Krk

May 10, 2005-Vino & More
(photos:David tasting grappa,
narrow street in Vrbnik,
Glagolitic writing)

Our Croatian lesson yesterday went well. None of us choked on the guttural “h” sounds or on the vowelless words. The Croats evolved from an Hrvatsk tribe that came down from the north. The official name of Croatia is Hrvatska and the present day language is a mix of Czech, Serbian, Slovakian, and Polish. The Glagolitic alphabet unlike, any other in the world, flourished in the 11th century but was used only by the most educated and by priests. An example is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City. Modern day Croatian has thirty letters. There is no “q, w, x, or y”, but there are many was to pronounce “c, s, z,” and “d” depending on diacritical markings. As a final challenge Viki asked us to learn to pronounce “prijestolonasljednica” (pree esto lo nas lya duh neetza). It means heiress to the throne. As a reward for trying we got a taste of pelinkovatz, a woody medicinal liqueur.

We started our day trip to the island of Krk by driving through industrial Rijeka again. It didn’t get any prettier. Croatia doesn’t have any oil but supplies from Switzerland, Russia, Germany, and the U.S. keep the refineries busy. There’s one resource that Croatia has plenty of. They ship water to Kuwait.

Viki is pretty realistic about what’s going on here. There’s a definite brain drain and despite free medical care if you can’t pay for private care there’s a six month wait for a mammogram due to lack of equipment.

We followed the shoreline as it carried us by Barka, a medieval town with a castle. Viki said that in the 1970’s they managed to mess up the picturesque setting by building docks next to the castle and a coke plant in clear view. The coke plant polluted the bay and the tuna left. The plant is closed but its enormous red and white tower still looms over the tiled roofs of town. It will be ages before fish return.

A bridge connects the island to the mainland. Scrub oak lined the road until stone walls and gray-green olive groves appeared. We didn’t stop at a beehive shaped church made from piled rocks and dating from Roman times. That’s a negative of group travel. I’ve never seen anything like it and wanted to take a photo. Churches in those days were camouflaged so the Romans wouldn’t be suspicious.

I checked with yahooweather.com before we left and unfortunately their prediction was correct. We took a ferry through rain and cold to Kosljun Island in Punat Bay to visit the Church of the Annunciation. Established by Benedictines in the 12th century, Franciscans took it over in the 15th. During renovation a 9-10th century church was found under the present foundation.

Lunch was at the Nada vineyards a winery in Vrbnik. I can actually pronounce these places now. It’s owned and run by a delightful family. The local grapes grow nowhere else in the world. A photographer took photos as we tasted the herbal and fig brandies and incorporated them into a slide show about the winery. He has a priceless one of David grimacing as he downed a sample. We gagged on the brandy then settled in to a lunch accompanied by reds, whites and a sweet dessert wine. The food was secondary. Everyone but us ate proscuitto and sheep cheese with a bit of chopped hake (a white fish) salad, handmade pasta with shrimp, and cheesecake. They graciously adapted the meal for us. The cheesecake was dry but we figured out that pouring dessert wine on it was the perfect solution. As we left, the two-year old daughter of the owner appeared. Her proud grandpa bragged that she speaks four languages: Italian, English, Croatian, and French. I remarked that it was time for our granddaughter, Talia, to shape up. Judy Lasher said that Talia speaks three languages: English, baby sign language, and some Hebrew.

We strolled through the tiny village of Vrbnik before we boarded the bus and napped until we got to the hotel. I’ve gotten good at that. There’s something about Viki lecturing and the motion of the bus that is soothing.

If the weather clears we hope to walk thirty minutes to and hour (the opinions differ) to the neighboring village for dinner. Depending on how long the walk actually is we’ll look for a place that serves large portions.

Tomorrow we signed up for an optional tour to the Istrian Peninsula. It should be big on beautiful scenery.

Toby

Rijeka

May 9, 2005-Dreary & Drab
(photos:Octopus in fish marekt,
Unneeded crutches on church wall)

As we closed our drapes last night we caught a glimpse of the glistening lights curving like a necklace along the coast. I’m glad Laura Lee Garfinkel was able to have her room changed to the seaside. She was very convincing and $10 to the desk clerk didn’t hurt. The view is spectacular but the noise last night was raucous. The Israelis were singing and dancing then a local band struck up. We slept like logs but some resorted to earplugs. Judi Cope hasn’t had such luck. We called her room yesterday and got a busy signal. I waited awhile then knocked on her door. She said she hadn’t been on the phone and went to see if it was off the hook. There was no phone at all. She reported it to the desk but learned this afternoon that there will be no phone. There’s a problem in the wall. Bribery will be of no use.

This dreary, rainy morning we drove along the Adriatic past the villas of Communist leaders and the drab concrete block apartments where the masses lived on our way to Rijeka. Romans camped there in the 3rd century. The Hapsburgs planted sycamore trees along the waterfront; it was part of Italy from 1919-43; ruled by Germany from 1943-45; then was incorporated into Yugoslavia. Soccer is the #1 sport and the main stadium overlooks the Adriatic. There is free medical care and education is free through high school. The local newspaper harkens back to the days of Italian domination and is bi-lingual (Croatian & Italian). Rijeka is now a shabby industrial city of 200,000 with a rejuvenated shipyard and 12% unemployment.

Our group was bumped by a shipload convention of international doctors who took precedence so our visit to the Theater was cancelled. In its place Viki led us at a fast pace through the downtown streets as we juggled umbrellas and tried to shoot photos of statues and buildings whose significance will be forgotten by the time the film is developed. Yes, we don’t have digital. We took a detour through a fish market where I dropped my umbrella in the muck but was still able to point David and his camera to a lovely octopus. The rain that fell between the market tour and getting on the bus was insufficient to wash away the smell of fish. I’m afraid my fellow travelers suffered.

We rode uphill to St. Mary of the Assumption in an area called Tsart. In 1291, when the Knights Templar retreated from Jerusalem, they were charged with taking relics with them. The relic this group brought was Mary’s house where the annunciation took place. They brought it to Tsart and it stood on the site of the present church. A pope ordered it to be moved. The people asked for a reward in its place. He gave them the painting of the holy mother Mary that still hangs in the church. In the early 1500’s a church run by Franciscans was finally built on that site due to the generosity of Count Frangipani. Pope John Paul II visited and prayed at the holy painting. There’s a statue of him at prayer and many photographs of his visit around the cloister. Locals call him the Tsart Pilgrim. In a room dedicated to offertories there’s a display of crutches that were not needed after prayers were answered. A couple of people in our group use canes. They were all still using them as we left.

Due to the bad weather our free time in Rijeka was cancelled. We were out-voted and the bus returned to Opatija. We managed to find Restaurante Istranka where David enjoyed veal goulash with gnocchi and I made a meal of the best minestrone soup I’ve ever had, bread, and olive oil. We ventured over to the local grocery store where I tried to ask a question about my purchase. The first person I asked was Finnish and, although his English was impeccable, he was unable to read Croatian. I made a general query as to whether anyone in the place spoke Croatian. They were all foreigners except the cashier who understood enough English to satisfy me. This afternoon Viki is giving us a Croatian language lesson. Wish it had been earlier.

Tonight is a dine-around night. We pick what we want to eat at one of two restaurants and we get meal vouchers for dinner tonight. Nothing exciting. I’m having ravioli stuffed with spinach and cheese. David is having chicken.

Tomorrow we’re going on an optional tour to the Island of Krk.

Toby

Leaving Slovenia

May 8, 2005-Spelunking
(photos:Human fish,
Adriatic from our hotel,
Typical architecture-Opatija)

We traveled to the Karst region of Slovenia before leaving the country. It’s an area where the limestone is extremely porous & where caves have formed. There are 7,500 caves in Slovenia. We went to the Postojne Caves. The timing of our tours has been impeccable. We got there before the major inundation of tour buses, but it was still a crush of bodies.
We walked past a string of gift shops & fast food stands to board a “train” that carried us into the caves. The train was a series of flatbed platforms with yellow park benches fastened on top. There was no protection for heads or arms & we moved along at a fast clip for 10-15 minutes. The temperature in the cave is a constant 48 degrees & the breeze from the moving train made it darn cold.

When we got to the platform inside the cave we were divided by language groups. For those who chose to there was an hour walking tour. Others could stay on the train & return to the entrance. We walked. The steep uphill grade of the manmade walkway made it difficult in the beginning but it soon leveled out. The best way I can describe the rooms we passed through is that they looked like one phallus hall after another. The “spaghetti” room where thousands of white stringy stalactites hung broke the mood. It was surprising to see how many people ignored instructions not to use flash or videography. Then there were those who just had to touch the formations. The pools that formed from the constant dripping were littered with coins. The guide told me that people couldn’t pass water without throwing money into it. She said that some Euro coins had nickel in them & the heavy metal was leaching into the water of the underground river.
The national animal of Slovenia is only found in the cave water. It’s a salamander-like amphibious creature nicknamed the human fish because it has a pale flesh color. There’s a legend that they’re really baby dragons. It’s eyeless, has four legs, is amphibian, & lays eggs…sort of. If conditions aren’t suitable it will keep the egg in its body until it hatches internally & then have a live birth. It lives for sixty to one hundred years & only has to eat every two to three years. One group went as long as eleven years without eating but they were in a scientific study.

Lunch was sausage & sauerkraut. It was the first time our “food allergy” request was put to the test. When we booked the trip we explained that we didn’t eat pork or shellfish. The home office decided the best way to call it to the attention of the group leader was to say we had allergies. We ended up with sauerkraut & chicken. That sausage really looked good.

After lunch we drove past grazing land & learned that this part of Slovenia wasn’t agricultural. The soil is shallow & rocky. Dig too deep & you ended up in a cave. We followed the lower Alps & forests to the sea where red-roofed houses dipped down the hills & almost into the startling blue Adriatic.

Slovenia only has a 30-mile coastline. That’s one inch/Slovenian. It’s said that in August they’re all on the beach staking their claims. But Croatia has 3501 miles of the sunniest coastline in Europe.

Opatija

While Tito ruled Yugoslavia there was peace but we all know what happened after his death. We can tell from comments we’ve heard between our driver, Drago, & Viki that feelings are still tense between Serbs & Croats. I can understand the prolonged hostility since the end of the war is so recent. I don’t think they’ve really made peace with the Germans & it’s been sixty years since that war ended. At breakfast in Bled it wasn’t unusual for a German group to run some of us off what they claimed was their “turf.” They didn’t understand or chose not to understand that the signs on the tables referred to dinner seating only. Today as we were entering the cave we outwitted them. While they tried to push us out of the way we took a short cut & ended up first in line. Ha!

Drago skillfully took us to The Grand Hotel in Opatija (population 11,000). The town has churches dating from the 15th century but became a popular vacation destination only 160 years ago. The exchange rate in Croatia is 5.7 kuna to the U.S. dollar. The economy isn’t as healthy as Slovenia but there’s a lot of re-building. Our hotel was rebuilt two years ago & is clean, modern, on the Adriatic & overlooks the isle of Krk (these spellings drive spell-check crazy). It’s one of 1185 islands off the Dalmatian Coast. Our rooms are on the waterside. There’s a heavy Italian influence in food & bright Mediterranean oranges, blues, greens, & yellows punctuate Italianate facades.

Viki took us on an orientation walk around town so we’d be able to find the ATMs & restaurants. We strolled through a jewel-like park where Japanese camellias, the city’s flower, bloomed. The seaside promenade was a hub of activity at the flea market, cafés, restaurants, & gelaterias. The gelato here is creamy but doesn’t have strong flavors. There’s an Israeli tour group at our hotel & we noticed Jewish jewelry in store windows. It’s close to Israel & I imagine it’s a popular vacation spot.

David is sitting on the balcony studying up for tomorrow. We have an area tour of a nearby city, the hometown of our guide, Rijeka

Toby.

Ljubljana

May 7, 2005-Festive
(photos:David & Judi eating al fresco,
Slovenian army at play)

Wouldn’t you know that when Bush & Putin met in Ljubljana Bush said, “Hello Slovakia!” That really ticks them off. People constantly mix up Slovenia & Slovakia.

The Romans settled Ljubljana in 200. There was an earthquake in 1895, so the buildings aren’t that old. Today it’s a city of 300,000 with a woman serving her second term as mayor. Its beauty is marred by graffiti. Our walking tour was short. The local guide mainly pointed out landmarks & suggested we go back on our own when we had 2 ½ hours free time. There’s a castle high on a hill but she said it would take too long to get there & it wasn’t worth seeing since it’s new. She didn’t particularly recommend the museum either. When asked about a synagogue she firmly said that it was destroyed in the 1600’s. Lucky for us there was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis. There was a marathon, a band, choir, speeches in the park, a flyover of four propeller military planes, sightings of the remnants of the Slovenian army in a few jeeps, bell ringing, & lots of people watching. The weekly Saturday market was in full swing & provided lunch. We bought a loaf of delicious buckwheat bread, local goat cheese (they had pictures of the goats displayed), a tomato, & strawberries. We washed the fruit in the public fountain & the vendor let us use a knife to slice the tomato. We were handed free bottled water by boy scouts. I asked if they were part of the American scouts & they strongly denied it. One was wearing a communist tie tack. I told him I was an American Democrat & didn’t like Bush either.

There was a police presence but they’re not armed. I saw one of them walk purposefully across the lawn to shut off a spigot that was dripping water. I guess it was a slow day.

On the way back to Bled by bus Viki gave us tastes of their honey brandy. David said it didn’t taste as good as Drambui.

They do have convenience stores here. They’re called 7-21s. That’s a 7-11 using a 24-hour clock. It’s actually a 7-9 store here.

A man in our group said that one thing he didn’t like about Grand Circle Tours was they have too many add-on charges for optional tours & too much free time. On the other hand, Ed Lasher observed that GCT has been able to keep its base price down over the years by making some tours optional & eliminating meals. That gives individuals more control over what they choose to spend their money on.

I think there will be a real contrast when we get to Croatia tomorrow. Slovenians earn an average of $1500 /month & Croats only average $700/month.

Toby

Bled & Environs

May 6, 2005-Underwhelmed
(photos:Skofja Loka,
Local talent)

Some of you who got my emails from our around-the-world trip might remember that we saw the movie Ocean’s 11 on six or seven flights during the nine months we were gone. One of the movies on the plane coming here was Ocean’s 12.

The emails I’ve written so far seem uneventful…boring. Maybe it’s because we haven’t gotten lost or done any stupid American things yet. We did see one funny item on a menu. They served “octopussy in salad.” Judi Cope added excitement to the day. She took a walk this morning & came face to face with a military tank. She mentioned it to the man who gave the lecture about Slovenia yesterday & who claimed there wasn’t an army. He told her the tank was half of the remaining panzer division. Although they seem peace loving he told us not to be fooled. When Slovenians get behind the wheel of a car they’re ruthless. They’d just as soon mow down pedestrians as not. The only exception is tourists. We’ve noticed that they do stop for us to cross the street. We’ve become their bread & butter.

The hall outside our hotel room smells like pastry. It’s not bad & when we’re walking upstairs we know when we’re on the right floor. The kitchen must be under us.

More Old Buildings

We were reading about Jews in Slovenia. They were forced to leave several times during its history. The first expulsion was 1496 as part of the Inquisition. The ghetto in Ljubljana was built in 1480. I guess some returned. There are fewer then one hundred in the country now. Judaism doesn’t even rate a place on the list of religions represented.

The sun has come out & with it snow capped Trigolav Mt. has emerged. Trigolav means three heads & is a stunning presence looming over the town. We enjoyed the view as we bussed to Skofja Loka, a town founded in 973. The Sava River followed us as we entered what is now the oldest medieval town in the country. An earthquake destroyed it in 1511 so it was re-built. Most of the buildings are in the historic register. Local talent performed 15th & 16th century dances for us wearing costumes from that time. There’s a sameness to folk dances: form a circle, clap, kick your feet. We visited a 15th century house & adjourned to dinner in a former granary. Our dinner of turkey rolled around spinach, beef, strudel stuffed with cheese, & roast potatoes was delicious. I especially liked the rum soaked cake we had for dessert. Lunch wasn’t shabby either. David had fajitas (go figure). I had gnocchi with a salmon sauce. All breakfasts & nine dinners are provided so we have lots of opportunities to explore local haunts. That’s part of the fun for us.

We’re told that Grand Circle doesn’t go on shopping excursions where you’re stuck while someone is deciding what “tsotcka” to buy.

Tomorrow we go to Ljubljana, the capital..

Toby

Lake Bled

May 5, 2005-Organizing
(photos:Typical countryside,
Italian, Alpine & Victorian style,
Prohibited around Lake Bled)


Our hotel reminds me of a Hyatt turned inside out. The exterior balconies are festooned with woody vines that cascade over the layers of floors creating a feathery green curtain.

We had a meeting with Viki, our director, after breakfast at 8:30am. In the orientation talk she went over the reading material provided in our printed folder. Hmm. I guess that’s part of the organization of organized tours.

We had a brief excursion around Lake Bled & into the countryside of Bohinj. We circled the lake twice with two photo stops but there were lots of things we drove past that I would have loved to photograph. On the other hand I did get to nap & didn’t have to navigate. We passed Tito’s villa on our way to Trigolav National Park. Trigolav is a 3-peaked mountain and rarely visible. Since it’s been overcast we have to take it on faith that it’s there or look at postcards.

Slovenia was under the control of Italy, Germany, & the Hapsburgs for centuries so it evokes flavors of them all. It gained independence on April 10, 1004, and it’s not unusual to see a pastel stucco building with a Victorian roofline and wooden alpine-style balconies. The houses are hung with flowerboxes like in Switzerland but they’re empty for now. Most houses have truck gardens ready for planting and ringed by tulips. Apple trees are in blossom and are a lacey addition to the scenery. The cuisine also reflects the different cultures.

I’ve mentioned how green it is but I didn’t expect the rivers to be green as well. The winters here are snowy & skiing is popular. The roofs are slate or tile with spikes to ease the snow off.

Slovenians

We were told Slovenians are primarily Roman Catholic, tall, hearty, athletic, tidy, & blond. So far I haven’t seen that the stereotype holds for blond. David & I took a 3 1/2-mile hike around Lake Bled this afternoon and the tidiness was apparent. This is the most litter free place I’ve been except for Japan.

The bell that tolls every 15 minutes in the neighboring church let us know it was time to go to the lecture on Slovenian history. The speaker works in reception at this hotel but has a wry sense of putting things in perspective. He asked us what city had the largest population of Slovenians: Cleveland, Ohio. He told us that the president of Slovenia is very close mouthed & rarely speaks publicly. His duties are limited. He’s the commander-in-chief of their army. It was disbanded recently. They decided to save money so sent everyone home. There are a handful of officer’s left eight of whom are among the “coalition” forces with the U.S. in Afghanistan. The minimum income tax is 40%. All medical & drug costs are free; education through graduate level university is free. Firearms are forbidden. There’s a two-year jail term if you’re caught. There were thirty murders in the country last year. But there’s a high suicide rate: seven hundred per year. This spans hundreds of years of history. There have been many studies that have ruled out weather, drinking, depression, etc. They think it’s genetic.

Dinner was in Radovljica. The restaurant, Lectar, is one hundred years old & is housed in a five hundred year-old building. The main dish was veal rolled around stuffing, a tiny piece of gravy-smothered sirloin rolled around a prune, & potatoes. I ate the potatoes. During dinner we were entertained by accordion & bass music with a performance by the owner playing local selections as well as the Orange Blossom Express on a harmonica.

Toby

Slovenia

May 4, 2005-Happy Landings
(photo:Hotel & waterfront)

We’re in a picture postcard. Our petite colorfully decorated Adria Airlines plane crossed the snow-capped Julian Alps & descended through a shroud of clouds to Ljubljana. It looked like we were approaching a toy airport in a toy town in a toy country. Slovenia only has two million people but has one of the best economies in the EU. It’s tucked between Italy, Austria, Croatia, & the Adriatic Sea. Their currency is the tolar, which is 180 to the U.S. dollar.

The Grand Circle Tour program director, Viki, met us & loaded everyone onto a spacious bus. It will be our home for two weeks. We followed well-maintained roads marked with familiar green directional signs to the 1,000-year-old town of Bled (pronounce blade) at the foot of the mountains. The country is heavily forested & agricultural. There’s an unlimited variety of green to be enjoyed: black greens in shadows of hills, new spring green leaves on trees, rich emerald hues of old growth pines. Old-fashioned dirt irrigation canals wound through newly plowed fields & dandelions flourished in pastures. Old & new buildings sported red tile or green metal roofs. Even church steeples were topped with tile or metalwork, tracery designs pieced into the asphalt shingle roofs as well as what resembled mini-onion domes. The town of 11,000 is reminiscent of Aspen and our hotel, The Park, overlooks the signature lake. I think our entire group has lakefront views. Birds and their songs are colorful and plentiful.

Viki took the group on a short walking tour to familiarize us with the town, banks, & restaurants. That’s one advantage of an escorted tour. We’re not used to traveling with forty people, but it was nice to have our bags delivered to our room.

There was a group get-together at 6:30pm for wine then we were off to find our own restaurants. We went to Gostilna pri Planindu for typical Slovenian fare. Don’t try to pronounce it. Fresh whole trout is a favorite here but we ordered it boned, be-headed, & skinned. The goulash soup, garlic soup, fried turkey, & prawn risotto was enjoyed by those who tried them. We were too full to taste their infamous cream cake. When it was time to tally the bill our effusive server agreed to give us separate checks. I invited him to sit down at our table to do the paperwork. For some reason I remembered the prices of a few items that he didn’t know off hand. To save him the time looking them up on the menu I rattled them off. He liked the partnership & I ended up organizing the process by wrapping the bills around the credit cards.
We had a brief nap this afternoon & awoke to a magnificent thunderstorm over the lake. We have an early wake-up tomorrow. Pleasant dreams.

Toby

Slovenia & Croatia

May 2, 2005-You’re Going Where?
(Photo:Traveling companions)

It has been a long time since we’ve traveled abroad. It’s good to be in touch with you all again. We’re now in Washington, D.C. where David is attending a national PFLAG (Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) board meeting. On May 3, we leave from Dulles Airport for a trip to Slovenia & Croatia. Why there, you might ask? It started last summer when we were in Washington, D.C. with our friends, the Bruces, from Australia. We met with our friend Judi who lives here in D.C. I’ve known her since 6th grade & we roomed together for a while in college. She asked if we’d be interested in taking a trip to Slovenia & Croatia. She’d traveled with Grand Circle Tours many times & they had trips to that area in the spring. We told her that we had no interest.

When we got home we realized we had no plans to go anywhere so looked on the GCT web site. The itinerary seemed intriguing & we signed on. We were later able to convince three people from Akron to join us. One managed to get his cousin to come too so we’re our own sub-group. My hesitation is that we’re a sub-group of forty people on one bus. That’s not the way we usually travel, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, here we are at The Helix Hotel in D.C. It’s part of the Kimpton chain & is now a contributor to PFLAG. As soon as we walked into the lobby I said that this is the gayest hotel I’ve ever been in. Its art deco contemporary funk motif is carried out in outrageous colors & patterns. The chartreuse dresser mini-bar combo is eye-catching as is the striped futon & paisley ottoman. The king bed is tucked in an alcove behind sheer curtains with a black & white photo of a surfer dude on the wall behind it. There are two leopard pattern terry cloth robes for our use & a hotel guide called “getting it straight.”

Wouldn’t you know we met a couple from Lubjlana (sp) Slovenia in the lobby of our hotel today. I’ll try to keep you up to date as we begin to travel. Just wanted to give you an early heads up.

Toby