Mog's Blog

Toilets, Rubbish and Tourists

Things have settled here a bit - still lots to do with the apartment but the essential stuff has been sorted out. I bought a bike and I have been getting around including to Italy in preparation for my 2 week Italy-Austria-Slovenia bike trip along the Drava River trail next month. Also had to finally shave as I was starting to scare children - shaving less often is definitely one of the benefits of retiring.

Before I go on with some more observations, I must make a confession regarding something I forgot to mention in the first blog and that was the phone in the toilet incident (I think it was a subconscious trauma thing). Yes, my mobile phone "jumped" from my top pocket into the toilet. Despite my lightening quick reflexes in retrieval the phone did not work and what made it worse was that it was the day my furniture was going to be delivered. With the assistance of a neighbour (I didn't have the tool to remove the sim card from my Iphone) I transferred it to another dual sim phone I had and later that day I bought a new (windows) smartphone. The good news was that the Iphone feeling jealous or something came good again and works perfectly (I much prefer the old Iphone 4 than the new one I got). Now how had it come about the my phone ended up in the toilet anyway? Well I have had a few near misses where my telephone slipped out of my top pocket when I was bending over (tying my shoe laces etc.) but never near the toliet. On this occasion I decided to do some last minute cleaning and the rest is history.

Then there was the rubbish men incident. I had a whole lot of packaging material etc. to dispose of and the rubbish collection agency (it is a separate agency here) offers free pick ups twice a year with a mini truck that is able to go down the narrow lanes. So filled in the form. All good. Then I get a telephone call from the collectors saying they will be here shortly - then I get another telephone call. To this day I am sure what this call was about - it was either they couldn't find my place or couldn't get to it. I couldn't tell - my Slovenian is not great but theirs' wasn't much better as they were either Croatians or Serbians whose every second word was not Slovenian - at one point they asked why I couldn't understand them, if I was brutally honest... Anyway we agreed to meet nearby and then I showed them where my place was - then in a matter of minutes the truck was parked outside my front door as if there was no problem at all! I would have thought the rubbish men knew their way around town! Sometimes I think I am in one of those reality TV series where I have been transplanted to another country and the producers are setting up all these scenarios to provide entertainment for the audience. The general rubbish collection process is complicated too - four different coloured bags which you put rubbish in (depending on what it is) but at least they collect everyday.

Anyway, some general observations:

Tourists. Well they are all over the place - mainly Italians, Germans and Russians. And that's fine but they walk so slow and just get in your (my) way but they are also blind and deaf. One incident was when I was on my bike - on the bit of road that is restricted just before Piran, no tourists' cars allowed, but there are still buses and some other local traffic. Anyway, there was this knucklehead walking his dog in the middle of the road - like it was a pedestrian mall - and despite my best attempts to spark a road rage incident and being only half a metre away from his ear - nothing, completely oblivious to anything that was happening on planet earth. It happens all the time - on footpaths, in shops: it's as if I am invisible!
Alcoholics. They tend to hand around the supermarkets - because there is a greater selection of alcohol than other drinks in supermarkets - and its cheaper! One was praying to the sun the other day.
Translation. Some things are just too hard to translate from English here. Sponguebob Squarepants becomes simply Spongue Square; Family Guy is just Family Person; New Tricks becomes Old and New Things.
Cockta. This is a coca cola copy which has been around since Yugoslav times. I was very surprised that it's still around. It's supposed to be healthier than coke - with herbs or something in it. Anyway I gave it a go again - I still think it has the look and taste of furniture polish - good to see they have stuck with the original recipe! (although I understand there are a number of variations)

I will leave it there but now some pretty pictures (well all but one!)...