Author: Chris

Sabota, julij 08, 2006 – An outing to Štajerska

This weekend we had an excursion to the Štajerska region. Štajerska lies primarily to the east of Ljubljana and its largest city is the ancient provincial capital of Celje, where we began out journey. Traveling by bus we passed by many farms growing hops for beer. Apparently hops is big business in Slovenija and the quality is reportedly very high.

A typical view of the Štajerska countryside

 

After about a forty-five minute drive we arrived in Celje and headed straight for the castle above the town. The counts of Celje ruled Štajerska for several centuries and at one time their power rivaled that of the up and coming Hapsburgs. The dominion of the counts (later raised to Dukes and then Princes) is memorialized on the Slovene coat of arms in the three stars above the silhouette of Triglav mountain. The emblem of the counts was this three star motif. But Celje’s history is much older than that. Celje was first settled by the Romans who named the town Celia. At the castle we were greeted by a woman impersonating Barbara a famous countess of the realm. The view from the castle is impressive but unfortunately the castle in in the middle of renovation and our busy schedule did not permit us to visit the museum.

A hillside church as seen from the Celje castle.

So it was back onto the but for a trip to the glass factory, … . The factory produces fine (and expensive) glass and leaded crystal. We saw men blowing glass goblets. OSHA would have had a field day. These guys were wearing nothing but shorts and flip flop while they handled the molten glass. Most of them were smoking while they blew the glass and none of them ever put down their cigarettes, no matter what they were doing.

Next on the agenda was lunch at a wine vineyard in … . Until now we had been pretty much your typical annoying tourists, getting on and off a bus, taking in only a cursory look at things. In that way it had been somewhat disappointing since I think most of us were here specifically not to be your stereotypical tourists. We had a typical traditional Štajerska lunch beginning with a delicious mushroom soup, followed by roast pork, potatoes and vegetables. Along with the meal we had refreshing local wine. The restaurant was in the middle of the vineyards and the view was magnificent. This was definitely the best part of the day so far.

A vineyard in Štajerska

After lunch it was off to the thermal springs of … . A bit of a disappointment since the springs are basically a pool that happens to be filled with water that comes from a thermal spring. But it was hot and the swim, was refreshing. (Unfortunately by compact, our mutual vanity precluded any us from taking any pictures.)

Our last stop was the old Carthusian monastery at Ž… . Although it was the first Carthusian monastery located outside of France and was for a time the home of the prior of the order, it has long since been abandoned. (There is a Carthusian monastery that is still functioning in the country and I hope to visit it.) The monastery is slowly being restored today and the medicinal herbal schnapps that made the monastery famous are stil produced here. We were treated to a tour of the monastery and then a sampling of various schnapps. The monastery is situated in an isolated and steep valley surrounded by forests. It is extremely quiet and peaceful so it is obvious why the monks chose this location. This was the highlight of the trip. I wish I could have stayed here a bit longer.

Jessie and Melanie visiting the Monastery
The road home.

Ponedeljek, julij 03, 2006 First Day of School

School starts at 9:00 AM and goes until 12:30 with a half hour brake in the middle. I am in the first level class, i.e. the class for those who have absolutely no previous exposure to the language. Our teacher is Marjana Lavrič, a very pleasant woman who very much appears to enjoy what she is doing. She has a way of adding a lot of energy into the class and I am looking forward to the weeks to come even more now. The class is composed of eleven students with varying knowledge of foreign languages.

Although we are all starting off in the same boat, it is clear that there are varying comfort levels in the class. Those who know at least one foreign language or have at least studied a foreign language seriously seem to have a major advantage. Those who have not appear to struggle immediately. It is an interesting and very sad commentary on the American education system that the majority of those having problems in the class are Americans. Some students, although they may be putting the most effort into the class are also the ones having the hardest time.

The class is an balance of vocabulary, grammar and conversation. Slovene is basically an inflected language, meaning that there are lots of “endings” to words, word order is a little more relaxed, and in translation many English words (such as the subject of a sentence) are implied.

One interesting peculiarity of Slovene is the existence of a “dual” number. In most languages one has singular and plural forms of words (man – men, cup – cups, octopus – octopi) Slovene has and additional form for when you are speaking of precisely two of something. (This is a form that has dropped out of almost every other language today. It is an extremely rare.) For this reason Slovene is sometimes described as a “language or intimacy” since there is a whole different construction for saying we, i.e. “you and I” do something as opposed to we, “all of us” do something. One can readily see that this naturally lends itself to certain poetry and prose (especially love poetry and romantic prose) that cannot be easily or accurately translated into another language.

Nedelja, julij 02, 2006 A new home

So today I moved out of the Pri Mraku hotel into the Dijaške Dom Poljane, my new home for the next four weeks. But first mass at the baroque church down the block (sv. Jakob.) I didn’t understand a word. The teacher is really going to have her work cut out for her. I then checked out the sunday antique market. There are merchants all up and down the Ljubljanica peddling “stuff” (some interesting, some not so interesting.)

The dormatory is about a 15 minute walk from the town center. As one would expect with a dormatory, it is spartan but also clean and adequate. I checked in, unpacked, took a short rest and then went down to dinner. Unfortunately there is no internet connection at the dorm. (Or perhaps fortunately there isn’t one!)

The students are of all ages and from all over the world: Germany, Austria, France, Macedonia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, Finland, England, USA etc. After a light supper a couple of us decided to go back into town to get to know one another. People are taking this course for many different reasons, some for job opportunities, others are married to Slovenes and many (especially those from North American) are here to learn a bit about their roots. Everybody I met has been very pleasant. After a few beers it felt like we had all known one another for a long time. I am looking forward to class!

Petek, junij 30, 2006 Day 1 – First Impressions

To get into town, you need to take the bus or a taxi. The bus ride takes about 30 to 40 minutes and it is not a shuttle; it makes all the stops along the way. I don’t know if the bus route simply takes the back roads or if these roads are “the” roads, but the route meanders through villages and neighborhoods as it makes its way into the city. That gave me a chance to sit back and really observe this place for the first time. The first impression one has is that people enjoy themselves very much here. For an early Friday afternoon everyone was pleasant and most people on the street appeared casual and relaxed.

We finally arrived in town and I took a taxi from the main train/bus station to my temporary home, the Pri Mraku hotel near the old town. The town is old, a little dirty and a little run down, but that is not to say that it is not pretty. The cracks in the plaster and exposed bricks give the town a charm similar to that of Rome. But by no means would you mistake Ljubljana with Rome. Ljubljana definitely has an Alpine or perhaps “Austro-Hungarian” feel to it.

After settling in my (somewhat Spartan) room, being still a bit wired from the trip, I took a walk on the town and headed towards Prešeren Trg, the main square for social activity and central location to meet people. I took a coffee at the café in the local square and met Allan from Sweden. He is married to a Slovene and comes here often. We spoke about our homes. He was impressed that I knew a bit of Norwegian and stunned when I told him that my family on the other side was from somewhere in Dalsland as this is where he is from. It was a happy coincidence and he gave me his email incase I ever found myself in Sweden. How crazy is that?

After that chance encounter, I felt much more relaxed. I now knew that this was going to be a great trip.

Watching the world cup at a cafe in Ljubljana

I had been awake for over 24 hours but I was so excited to be here that I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to walk along the Ljubljanica (the river which runs through the middle of town) and explore. All along the river there are outdoor cafes and pubs filled with people. At many of them there were large screen TV’s set up for patrons to watch the world cup outside in the pleasantly warm evening. I cheered on Nemčija (Germany) to defeat Argentinja along with the local at Caffe P____ and chatted with a few patrons. From the get go, these have been some of the nicest people I have ever met. By the end of the match I felt like I part of the group I was sitting with! I am really looking forward to the next six weeks.

First sunset in Ljubljana (from the Ljubljana Castle)

Četrtek, junij 29, 2006 Departure

What a beautiful day for traveling, it is sunny, clear.and very little traffic getting to the airport. The plan was to use my frequent flyer miles to upgrade to business class for the trip. United Airlines sent me an upgrade voucher and in the back of my head it just seemed like things weren’t quite right. I called United twice to confirm that the voucher was for the whole trip both ways (because it sure looked like it was for just one flight.) Twice I was reassured that everything was in order; the voucher would be good for the whole trip.

Sure enough when I got to the airport, not only was there no record of my request for an upgrade, the voucher would only be honored for one flight. Why am I not surprised. And of course at the airport, where the airlines actually do their business, there isn’t anybody you can talk to. No, one must call to the phone center. In the end it worked out for now. I was upgraded to business. For the return I’ll need to work something out (or possibly just forget about it.) One thing is for sure, there is going to be an angry letter in United Airline’s waste bin when I get home.

But that was really not the end of the world; certainly not something to get too upset about. I flew on Lufthansa to Frankfurt. The flight was very nice and the Lufthansa cabin crew were very friendly. It was an uneventful flight. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane but there were enough things to amuse myself, including Dumbo on the in-flight entertainment.

Frankfurt is a huge airport, filled with people coming and going. You see airlines from all over the world at Frankfurt. Perhaps the most interesting was an Uzbekistan Airlines airplane. It is remarkable to think that not only do we have the ability to go from any point in the world to another in a matter of about 24-36 hours, but also we live in a time where there are enough people who need to get to far off destinations on a daily basis.

I had about a three hour layover in Frankfurt. Most of that time was spent watching some men repair and escalator. As goofy as it sounds it was interesting to watch them work.

Finally the time for my flight came; Frankfurt to Ljubljana on Adria airlines, Slovenia’s national carrier. When I think of national carriers I usually think if larger airlines like British Airways or Air France, airlines that make flights in huge planes all over the world. But Slovenia is a small country and thus have a small fleet of small planes. Our plane was too small to even park at a terminal so we took a bus out to the tarmac out to the plane. If the plane held even 100 people I would be surprised. (I think it was a Canadair 320 regional jet.) From what I could tell the passengers consisted of mainly American and Canadian tourists and Slovenes head home.

Ljubljana’s airport in Brnik International. It serves almost all flights coming into and leaving the country. It is perhaps the smallest airport I have ever been to. It’s not much more than a landing strip and a small building.

 

 

Torek, junij 27, 2006 Beginnings

Six weeks. I don’t think I have ever taken a trip this long, so packing has been somewhat of a challenge. Besides that, having never been to Slovenia before, I have no idea what to pack. But luckily I began in early June. The goal was to be finished packing the week before I left and then have nothing to worry about. For the most part I have achieved that goal.

One snafu I did have was that my car had some problems the night before I was to take off. Perfect timing! Luckily I was able to get the car to my parents and my dad can deal with that (thanks in advanced dad.)