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My First Trip to Slovenia-Slovenija (November, 2000)

Slovenia

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2004-04-05 13:06:59

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pronunciations are dead on Slovene (so long as I try to sound more Slavic than Arabic). Though with the caveat that I’ve never actually visited the rest of Europe, let me at least venture to conclude that this is a fairly amazing place, with ready access to Italy and Austria if the Slovene Alps aren’t sufficient to hold one’s interest. Next time, should it be winter, I’ll be going skiing too! So, what more could one ask for? Cold weather in the winter but not too cold, the Alps, very American-like but not disgustingly so, a low density of people, not much traffic, a fun language, and even 30 miles of coast on the Adriatic.

Setting out on my own

It’s a little after one in the afternoon. The sun is shining brightly over my left shoulder. I’ve let my hair down rather than don my hat. The sky is blue. I’m perhaps 100 kilometers from Ljubljana. Lot’s of wrong turns on the way down, driving through thick, green woods, small towns, and, yet again, amazing countryside. The “hills” in Vermont one would call mountains. The roads wind through towns, barely missing (by centimeters) houses that must be centuries old. The traffic is light. I only come close to getting into three accidents, each my own fault. I need to be more careful.

I’m sitting at an outdoor table in a café in Piran, Slovenia. No ice coffee (Bummer!) but I’m drinking the suggested “white coffee” instead. Soon I will need to wean myself back off of this stuff (Bummer again!). In front of me, heading to the horizon, is a very flat Mediterranean sea (well, Adriatic actually; the Golfo di Trieste to be even more exact). This is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Venice. It’s a little on the warm side this November 29, perhaps the low 70’s. Have I mentioned that the sun is shining and the sky is blue? Do I really have to leave this place? Tragedy! Oh, yes, lest I forget, ...