Nova Gorica & Solkan

On my last full day here spent my day in Slovenia for a change. I visited the Kostanjevica monastery which is south of here on a hill (the white building). You may remember from my previous blogs that that is where the last French king is buried as well as a few other French royalty. Then went to the railway station, which is a very elaborate building , in front of which was where the border fence once stood. Then went to Solkan, a village/suburb that predates Nova Gorica and is north of here near the Soca river. I went part way on a new bike track that follows high above the river. Very picturesque and a change from all the towns.

As you will see from the photos, Nova Gorica is not very scenic. But it's functional and it's sits in a very pretty area. I also like that it has plenty of places to sit in the shade and that it's not busy plus it's made for cycling with cycling paths everywhere. It's a university town and also a gambling one. Most of the big hotels, including the one I am staying in, have a casino. Their main purpose appears to be to collect donations to the Slovenian economy from Italians. The Chinese also seem to be getting into the act based on the number I have seen here. They are particularly interesting at breakfast; they eat as if they haven't eaten for a week. I have breakfast around 7.30 and I was surprised on my first day here the number of people not heading for breakfast but the poker machines. Also in this hotel you can open the windows, at least part way, which is unusual. However, this afternoon a pidgeon decided to perch on the sill, I tried to scare it away but it kept bagging its head on the window. Finally, it took a few minutes to think about it and worked out the way to go to avoid any further concussion.

The other day I had problems trying to find a place to eat. The first place was closed even though its notice in the window said it' was supposed to be open. The second place didn't open until 7pm even though its website said 6pm. And the place I did eat at, cleverly hid its restaurant behind its cafe. But that was not enough to stop me, I found it as I was desperate by this stage.

Also I like the way they do roadworks here. None of these barriers and men with stop signs, OH&S etc. No time for that. Here there is a no nonsense approach; if people can't see big trucks laying asphalt in the middle of the road then that's their problem. No pandering to knuckleheads here.

And here are the photos from today...

Gorizia

Today I visited the Italian city of Gorizia (Gorica in Slovenian). But first a word of explanation. Nova Gorica (New Gorica), where I am staying, is in Slovenia and is a city that was built after the war. It celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. It was established by the Yugoslavian authorities at that time when after the war the drawing of the border between Italy and Yugoslavia meant that Gorizia wound up in Italy and some suburbs/villages, including the main railway station, ended up on the Yugoslav side of the border. Effectively a wall was established that separated the two countries and thus Gorizia was separated from the lands to its north.  One of the positive things of the European Community is that there is now no longer any real border between the two countries in this area.

Gorizia is the older city and has the better architecture and shopping! But like a lot of Italian towns in the area  some parts are ugly and/or derelict and other parts resemble Venice. It even has an 11th century castle, which I visited. Although, as you can see from the photos, the walls need some weeding! In the centre of town they also had a book fair on. One thing they do well, like a lot of Italian cities is gelato and cream cakes. Ice cream  has a credibility there that it, sadly, just doesn't enjoy in English speaking countries.  

Pordenone

Hello, I know I said that I was going to Nova Gorica, in Slovenia, and that's where I am but on my first full day I went to this Italian town to see the start of the Giro d'Italia cycle race. It's only about an hour away by train, on the other side of Udine.

The Trip to Nova Gorica

In Piran, on my way to catch the bus to Nova GoricaI had to perform a civilian rescue. As I was walking past an apartment, some  people started shouting at me from through a grill at the side of the door. It only took me a second to work out what the problem was, the keys were in the door and the door had locked behind them, the keys being out of reach.

The bus was late 10 minutes but we got a discount on the fare. Don't know whether that was compensation for turning up late or he didn't know how to work his ticket machine. Anyway the bus trip was very picturesque travelling mostly back roads through small villages amongst the hills and vineyards with great views.

Eating Out

Found an interesting place to have dinner in Nova gorica. They were into wild meat, offering wild pig or bear. I went for the pig and it was delicious. I have not seen bear on the menu anywhere before.

Pordenone 

A pretty but snalll town. It's probably the friendliest Italian town I've been to. In a lot of places service can be a bit indifferent and you have to be on your guard in case you get ripped off. But in this place the service was excellent, even when I couldn't speak Italian  and they couldn't  speak English. In the supermarket the person even offered to cut my bread when I was buying some salami for a sandwich. 

However, there were a lot of people in town for the start of the cycle race. In the centre of town it was packed and absolutely crazy. But there are always the knuckleheads trying to drag bikes or prams through packed crowds. Who would have thought there would be so many people?

I spotted one knucklehead early, he was wearing a white singlet and weaving in between people. Unfortunately, he spotted me with my camera and wanted me to take a picture of him, I declined and also, luckily, it was at this point that there was the flyover by old planes, associated with the cycle race, which distracted him.

In order to take some pictures, I went to a spot just outside the town centre to see the start of the race. Barely five minutes before the riders were due to come past, another knucklehead alert. Two old people decided to plonk themselves right in front of me. I quickly moved down the street into one of numerous vacant and unobstructed spots.

I am yet to work out how train stations work out whether to charge for toilet entry. Gorizia train station was free but Pordenone was 1 euro. Where they charge, do the station staff pocket the money budgeted for toilet cleaning? Come to think of it there were very few railway staff a Pordenone station at all - even though it is a very busy station.

One thing that hasn't changed is Italian driving. Unless you are prepared to play chicken with cars don't even bother trying to cross at a pedestrian crossing without lights. Also I noticed they can't park. I suppose that's because in the past they used to park wherever they wanted, now that they have to park in a designated, marked parking spot it's a real challenge for them. They haven't got a clue.