Advertisement
Published: January 7th 2009
Edit Blog Post
A Journey to Trieste (Italy), Zejane (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia) & Lake Bled (Slovenia)
Confusion in Trieste We're very excited about our first European trip away and to make it even more special we are trying to locate Nanna Mac's home town - not as easy as it seems considering the town was situated in the former Yugoslavia and left when she was 6 years old.
After a short flight to Trieste we head to pick up a hire car. 1st problem - very little english spoken by the lady behind the counter and no Italian on our part made for a very animated session of points & sign language! Finally we collect our keys and Nav Man (have a few maps but are basically relying on the Nav).
2nd problem - While some big hotels are in the Nav man the one were going to (my fault!) is a tiny family run B&B. There also appears to be several streets with the same name and so we first end up in the completely wrong town! A few road maps and swearing at the Nav system Brendan finds where we are actually supposed to be and we find
Duino (Italy)
1st night - roasted chestnuts & local vino the right town (hooray!)
But then problem number 3 - where's the B&B? Take note at this point it was geting dark, Heather was hungry (anyone who knows me will know I just
dont do hungry) and we were both pretty tired.
The street is pretty small but there is no numbers and no accommodation signs, what does one do? Head to the local drinking hole of course!
We ask the lovely lady behind the bar and within 10minutes we're unpacking into our gorgeous, cosy, traditional Italian home for the night.
We have dinner at a little cafe up the road before making our way back to the pub to thank the lady for the directions (we are actually just desperate for a drink but the aforementioned sounds much better!) Chatting to her we find out she's an American of Italian heritage who's been living here for 11 years. She recommends a wonderful red wine (sorry John forget to get the name!) & brings out hot roasted chestnuts for us to nibble on - delicious!
Head back to the B&B and Brendan starts to suss out where we are going next. The plan is to head
Duino Coast
This was amazingly quite moving ... sounds silly but it's the Ocean!! into Croatia tomorrow, but, after much fiddling with the Nav, Brendan makes the infuriating discovery that it only contains maps of Italy not all of Europe! Thank god Brendan had the presence of mind to buy some maps!
Refreshed after a good nights sleep & a very hearty breakfast we walk down to the coast to have a look around. To be honest it's quite wet & cold but we've missed the sight and smell of the ocean so much that it's all a bit overwhelming and emotional!
Take a drive along the Italian coast to admire the stunning scenery. Lots of sharp cliffs dropping into choppy misty seas. Even the roads themselves are pretty special - once your out of the cities they all feel very isolated, quiet and winding.
We take a few wrong turns but eventually find the Croatian border & oull out our passports. A very interesting conversation with the lady at the border patrol ....
Lady - Australian! Why are you here in winter? Isnt it warm in Australia?
Brendan - Yeah but we're here to find where my Nanna was born
Lady - Really!? What is the town called?
Brendan - Zejane
Lady - Zejane!? My husbund is from Zejane, what name?
Brendan - Doricich
Lady - My name is Doricich, we might be related - the whole town is Doricich, you have the right town
Brendan - No way!
Zejane 45° 26' 22" North, 14° 11' 43" East A little high from our encounter and with some directions from our distant relative (!) we head off to find Zejane. The town itself is tiny and seems to appear out of nowhere. It looks like it probably hasn't changed much in the past 60 years with very old houses, tons of veggie patches and piles of wood for the fire. We find the local shop (it's actually the back of someone's house & sells only a few things) and attempt to communicate ..... ummmmm ..... no luck but at least they know we are there so we dont suprise any of the locals!
We eventually see the house number that Nanna Mac told us (there is no street names & no real number order so it took some poking around) and took lots of photos.
We mosey off and start our treck through to Slovenjia -
Duino
Road trip - awesome tunnel through a coastal cliff ... road through mountain! plenty of these as we went on Ljubljana looking for a bed for the night
Ljubljana By the time we find a park in the centre of town it's dark so we basically go straight to some hotels and get the best price but settle on the Emonec.
Head straight to dinner before hitting one of the local bars for a drink. Heave no idea what we are ordering as it's a local menu so decide to get a couple of foregin shots .. interesting!
We stroll around town the next morning. Lots of beautiful canals, ancient buildings and amazing farmers market. take a walk up to the local Castle. It's pretty awesome building with a great view over the town, but parts were under construction so it was very loud with hammers and drills and had the strong smell of saw dust. Not very authentic.
Once we've finished looking around we buy some fresh cheese, olive and tomato bread for lunch & continue on our Slovenian adventure.
Lake Bled The next stop is Lake Bled. From the pictures we have seen it's pretty amazing looking area but none of the research does it justice.
It's completely breathtaking -
a pretty town on a glassy lake with an ancient church sitting on a tiny island in the middle. Behind the lake is a medieval castle overlooking the whole town. All this framed by snow capped mountains ... simply stunning!
Find a very cheap room with views over the lake (gotta love off-peak seaon) and wander though the town looking for some dinner. We have some yummy dinner (including brendan's cuttlefish risotto) and great wine before heading to a local bar called Chillies for some drinks, Planning a big walk tomorrow so we head to bed early.
Woke up overlooking a misty, foggy lake with the curch bells rininging in the background ... but this magic clear crisp blue sky is simply magic!
Our first stop today - Bled Castle : It's all the way up a hilltop and sure does get the heart pumping on the way up. Amazing view (not to mention the history of the place - 1st mentioned in records 100AD), expensive restaurant up here as well as a wine celler with a guy in a monk robe giving speaches (100AD style) and trying to flog local wine .. hahaha!
2nd Stop
- Vintgar Gorge : It's a town or two over from Bled and there is normally a walking tour group that goes, but its the off season so we decide to find it ourselves. We get to the gorge after walking through some small towns and its running fast!
The walking track is "officially closed" but we go and have a "quick look"!
Wooden bridges and rocky trails zig zagging back and forth over the river - another magic place and we stop to taste the water - very fresh and cold.
We soak in Bled with the walk home and a lazy dinner and cheap (2 euro) bottle of red wine.
Heading home Head North West through some Italian Alps - more amazing snow capped mountains and even fog covered roads literally 10 m vision - eery
Will definately be back for a return visit during ski season... a must see
Advertisement
Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0521s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Andrea
non-member comment
6 Degrees of Separation
Now, if that isn't a classic example, that you Mr Brendan have 2 degrees of separation! ha ha that is unbelievable :)