Renski the Zenski & Robski the Moski

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We arrived in Slovenia via train from Graz. While there is no border crossing as both Austria and Slovenia are members of the EU, there was one thing we noticed immediately - the change of language! Suddenly we noticed that we had no idea of what people were saying or what the simplest of signs meant. When we arrived at Maribor railway station I had to give in to a call of nature and found myself standing at two doors, one labeled "Zenski" and the other "Moski" - luckily I could understand the pictures below the names! From that moment on Lorenza and I suddenly invented a whole new language between us, with every word ending in "ski" - for example "do you want a drinkski?" or "do you want to take a walkski" and to top it off we both had new names - "Rensksi the Zenski" and "Robski the Moski" - we fell in love with Slovenia the moment we arrived!!!

Also at Maribor rail station, we really hoped that our pre-arranged hire car would be waiting for us, which was being delivered to us by a Croatian hire company. They had called us the day before saying they had our car waiting - unfortunately for them they were a day early and had to drive back to Zagreb. We got a call on our mobile just as we got off the train and Igor had our car waiting for us out front of the station. Mmmm, a lovely orange Renault Twingo! Just enough room for our baggage, plus some lovely daisy decals on the doors - very butch!

I plugged the "Eastern Europe Maps" into my GPS and programmed the address of our apartment in nearby Limbus. Our hosts, Jelka and Jeff found us when we got a bit lost and called them from outside the Limbus cemetery. They came and led us to the apartment, which was located at the foot of a vineyard in a newish housing development. It turned out to be a very good place to stay. The apartment had everything we needed and was not far from wineries, a supermarket and a bar, plus a ten minute drive to Maribor.

Grocery shopping for a few essentials was a funny adventure. Especially at the butcher shop - the butcher spoke no English and Lorenza had to perform a rather lengthy charade performance to get some nice rump steaks for our dinner. Her performance included pointing at a picture of a cow on the shop wall, then slapping her butt cheeks to indicate which portion of the cow she wanted. Eventually she was able to communicate the fact she wanted 2 rump steaks - not the whole cow, or the whole rump or a good spanking from the butcher! He found it as funny as we did.

At a winery not far form the apartment we found they sold "Renski Riesling", how suitable - Renski the Zenski also had her own Riesling! The winery had a lovely view back over the valley. The winery had a connection with the Maribor university, we bought some bottles and liked their Sauvignon Blanc. We got talking to a couple from Maribor, Kristina and Sylvester. It was nice to meet them and connect with some local people, we had not done this as yet because we felt a bit rushed until now. It is always so nice to meet some people who have the time to try and communicate and share something of their lives with you. Nice folks!

A day in the mountains (4 June 2009)

Slovenia has no lack of mountains - we went driving the day after our arrival, and enjoyed looking around the area around Pesek. The views were lovely. We also noted that a lot of people had really nice gardens, flowers, vegetables and fruits. During our drive we commented that people seemed to make really good use of the land they had, be it a farm or just a house garden.

A day in Maribor (5 June 2009)

Took in the sights of Maribor, including what is reputedly the worlds oldest living grapevine (400 plus years old). We felt really comfortable waking around Maribor and started feeling even more relaxed. The place has a good vibe and had a feel about it that was "alive" but also "relaxed" at the same time. A comfortable size city.


Maribor Couchsurfers - New Friends and a Castle in Croatia (6 June 2009)

We took the big drive back to Maribor (yeah ok 10 minutes in the car) to meet up with some CS folks, Iva, Tomaz and their family. Turned into a relaxing morning at a cafe with them and their friends. Such a small world - we find out that Iva's sister is moving to Brisbane soon and that she also has relatives who have a restaurant in Sydney! We had a really good morning talking with them and their friends. How good is Couchsurfing (and Hospitality Club) - here we are in Slovenia feeling like we have friends we have known for ages to meet up with for coffee - thanks so much to Iva and Tomaz for taking the time to meet up!!!

After coffee we took up the suggestion of Iva's friends and drove to Trakoscan Castle, just over the border in Croatia. It was worth traversing the huge line of trucks at the border crossing to get there. I could not help teasing Lorenza that as we left Slovenia my pass port was stamped, but because Lorenza travels on a EU passport she got no stamp. So, I teased her that I can prove I have been to so many more countries than her! So childish - heheheh! Oh, and again thank God for GPS because we would have got hopelessly lost with out it.

Back at our apartment in Limbus we had some wines on our balcony and were joined by Jeff (our host), after finishing our small supplies of wine we walked to the local bar and enjoyed some Union beers. We had a funny walk back and stopped to steal some cherries from someones garden for dessert. Does stoeln fruit always taste better than anything you buy? Hey it was a huge cherry tree so I am sure the owners would not have noticed our tiny bit of pilfering!

Norwegian Waffles for breakfast

I woke up with a bit of a fuzzy head - the result of too many Union beers and some rather lethal grappa (what is Slovenian for grappa?). We packed and then said farewell to our Limbus apartment. We drove to Maribor and dropped in at Iva and Tomaz's and their children for a goodbye coffee. Iva had prepared some Norwegian waffles for breakfast, which went down very well and helped counteract my slight hangover. It was so lovely to meet such down to earth people ... we really appreciated the gift that Iva gave us together with some waffles for the road. INside the container with the waffles was a small embroidered doily that her grandmother had made more than 50 years ago - a sweet gift thanks (it is now on our kitchen dresser). We really hope we can meet these people again somewhere, sometime!

Rain, snow capped mountains, and an Italian whirlwind in Bled

Our drive from Maribor to Bled was spectacular, sure it was raining and a bit bleak looking, but we passed through some amazing countryside - mountains as far as the eye could see (many still with snow on the very caps), and as Tomaz had told us, Slovenia is an endless woodland - so green it is just lovely.

Even in the rain our first glimpse of Lake Bled was stunning! Once we checked into our hotel we took a walk along the lake and then found a cafe. While deciding what we would have a group of Italians in their 60's or so, descended on the cafe and really brightened the place up with their animated talk and full hearty laughs. We struck up a conversation with some of them in broken Italian/English. They were from towns in the Udine district not so far from where Lorenza's grandfathers family originally came from.

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Comments

[florencesophie]

Trakoscan is really interesting! did you walk all around the lake? That is a nice walk :-)

[Rob_n_Lorenza]

yes we took a walk around the lake, it is a lovely spot!