Slovenian Tales

Hello,

No great expeditions at the moment It has warmed up here in Piran - being 30 degrees (with humidity) the last few of days. It's taking some adjusting to after the variable weather (in the low 20s) up to now.

Here are a few observations and pictures from Slovenia....

Apartment Sagas
Yes, I am continuing to slowly rebuild the apartment - by default. This time the hot water heater failed, so with the kind help of a neighbour a new one was installed. Have also been doing some repairs to the roof and walls. Then I was the subject of a theft; my food scrap bin was stolen (yes they collect food scraps here). I got a new one for free but I suspect someone took my bin by mistake as there has been a similar bin outside for the last few weeks.

Sports on TV
You know when the sports channels are getting desperate (the soccer season has just finished) when they start showing under 12 games.
For those who might not be aware, the European soccer championships are currently on in France. We have live coverage of all matches -so you can't miss it. But in fact there has been a parallel championship running as well: the European championship for hooliganism. There were the traditional troublemakers, the English and Croatians. But newcomers, the Russians gave it a good go. Unfortunately, their team was eliminated from the championship before the hooligans could get their team thrown out of the championship. Some of what has been going on around the games has been, at times, more entertaining than the play itself. There is the 40 year old (old for a soccer player) Hungarian goalkeeper who wears track suit pants during the game. Perhaps he needs to stay warm because of arthritis or rheumatism at his age or perhaps his legs have not withstood the test of time as well as his reflexes. They must be his favourites because the tracksuit pants are getting grottier as the tournament goes on. Seems to be working so far as the Hungarians are still in the competition. One of my favourite things is watching the Italian team and fans sing their national anthem before their matches. They do so so passionately and the anthem lends itself to that. One of the Croatian player's head was split by an errant elbow quite badly in the first match and in subsequent matches to protect the stitches he started wearing a water polo cap (like a life saver's cap) - the cameras couldn't resist taking random shots of him. I also enjoy the commentary. One Slovenian commentator can't resist making little sarcastic comments. After a player got up quickly after writhing in agony, he said "That pain quickly went away", and after a player went past the opposing player with the ball he said "He could only hear the ball going across the grass because he certainly didn't see it". The Italian commentary is very different, there is no pause, its like a call of a horse race; it's non stop talk whether something is happening or not. Just to make sure, they have two commentators.

Dogs
I like dogs but sometimes owners take it too far...

• there was the dog that was allowed to whizz on every pole while I was trying to pass. Really, teach it some bladder control
• there was the three dogs that had to be brought to the airport at Trieste to await its owner. Instead of going straight home we had to have half an hour play time next to the airport restaurant, yelping included.
• then there was the dog that had to go to the restaurant while people were eating - barking annoyingly.

Interesting People
While waiting for the bus, I observed someone sort of hobble past me wearing what appeared to be slippers or ill fitting shoes. Turns out he just didn't have them on properly. So he sat down on a seat, made a very close examination of both his bare feet. He then put the shoes on properly (which fitted), then put a hoodie on and put the hoodie up over his head, then put another hoodie on, with hoodie up, then put on the jacket he originally had. I know it was a cooler day but perhaps he was cold because he had shorts on! Then he went outside for a smoke.

Interesting Businesses
While I was in Ljubljana I noticed a couple of interesting businesses. The first one called itself a dog bakery. I am hoping they baked stuff for dogs. Then there was the "My Mistery" optician. Even if the world is miss pelt, it still doesn't make any sense: my mystery is how I got good sight?

Tourists
There were three American tourists who got on the bus, luckily because they weren't actually standing at the bus stop (unlike everyone else) who wanted to go to the main town, Koper, - about 30 minutes away (about 20km). When we stopped next, 10 minutes later, one of them asked the bus driver if they were there yet. Slovenia is small, but not that small.
 
While waiting for the airport bus (when my mother was going back to Australia) had this Japanese jump in between me and my mother when we were waiting. I stared at her and moved somewhere else, next minute she there again behind my mother. Obviously very insecure or a nut. On the bus home the Chinese were at it. First the couple threw someone out of their seat - even though the seats are not numbered (the bus terminal continues to issue tickets with seat numbers). Then halfway through the trip, the male decides to do a leg stretch with the leg vertically up in the air. He must be some kind of gymnast or something but his partner didn't appreciate the impromptu exhibition.

We had a major event here a few weeks ago, a meet of European Harley Davidson riders. They were everywhere. There were hundreds of bikes and riders - you could tell which were the riders because they had black jackets with logos and which club chapter they belonged to (there were a lot of life members). There were mostly Italians and Austrians. Apparently, what these clubs do is ride around and drink beer, based on the number of beer tents that were set up for the event. They also like loud music - might be because the bike engines are so loud they can't hear the music or they are deaf because their engines are so loud.

Savejce, with Nanos in the background

Orehek Church

 

Orehek Castle

Orehek

Cycle Event in Ljubljana

Ljubljanica River, Ljubljana

Triple Bridge, Ljubljana

Ljubljana Castle

Tartini Square,Piiran

Piran Marina

Tour of Slovenia cycle race - Stage 1: one lap to go

Trip to England

Hello,

Just returned from a seven day trip to England, the second overseas trip this time with my mother. We stayed in London for the whole period and visited the Chelsea Flower Show and Windsor Castle. We flew from Trieste (in Italy, just 55 minutes by car from Piran) to London Stansted Airport. Compared to Italy and Slovenia, London was expensive. While the Italians might have special tourist prices in the tourist places($6 ice creams), London is all round expensive. The weather was mixed, it didn't rain during the day but half the days were cloudy with a cold wind. But according to the weather forecasts on TV, any day in London without rain qualifies as a nice day (sun is just a bonus).

Some observations from the trip....

Airports and Aeroplanes
On the trip to London, at Trieste Airport, they forgot to man passport control and so called everyone back to check passports (the Italians check passports in and out of the country, the British only when you are coming, they don't care if you are going). Obviously the check in people were too efficient (I like the airport because it has hardly any flights and therefore no crowds). Which brings me on to their scrupulous checking of hand luggage. Most airlines don't enforce the size limit but Ryanair do (probably because they allow hand luggage to go on free but charge for checked in luggage). But some people - either through ignorance or playing the system - push the limits with the size of their luggage and so accordingly are asked to put their luggage in the measuring frame. Try as they may some people just don't manage to squeeze their luggage in the frame. The most hilarious incident involved an Italian couple which were moving clothes from one case to the other and in a variety of combinations until after half an hour (after an argument amongst themselves, a tantrum - involving the slamming of cases, the obligatory argument with the check in people, and several attempts) they achieved success and managed to pass the test.
At Stansted Airport, apparently, if you have a child it is quite acceptable for the parents and their friends to stop in the middle of a busy thoroughfare and to all attend to the entertainment needs of the child (causing people to squeeze through the narrow gaps around them). Also at this airport, saw a sign outside the toilets advising that male and female operatives clean the toilets. They certainly take security seriously at the airport when they don't allow cleaners to clean toilets anymore.
On the train back to Stansted - a Slovenian group - of all the carriages and seats, decided to surround us and have their cross seat conversations all around us. It really was like we were invisible .On the trip back we had a foghorn leghorn (aka loud talker, Slovenian again) on the plane - she couldn't stop talking, drowned out the emergency procedure talk, and had this whining voice, only the engines drowned her out and she eventually stopped when her colleagues stopped humouring her.

British Currency
A con man or somebody that hates foreigners invented the British currency. After using Euros the British currency is hopeless, you can't tell what value a coin or note is without a thorough forensic examination. The notes have small numbers in the corner and most coins (and there's a plethora of shapes and sizes of those) don't even have numbers on them, instead they spell out the value in tiny print on one side. At a railway station some desperate tourist even asked me what the value of the coin she had was.

British TV
They must really like Australian TV as they show the cream of Australian TV there: Real Housewives of Melbourne; Home and Away. and Hot Seat (with a very youthful looking Eddie Maguire). They also have a station called Movies4men. I didn't know they made movies specifically for men.

London Transport
London is a big place, so to see all the attractions we went on one of those hop on hop buses - one of the problems in that the traffic is that bad, it takes an entirety to get around on one of these. Particularly when we had to get off the bus and catch another one when the door of our bus fell off. The underground rail system is excellent (if costly) - we had to "detrain" once because of signal failure (they have that in London too!) and I was deducted 3 times the fare off my Oyster card (I am still trying to get that sorted). In relation to traffic management, traffic in Rome flows better than in London. In London there are too many lights which causes traffic buildup. While in Rome you don't have those pesky traffic lights holding you up - you just barge your way through as best you can.

London Hotel
Our London hotel was good and sort of central but was a bit casual in the service department. We were usually promptly served at breakfast and dinner, and were understanding when the person that was supposed to be in charge of breakfast came in half an hour late one day. Others didn't give them the same latitude. During our stay several people walked out waiting for their breakfast order to be taken. On one occasion, an American almost had kittens when she had to wait 10 minutes for her order for breakfast to be taken. Strangely, by the end, we seemed to be given preferential treatment.
 
Chelsea Flower Show
This was spectacular if overcrowded which made it hard to move around, let alone see all the exhibits (some pictures below). The show is held on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and I noticed one area was named the Margaret Thatcher Infirmary. I am not sure whether her political supporters or opponents decided to name it after her. Anyway, there was an Australian connection to the show - with the poppy display (see picture below) - being from Australia. And the person doing spruiking at the display was Ted Baillieu - from Victorian Premier to garden guide.

Windsor Castle 
A nice place but you would think she would be able to stop planes from overflying her castle. The stream of low flying planes landing at adjacent Heathrow was constant and loud. I don't know how she puts up with it.

Anyway, here are some photos from London and Windsor...