Day 4 - I will just stop telling you about any of our meals unless they are spectacular or somehow significant and we will pick up the story when our heroes arrive at the Skocjan Jama through which the river Reka flows. The river gets formed from the melting of a snow cap named Lednik. In case you didn't pick up on this yet, the Slovenian people are not the most imaginative namers in the world. I have never been in a cave and Mike told me that this experience has ruined any hope of me liking any other cave, since this one was spectacular and nothing will be on the same scale. Rather than talking about it just click here for some pictures. According to wikipedia: "Due to its exceptional significance, Skocjan Caves was entered on UNESCO's list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986". We were told that this is the larges cave in the world, but Wikipedia maintains that it's one of the largest underground canyons in the world. Just a little something extra in case anyone is interested.
We booked the trip through the caves and the surrounding park which was also amazing. We saw some beautiful caverns, and waterfalls, and krapiva that was Russian style. After this trip I am convinced that Slovenia has some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. I know that some will disagree, but it puts Switzerland to shame. I am again a little lost because nothing that I will say will describe the beauty of the nature that we saw. You will just have to go there and see for yourself.
On our way back I was determined to find the way to the hostel that was described by google and got us into a bit of an adventure. I don't know if you had ever driven through Italian towns, but if you haven't the streets are ridiculously narrow, the turns are sharp, and the speed that the other drivers travel at is quite excessive. We got on to a street that we thought was one way until we saw a car coming straight for us. Mike tried to pull our car over as far as was humanly possible and in the process we slashed our front passanger tire and dented the rim. We managed to roll the car down the hill a little bit so that no one hits us, and then I, yes I (with an assist from Jessica Ogulnik), changed the tire. There will be proof somewhere on facebook at a later date :). The spare was a little flat so Mike continued to navigate the mean streets of Trieste for another 15-20 minutes until we found a gas station. By the time we got there I believe that everyone needed a fresh pair of underwear. Oh yeah.
The gas station attendant told us that there is a tire shop that might still be open (it was after 6pm) and gave us a general direction to drive in. We actually found the tiny shop and it was still open. I wonder why our vacation luck is always so good, and my general luck is always so bad.... The owner took a shot, hammered out our rim, and changed and balanced our tire all for the bargain price of 100 Euros. All in all not too bad. While this was going on Jessica, Olichka and I went to a nearby cafe and each got a glass of wine. Oh Italy, how I love you!!!
In the evening we repeated last nights programme of eating crazy amounts of delicous food followed by walking the streets of the city. I have to say that Italians know their seafood and they know if well. We had actopus again for dinner and again it was grilled just right, not too tough, and spiced to perfection. Bellisomo!
Upon arrival to the hostel Mike and I decided to skinny dip in the ocean. It was much colder than we through so we were the only ones that went for the actual swimming while the rest of the people stayed on the pier. Note to self - never go skinny dipping next to 3 photographers who have their cameras with them. Although they promised not to look while we were getting in (and I think they might have even kept that promise) once we were in the water all bets were off. Yanik got so brazen as to tell us where to be and to come closer as he was photographing us. Olichka did not tell us to pose, but managed to take quite a few pictures herself. Major gratitude is sent to Jessica Ogulnik who did not take any pictures of her naked friends, although she didn't discourage the other two villains nearly enough.
Showing posts with label Trieste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trieste. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Stealing Old grapes
Day 3 - we were a little late getting out of the hostel and the owner got a little pissy with us. i understand where she is coming from, but still don't really like the tone. we packed up the car and went walking some more around Maribor since it was such a pleasant little town. We got lucky and got a Cuban waiter at the cafe that we sat down at so ordering was not a problem. Deliciousness was consumed in mass quantities again. Highlight of the meal - Cuban waiter telling us that he likes Tupak over Eminem and saying "Thug 4 Life" as we were leaving the cafe.
Our final stop in Maribor was to visit the old vine museum. Slovenia has the oldest grape vine in the world (over 400 years old) and that vine is wrapped around a house known as "the old vine house" that is basically like a vine museum and tasting room. There is also a vine festival that happens every year and a vine queen that gets elected. We didn't really feel like a tasting so we didn't stay too long, but on the way our Mike and Jessica ILLEGALLY ripped and ate some grapes off the oldest grape vine in the world. I thought that we would all get arrested.
There is nothing that can follow the taste of a stolen grape quite like some paprika Pringles and fish and tomato pate obtained at the gas station somewhere around Ljubljana. Yummmmm. we managed to make it to Trieste without incident and even through we missed the turnoff that our directions referenced we managed to somehow get off the highway and manage to find our hostel which is located right on the water. YAY to swimming in the Aegean sea and being discussed by older topless Italian women.
A word about Europeans and the crazy expensive utility bills that they pay and how they deal with it. They love motion sensor lighting in bathrooms. Not only that, but the timer is set for about 10 seconds. Now you might say to yourself, what's the big deal? you're in the bathroom, the light goes off, move around, everything is fine, right? Not if you are taking a shower and shaving your legs and have to periodically open up the tiny cabin with one hand and start waving while trying to keep the shampoo out of your eyes and your legs from slipping on the floor. Everytime one of us would take a shower you can guarantee swearing to be coming from the bathroom at 10 second intervals.
We went out on the town kinda late but it was still fun. On a whim we went into a really narrow ally that opened up onto a delicious restaurant, Chimera Di Bacco, where we over ordered again (are you sensing a pattern here - yeah). Dinner was amazing and such amazingness needs to be walked off for hours which we happily did. Olichka was looking for a place to dance but we couldn't really find anything that would do. We did stop by a gay? bar for a drink and some dancing to Britney Spears. We have a feeling that we were in a boys town kind of area anyway cause the only other bar we saw only had men in it too. Oh well. I don't really mind since just walking around in Italy is like a party for the senses, and walking around tipsy is twice as good. We got home around 1 am and I was out, but the rest of group went for a midnight swim. Goodnight Trieste, see you in the morning.
Our final stop in Maribor was to visit the old vine museum. Slovenia has the oldest grape vine in the world (over 400 years old) and that vine is wrapped around a house known as "the old vine house" that is basically like a vine museum and tasting room. There is also a vine festival that happens every year and a vine queen that gets elected. We didn't really feel like a tasting so we didn't stay too long, but on the way our Mike and Jessica ILLEGALLY ripped and ate some grapes off the oldest grape vine in the world. I thought that we would all get arrested.
There is nothing that can follow the taste of a stolen grape quite like some paprika Pringles and fish and tomato pate obtained at the gas station somewhere around Ljubljana. Yummmmm. we managed to make it to Trieste without incident and even through we missed the turnoff that our directions referenced we managed to somehow get off the highway and manage to find our hostel which is located right on the water. YAY to swimming in the Aegean sea and being discussed by older topless Italian women.
A word about Europeans and the crazy expensive utility bills that they pay and how they deal with it. They love motion sensor lighting in bathrooms. Not only that, but the timer is set for about 10 seconds. Now you might say to yourself, what's the big deal? you're in the bathroom, the light goes off, move around, everything is fine, right? Not if you are taking a shower and shaving your legs and have to periodically open up the tiny cabin with one hand and start waving while trying to keep the shampoo out of your eyes and your legs from slipping on the floor. Everytime one of us would take a shower you can guarantee swearing to be coming from the bathroom at 10 second intervals.
We went out on the town kinda late but it was still fun. On a whim we went into a really narrow ally that opened up onto a delicious restaurant, Chimera Di Bacco, where we over ordered again (are you sensing a pattern here - yeah). Dinner was amazing and such amazingness needs to be walked off for hours which we happily did. Olichka was looking for a place to dance but we couldn't really find anything that would do. We did stop by a gay? bar for a drink and some dancing to Britney Spears. We have a feeling that we were in a boys town kind of area anyway cause the only other bar we saw only had men in it too. Oh well. I don't really mind since just walking around in Italy is like a party for the senses, and walking around tipsy is twice as good. We got home around 1 am and I was out, but the rest of group went for a midnight swim. Goodnight Trieste, see you in the morning.
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