago?’ To be careful, when I saw the conductor standing on the platform I showed him my ticket and my notebook where I had also written the train information I would need that day, and asked him if this was my train. “Yeah, Yeah” he said nodding, and gestured me towards the train. ‘Ok’ I thought, ‘this is my train!’
I boarded, sat down and expected to wait another 20 min or so, when suddenly the train began to move, and all the passengers clapped. I wondered why they were clapping, as I haven’t experienced this on the trains here before. Shortly after getting moving I thought 'UH OH!!! This isn’t right, we are moving in the opposite direction as to the one I was expecting to move in’
Yup!!! In case you haven’t figured out where this is going, I was on the wrong train!
People here DON’T clap for the trains, unless the train is finally leaving after over a 1-hour delay!
After some words and some sign language with the conductor who looked more thoroughly at my ticket and with my finger on the words “ LESCE-BLED” he said “Ne!!! Wrong Train!!” YA THINK? Fortunately the train did stop once before leaving Slovenia, so I had a 1 hr train ride, a 2 hour stop in Postojna, another 1 hour back to Ljubljana, a small delay and finally I was on the right train! That will certainly teach me to be so cocky!
My friends were very gracious about the 4-hour delay in their schedule, and immediately we set off to enjoy what was left of the daylight. We drove past beautiful Bled, through a long series of twists where every turn reflected recent and tremendous storm damage, to Lake Bohinj, (Bohinjsko Jezero) a majestic body of water settled amidst gorgeous mountain scenery and bound by a huddle of sleepy villages.

After a short walk, some pictures and a great cup of coffee it was back on the road for another long series of twists and turns
until finally we arrived at our destination, my friends cabin in Pokljuka.

The Hills Are Alive With...... Mushrooms?

The Skofja Loka Hills to the west of town was the site of my first genuine hike in Slovenia. Our destination? The Dom na Lubnik mountain hut at the summit of Lubnik (1025 M).


I have to confess I didn’t realize how much I have been missing the forest while living in the city of Ljubljana, until I actually stepped onto the trail and breathed in the sights, sounds and scents of the trees and the trails.
Fall has arrived here in Slovenia and the locals complain it happened too quickly and it is too cold, but I find the transition very gradual, and the days still quite balmy.


Anyone who has hiked with me in the past will remember that I tend to enjoy the little delights of Mother Nature as I truck along. My fascination with the local mushroom species seemed to amuse my hiking companions immensely as I continuously stopped to take pictures of the flora along the way.




En route to the summit we passed the village of Gabrovo, where I stopped for a photo of the 'toplarji' or hay-drying racks, a feature of the countryside that is evidently unique to Slovenia.

The most common is the single rack, a very narrow with a series of crossbars and a roof, it allows a large amount of hay to be draped over each rung and dry protected from the rain. These are quite common in the farming area and some, like the one I photographed, are larger and quite complex. In places where they are no longer used for drying hay, they make attractive plant stands or places for posters.
I also took note of the small still, with smoke merrily belching out of its chimney This one was brewing pear schnapps. Mmmmmm!


The very top of Lubnik mountain offers a beautiful view on sunny and clear days.

There is the directional slab with engraved names of nearby and more distant mountains, to help the hiker orient themselves. The Alpine mountain hut, managed by the Mountaineering Club Škofja Loka, offers its visitors refreshment and lodging. We had a cool and welcome drink of lemonade, basked a little in the sunshine before descending the trail back to Skofja Loka.


Pretty terrain, stunning vistas and a good aerobic workout!



Those are the Julian Alps, and yep, there is fresh snow on them there hills!!!!!!