Week 10 – Ljubljana and Novo Gorica

 

Ljubljana:

·         Pronounced Loo-bloo-anya (or close to that.)

·         The capital and largest city in a country with 2 million residents and a little smaller than Massachusetts.

·         There used to be a Christmas tree in town called “Melania” (it’s her hometown) that was pretty but just stood there.

·         We walked up to the castle overlooking the city, the one Bobbie did at sunset in January 2010 and slid back down to town on the ice, snow, and mush in the dark. 

·         We rode a mellow river cruise and took a walking tour with Marianna.

Nova Gorica:

·         A city of about 20,000 on the border with Italy.  The town next door, Gorizia, was part of Austria-Hungary, then Yugoslavia but then after WWII the boundaries were redrawn and the town became Italian so Yugoslavia built a new town next door.  The new one isn’t as pretty but has more energy than their neighbor.

·         Gorazd (from Sitecore) and Ines (his wife, from Argentina) were the highlight of the trip. 

·         Great dinners and rides with them - they were excellent hosts and a lot of fun.  The night we arrived they took us to dinner and we stayed out until almost 1:00, having no idea it was that late.  Two nights later was a repeat of sorts, only it was 2:00 AM.

·         They bought a 200-year old house and are working with architects and local zoning regulators to overhaul it.  In the meantime, it’s pretty rough living but they do have a vision and a flat in town.

·         Gorzad qualifies as a WWI scholar and explained the background of fighting in the area between the Austro-Hungarians and the Italians.  Summary is Italians had initial success before both sides dug in for over 2 years, then after big Italian losses with help from Rommel the AH forces drove the Italians back about 40 miles.  Misery all around.  Memorials and hand-dug tunnels from both sides throughout the mountains.  Gorazd has been exploring the area since he was a teen and has found many items, including bones.  There is still live ammo in the area after 100 years, which a forest fire showed recently as hundreds of munitions rounds exploded.

·         There is a 137-mile hiking trail, the Walk of Peace, in Italy and Slovenia from the Alps to the Adriatic, which tours WWI battle sites and memorials along the way.

·         Kaja gave us a tour of the caves.  Way, way bigger than Dinant.  There’s a 10-minute train ride from the entrance to the walk, which then took over an hour.

·         We toured a castle built into a cave, where a local version of Robin Hood held out for 366 days (with help from a secret tunnel for food supplies) until a servant sold him out.

·         The Rover Soca is a color so beautiful it probably looks photoshopped online.  The area is big for rafting, climbing, and other outdoor sports.  Less so in November.

·         We’ll see Ines and Gorazd again, just not sure if it will be in the US, Slovenia, Argentina, or somewhere else.

Misc:

·         Slovenia has the highest rates of authors and beekeepers in the world.

·         The Russia-Ukraine war wasn’t as visible to us in the Balkans.

·         In reading the above, I’m not sure why, but my writing doesn’t convey how much I loved our time in Slovenia.