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.