10 days war

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Over some Pivo we look a bit confused watching some Slovenian debate about the Ex-Yugoslavia war. We are drinking Czech beer in a pale imitation of an Irish pub in Maribor. The Lent festival is on the agenda for later in the evening. I feel I have to drink a bit before attending the Slovenian literature/music concert our host has plan for us. Not too far from our table, on a small stage, a guy is doing covers of American top hits in Slovenian. We again are somewhere we were not supposed to be.

Thinking of the plan, what a stupid idea of taking the train to Trieste instead of the free boat to Croatia or Greece! Just getting to Slovenia from Trieste was hard enough. We took a very early bus across the border that only took 10 minute. The train takes three hours to get to the same place. From there we took two trains to Ljubljana where I had plan my only stop in Slovenia. This is where the chaos started. We couldn't find a host in the Capital, but someone offers to pick us up in Ljubljana and drive us to the other side of the country, 200 meters away from the Austrian border. The idea was not too appealing, but it really looked like a nice guy, so I told myself why not. In the end, we only visit Ljubljana for six hours. It was beautiful. I definitely have to come back and really visit it.

So, by the time I lost myself into some Slovenian Elvis cover, Gregor finally agree that the war only last 10 days and that Slovenia had it easy compare to their neighbours. We will notice the difference between them and the rest of the Balkans later on. I guess getting their independence in 1992 help.

After all, we had another not so plan good time. Do you know Slovenia have amazing wine? The oldest in the world actually! By the way, for the people who might ask themselves how good is the Lent festival, it looks a lot like the festival small community held every year in Canada during the summer. The good thing is that you have almost 15 stages across the city presenting not only music concert, but also magic, stand up, acting, circus and much more diverse acts. The streets are crowded by street performers from all over the world. All the pubs have all kinds of shows. My personal favourite was a circus troupe doing a fire type of show using various tribe rituals and an old factory equipment. It was unique, but also very hot.

We are approaching the Croatian border. We are going to enjoy the new Greece and the beaches...

Nick

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