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Published: February 26th 2008
Slovenian Steak
with copious amount of truffles....mmmmOff to Slovenia and Croatia!
Once again we tube to Baker St and Easybus (where we met a cool guy from Oregon who's been studying acting in London) it to Stansted Airport. While in line at the Easyjet checkin we met a Ljubljanian named Jarnie (pronounced with a
y not a
j, as with all words originating from this region) who gave us heaps of tips on what to see and where to eat. He even offered to drop us off to our hotel in Ljubliana from the airport! Very generous indeed and when our plane arrived after our connecting bus had taken off, we took him up on the offer.
On the way to town in his Alfa he told us about the many bears living in the woods scattered around the country, about the Albanian Mafia who are ruthlessly taking over the prostitution industry and about learning some of the more colourful words of the Slovenian language. The language lessons were provided when I enquired about the flurry of words rattled off to a motorist who happened to cut us off. That particular phrase I can't repeat in this time slot, but another said
to be popular in Slovenia (equivalent to our "shit!") translated to "300 bears!" 😊. The Slovenian countryside was quite mountainous with clumps of forests and villages scattered here and there.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as pleasant as the scenery, with grey skies and drizzle about. After dodging the traffic via some back streets we made it to the Park Hotel in the centre of Ljubljana, which, after a quick inspection turned out to be not too shabby for the price. We braved the miserable weather in search for some food and just when it seemed we'd go hungry we spotted a half decent looking restaurant and jumped in off the wet street. With the weather keeping everyone indoors we got great personal service and the meals were fantastic. A thick tender cut of beefsteak on potato slices with creamy sauce and shavings of truffles with spuds, veggies and salad was my main, and it was only about €15! We finished it off with a special Slovenian cottage cheese cake (with more shaved truffles!) which stretched the limits of my belt holes and gladly parted with the €40 for the 2 meals, entree's, drinks and deserts. We waddled home and
retired for the night.
Friday 29th September Fed up with the rain, first thing after breaky I toured around town looking for an umbrella as the rain was still bucketing down. Eventually, I found a couple at the food/clothes/bags markets in the town centre. We deposited our backpacks into the lockers at the train station and then went for a walk around the canals of the river Ljubljanica. The town is dominated by the backdrop of the ancient Ljubljana Castle sitting atop a hill with the canals, cafe's and cobbled streets giving the town a cruisy, laid back appeal. Maybe it's the fact that a quarter of the people living in Ljubljana are college students as it has a university town quality. We looked around the stall markets where I couldn't resist a few of the wooden dangly toys on springs that I've been seeing everywhere. A bit further on were all the food markets where we picked up some delicious walnut cake and apple slice (made without sugar and it still tasted great!). The women selling the cakes were full of character and some looked like they'd been selling cakes and nuts since the dawn of
time.
A caffeine pick up preceded a short walk back to the station where we spun out to see Cam and Nat sitting, waiting for the same train as us! Although we had arrived with time to spare, after catching up for little while we found ourselves late for the train and had to do a last minute bolt to the platform. We like to have a little stress in our life to pep things up a bit 😊. We got separated from Cam and Nat, but we ended up in a cabin with a guy named John, who also worked for a Japanese Bank in the Bank area of London, lived in Maida Vale which is right next to Kilburn, and was an Aussie as well. Same, same, same! The wagging of chins and the views out the window of the green valleys, mountains, forests and villages meant that before we knew it we'd hit the Croatian border and had to unsheathe the passport for another stamp. A rather unofficial looking Croat did the duty after giving us the quick eye over.
A half an hour or so after that we arrived in the port town of
Opatija and it was still dark and rainy out. Cam and Nat decided to stay on the train and head onto Rijeka but we jumped straight into a waiting cab which took us down the winding hillside roads to the Hotel Krystal. The Krystal was beautiful (especially at only €80/night), situated right on the waters edge giving us a spectacular view of the Adriatic from our 6th floor suite. John luckily managed to grab a single room next door to us at the last minute. We scrubbed up and all walked down to the main street for a few pre dinner drinks. Em tried her first Jagerbomb (Jagermeister and Redbull) at a pub inhabited by a disproportionate amount of smoking Italians and served by probably the rudest Italian girl in town. Bloody foreigners!
Continuing the Italian theme, we ducked into a little Italian restaurant off the main street and were pleasantly surprised by the very cheap prices. We shared pizza as an entrée and I had steak with truffles again. Why not at only about £10 each for the lot! Luckily we saved a little pocket of space in our stomachs as on the way home we stumbled across
the coolest ice cream parlour in town. They made all the ice cream on a metal ice plate in front of everyone, they had menu's choc full of sundaes and they also made their own truffles (the chocolate type this time). What more could you want?! I made a pig of myself and then purchased a few take-away truffles just in case I got peckish on the high seas. That'll keep the scurvy at bay!
Saturday 29th September Not rain again! It had better pick up by crikey, we're leaving port today! We had a nice breaky overlooking the sea and then hit the pavement. We didn't have to be at the jetty until 1pm so we had a bit of time up our sleeves to look around. We couldn't resist jumping on a mechanical bucking bull ride that had been eyeing us off, so we each took turns of getting a dose of leg chaff and walked off like bow legged cowboys. While Em did yoga on a grassy knoll I sampled an apple ice cream, another flavour ticked off the list. We got to the jetty right on time but were soon told that our
boat had taken a hit in the storm the previous night, so another (bigger) one was sailing over from the Island of Rab. Oh well, at least we weren't in it at the time! We filled up the time having another look around town and with the sun finally out it was looking much better.
Time had come to jump on board, so we all piled into the galley and got a run-down from the skipper Alan on where we were going, what we were doing and who we were doing it with. Our fellow travellers were a mixed bunch. We had - Kiwi travellers Kyle and Karen, Adventurer Kiwi Simon (rode over the Italian Alps), Chris the great Scot (no joke, he was great!), Cornwallian pals Zoe and Jim, Sydney-ites Stan and Paula ( who chucked in their jobs and took a year off), Welsh couple Stu (funny as buggery) and Katherine, Dieter the German science teacher, Cam and Nat, Em and I on board with 4 crew including the skipper Alan.
We set sail for the island of Krk (can I buy a vowel please) in beautiful conditions, with most of the gang sitting up on
the top deck watching the islands drift by. Our vessel, the Albatross II was an old wooden Danish beauty, 29m in length with about 8 cabins, galley/bar, dining area and a couple of sail filled masts (although they're mostly for show these days). We had a lot of little areas to chill out and relax as well which was of utmost importance.
By the time we'd arrived in Krk 3 hours later I'd had a chance to have a quick chat to most on board and I could tell it was going to be great group. We all went out together to check out the island and grab a meal. We passed by the waterside restaurants and bars, walked down into the old high-walled, narrow streets of the old town and found a nice place with a rather kooky Transylvanian waiter. Just what we'd been looking for! We had some great laughs over dinner, got to know each other a bit better and paid Mr Stinky Fingers (hot tip for any would be waiters out there - don't say "hehe, I've got stinky fingers" just before bidding customers goodbye) before being harassed out of our seats by a pack
of hungry Krk cats.
Sunday 30th September Well, not much sleep last night. The beds needed to be about a foot longer for me, so stretching out was a luxury not to be entertained by my legs. The rooms were pretty tiny (even by Kilburn standards) and the shower wasn't hot, but hey, we were still having a good time and loving the experience. We left Krk early after breaky on-board, stopping after an hour or so at a secluded bay for a swim. A top deck leap was the only way to plunge into the (surprising nippy) sea. When you have a top deck, that's what you do. A quick peruse around the shoreline revealed that Croatia is mostly extinct of any sea life, with only a few sea cucumbers, urchins and the odd little fish to be found (maybe I'm spoilt after having snorkelled in Exmouth). At least the waters were crystal clear and it was very invigorating. I completed the challenge of swimming under the boat from one side to the other (3m down and 6m across) nearly bursting my eardrums in the process. Em had disappeared up onto the beach (little pebbles unfortunately,
Opatija
Overlooking the Adriatic no sand) a few hundred metres away and was sunning herself as she does so well. Zoe accidentally dropped her snorkel which plummeted 5m to the sea bed, but it kept Cam, Jim and I occupied for a while, with Jim eventually coming up with the goods. My ears were hammered (and so were Jim's after that), she canna handle no more captain!
We all had lunch shortly before landing at Rab, a beautiful, relaxed town with a big harbour surrounded by large hills. To kick things off Em and I made our way to the closest café and gulped down two Cappuccino's each. We could have had a third, as they're only half the size of English cappa's. The fact that they're about a third of the price and are very nice, more than made up for it. We were both keen to try something different and hire some scooters to tour around the island. Our plans were seemingly foiled when we rocked up at the Hire place to discover they'd knocked off for the day. In desperation we went to the pub next door for a pint (always clear head, make better thought) and happened to sit
down next to the Hire guys mate. He overheard us, got on the blower and 10 minutes later, we're screaming off down the road like Hell's Angels! It was Ems first time on a scooter (contrary to what I told the hirer 😊 ) and she was loving it! From 5 to 8pm we explored Rab and headed south to the car ferry witnessing some magnificent mountains lit up bright orange by the sunset. Zooming back to town sitting on about 70km/h we started to feel the cold so we dropped off the bikes, got changed, and met up with Stu, Katherine, Cam and Nat for dinner.
We thought we'd try out one of Alan's recommendation's in the "old town" of Rab. Narrow lanes paved with smooth marble, weathered over the ages, were lit in a dim orange glow from the street lights lending it a fairytale like quality. The Katabo Rab was an cosy little place full of character and Em and I wasted no time in grabbing a couple of Yager shots to start off proceedings. A fish salad entrée was followed by a house special steak-wrapped-over-some-other-meat dish which was rather delish. A good time was had
Villa Angiolina
Opatija's most prestigious sight. by all, followed by a leisurely stroll back to the Albatross.
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