Blogs from Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 3

24 nov Je ne le croyais pas possible avec ces derniers jours dans l'épais brouillard mais aujourd'hui, le jour s'ouvre tout bleu et sans grincement sur le lac Bled. Un soleil plutôt frileux fait scintiller les pointes glacées des grands M autour de la ville. J'aurais pu ne jamais les voir ces édifices rocailleux qui nous empoignent ici. Mais par chance, j'ai ce matin droit à un ciel dévêtu. ''Best day for Bohinj'' que m'avait dit cette fois l'hôte de derrière ses paupières à jamais demi clauses. C'est qu'il a de bons conseils tout de même le tenancier, malgré son regard toujours vaporeux aux allures de batracien. Il est 8am et je mange un burek dans la cuisine communautaire en repoussant quelques drosophiles en sous-location (plutôt normal toutes ces mouches à fruits, avec ce bac à ... read more

20 nov Le petit aéronef dans lequel je prend place décolle de la Suisse avant même que je puisse reprendre mon souffle. Je suis arrivé à mon escale de justesse. C'est qu'il y a eu du retard au départ de Montréal: une histoire de dégivrage parait-il. Il est 7h20AM et il fait gris sur Zurich. Nous sommes 13 passagers en direction de Ljubljana. Il manque plus d'une centaine de voyageurs pour remplir l'engin. J'avais prévu la basse-saison en Slovénie, et l'absence de gens dans l'avion me le confirmera. Le mois de novembre balance entre deux saisons: ce n'est ni la période de la plage, ni celle du ski alpin dans les Balkans. Le petit avion transperce le sombre plafond qui enferme Zurich ce matin pour rapidement retrouver la lumière de l'aurore cachée au dessus des nuages. ... read more

Today we’ve booked tickets to visit Vintgar Gorge which is about five kilometres north of Lake Bled. Issy didn’t sleep too well so it looks like I’m on my own. It’s drizzly and a bit grey, and the clouds are down on the mountains which is making them look a bit spooky. We read last night that there’s a free shuttle bus from town out to the Gorge. There must be a lot of people who want to go there; the buses leave about every three minutes. Our Gorge entry tickets are for a very specific time, which is maybe not too surprising given that bus loads full of visitors clearly turn up to get in there every few minutes, plus more in cars, on bikes, and maybe even some hikers. The walkway through the Gorge ... read more

This morning we decide to visit Tivoli Park which is only a few hundred metres across the river from our hotel. We walk through the very attractive Congress Square which is surrounded by classical architectural icons including the Slovenian Philharmonic Building and the University of Ljubljana. A few hundred metres further on is the eye wateringly ugly and completely contrasting Trg Republike. The ever reliable Google Maps describes this as a “plaza to showcase socialist modernist architecture in 1960, fringed by landmark towers”. Hmmm. The two “landmark towers” are on one side opposite the National Assembly Building of Slovenia. The architects who designed this lot clearly did their training at a kindergarten where all they were given to play with were a bunch of dark grey Lego bricks. There’s not a curve or any shred of ... read more

We’re up at the crack of dawn for our early morning flight to Trieste. The lady at the check in desk tells us that downtown Trieste is famous for its coffee. This is nice to know, but if we find ourselves in downtown Trieste later in the morning it will only be famous in the Sheehan household as the place we ended up in when we missed the turnoff to Slovenia. We can see Venice out the plane window just before we land, well we think it might be Venice. It’s ridiculously hazy. Our flight took off an hour and a half late because Rome Airport was closed earlier this morning, allegedly due to “fog”. I didn’t know you could get fog when it was nearly forty degrees. We check over our hire car carefully for ... read more