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Published: June 20th 2011
the 3 Bridges
they had one and added 2 more18 June Sat.
You get used to the spelling of Ljubjlana, but working out the order of the L and the J is a bit off-putting (apologies to Slovenian readers) – henceforth just Ljub. Got the 11.30a.m. bus out of Bled and had a very interesting chat most of the way with Peter and Alice – who did not sound very Kiwi (tho born there) cos they had been living on the North Coast of NSW for longer than I have been here. He was 62 and she had taken a redundancy from the NSW govt and were both clearly very active – having done the Santiago di Compostela pilgrimage walk in Spain/Portugal and generally seemed to like running around the outdoors. If I had had an extra day in Bled might have been nice to go on some range-topping trip into the wild as most did not sound too strenuous, nothing more than 30min. hikes etc.
Arrived in Ljub about 1pm and my hotel was rather further S downtown than the map suggested (scale?). Although expecting a 10 sq.m. dog box single room it was actually a twin with a desk etc so quite OK, and wifi of course.
cafes + castle
many many cafes! For a change got out of the hotel in relatively short order and checked out the nearest museum, the City Museum (normally 4E.) literally at the end of the street. This was quite well organized and modern and generally about the early history of the city, up to most recent times. And today 18 June was actually free museums day until midnight – I had seen a brochure in Bled in Slovenian but I thought the hours of 18.00 to 24.00 were suggestive of a White Night like in Brussels last year with the key museums open all night for free . Strangely enuf the local Ljub tourism site in English did not mention this – although did the dance performance I saw later at 21.30. So I went for it and went to 5 altogether I think – most of which were flying visits of 20-30mins as some were not ones I would otherwise bother with, certainly if you had to pay. The Slovenian Museum of Natural History (normally 3E.) might be interesting for kids with all those stuffed animals and birds etc but not greatly to me. The National Museum of Slovenia sounded important but similarly was not
the Parliament
with nude bronzes on the front! that gripping in content. The National Gallery would also have been 7E. and would have disappointed – a lot of those boring old dark Masters from 16&17th cent. Were a reason to not linger there long either. Just as well I did not go to the Ethnographic Museum then! Had some hope for the Museum of Modern Art – but their temporary exhibition was essentially about the Arctic and plans for buildings to live there. Although I must admit there was a completely fascinating video (in English which helped) of 2 Inuit cutting blocks for building an igloo in 90 mins from the inside up literally. Apparently they can knock up an overnighter in 45mins if they have to.
Having done the galleries for my fave price (free) I wandered down to the Ljubjlenica river, after being warned off by police from taking a snap of an impressive building just down the road from the Parliament – maybe it was the President’s residence? There are a veritable feast of cafes and bars mostly selling liquid refreshment rather than any food. On the other side of te river found a place to eat later (Salvas’or) but got a late coffee
and chocolate cake (too creamy in substance but OK-just) at the Lunch Place – where I ate later on Sunday 19th as Salvas’or closed on Sundays. As the free dance thing was in Presernov sq. (everything somewhere seems to be called, I assume, after Preseren, a 19th century romantic poet) at 9.30pm ate before then at Salvas’or as their blackboard menu seemed pretty serious and interesting. So it was (chef, the notebook please!). First, the Istrian hand-made pasta (penne style) – Istria is the old Roman province on the coast to the west. This was with some shaved (white I assume) truffles (first time in my life for those) and prosciutto and a buttery sauce (14E.). With that a 2007 chardonnay from the Simcic Margan winery, Gonska Brdn region – don’t ask me where. All rather nice quality thanks. Then the inevitable duck – a confit leg boned out with the bones left to show where it had come from – with raspberry cream, but which was fortunately merely some puree raspberry puddles on the side (17E.). With that a 2008 pinot noir from the same winery. The wines were about $8 a glass and the total bill was 47E.
sculpture
outside the Modern Art Museum – call it a little more than $60. No wonder I wanted to go back there on Sunday! But they had a rest day.
19 June Sun.
This turned out to be rather damp with rain and cold (like 10C) to start – and remained that way (well without the sun anyway) until late in the afternoon, but it never got really tropical. Just as well as I stayed in the room virtually all afternoon, deciding that I had better plan/book the next few days, or at least decide how I was going to manage getting down to Dubrovnik AND getting back to Vienna to see Richard Thompson on 30 June. As the transport connections to the coastal Western part of Slovenia, in other words Istria as the Italians called, re not very well fitted together, particularly when it comes to connections and frequency down the coast and into Croatia. By which we mean buses essentially as trains aren’t much use in that sector as they tend to be miles away form places you might to go to. Taking those things into account, both bus connections and proximity of bus stations to likely hotels, I managed to work out
a Benetton arcade
of geometric composition some kind of plan for the next 3 days. Basically bus to Piran (Priano in Italiano), stop there, then next day on to Rovinj, then on to Rijeka – but doing this with a day stop via Pula on the way, another coastal place with Roman ruins etc. That will do the major places in Istria.
After that it was sunny (but could have done with light wooly as well as my new HK mostly cotton sort of jacket, which needed to be zipped up) – it was certainly not tropical for a change – the coldest yet really, although Karlovy Vary & Krumlov were cooler at night. Last minute dash to the castle on the funicular, after going to bus station to buy ticket for tomorrow to Piran ( a rather temperamental touch screen machine which required about 4 attempts before completion – 12E with credit card from machine and 12.90E (cash only) from the desk). And an older Swiss-German guy from Zurich telling me his story about lost credit card or something and that 72E would not quite buy him an (available) hotel/hostel. Sorry mate, not about to help out with that one, as I have to
3 Bridges colonnade
not sure it did anything but carefully manage my limited Euro cash myself. It was getting dark at the top of the castle and the extra cost (3E) tower had just closed so could not get the best view over the city as the other ramparts look out on the boring bits, but nice view of the distant mountains in the dusk. Then dinner at a place along from Salvas’or (closed as I said on Sundays). A steak but balanced on top of a (rather too) high rise construction of sliced potatoes and large batons of somewhat al dente veges. Chanced my arm on a tiramisu, and disappointment turned up – it was 80% whipped cream with minimal sponge, drat!
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