all you need is sLOVEnia


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October 10th 2011
Published: October 14th 2011
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Trip through Slovenia


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1: Postojna Cave 109 secs
2: View from Ljubljana Castle 41 secs
Our first long weekend of the year! And off to Slovenia we traipsed! After a long bus ride Friday night down to Skopje - where we had wonderful hot chocolate cake - and a very early morning - our flight was at 5:30 - we flew off to Slovenia. Within an hour of landing we had eaten breakfast, rented our car and were almost to our first stop, the Postojna caves. In Slovenia, there are over 10,000 caves, but Postojna's are probably the most advertised. The Postojna caves lie underneath the castle, and there are 21 kilometers of caves. They were discovered by a local man in 1818 and have been open since for tourists to view. In 1872, the railway was installed in the caves, and in 1884, a full nine years before the capital city received it, electricity was installed as well. The caves are all limestone, and as of today there are three levels; the uppermost is called Calvary. Although it is all limestone, there are different shades of color throughout the caves. White - pure limestone, Red - the water ran through iron oxide in the soil before dripping down, and blackish grey - the water ran through black earth before dripping down. During World War One, Russian prisoners were put to work in the caves, most notably, building a bridge now known as the Russian Bridge. There are three large galleries, the spaghetti gallery, the white gallery, and the concert gallery, which is the largest. In 1920, the largest concert that the cave has ever hosted, 7,000 people took place in the concert gallery. We were also told how long it would take the different stone formations to grow: stalactites and stalagmites, 10 years for 1 mm; curtains - drapes of stone formed where the ceiling inclines - 50 years for 1 mm; spaghetti - very, very thin stalactites - 100 years for 1 mm!! It is hard to describe the actual caves and stone formations because neither words nor pictures do the wonder, the splendor, the beauty of the place justice. I was reminded, as I looked at all the fantastical shapes, of the White Witch from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and her habit of turning creatures to stone. It was like she was given free reign underground; I swear one of the rocks looked like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland! Below is a set of three poems - three very distinct impressions I had as we explored the underground domain.

Postojna Cave

I.
Hidden down below the ground
Where prying eyes rarely see
Lies a cathedral all in stone
Carved by water and Father Time
Painted with Earth’s blood, bone, and tears
Vaulted ceilings no man could carve
Pillars formed drip by halting drip
Wider than my circled arms
No paintings grace the darkened dome
No statues gaze benignly down
But veins of chalk white etch the stone
And delicate drapes of stone are hung
From slanting ceiling to shelter holy grottoes
As deep nature sings forth its praise.

II.
The air clings coldly, damp and thick
Like the cloying breath of death
As water drips, the tears of stones,
Upon your upturned face
Atop Calvary’s mournful hill
A silent mausoleum of stone
Shaped intricately by invisible hands
Stands as it has stood since time began
Towering high into the distant dark
Wings of stone, the sleeping wings
Of gargoyles and bats,
Hang high above the necropolis
Private sepulchers are sheltered
By tattered stone folds of cloth
Remnants of a larger tapestry
The shrouds of megaliths,
Which sun has never seen,
Frozen in place,
Kissed by a nonexistent breeze.

III.
Hollow caverns beneath our feet,
The warren of some giant badger,
The hive of all the world’s bees,
More caverns than can be counted
Even in ten lifetimes, for
In finding one, you discover five
Each one with new wonders to behold
In all earth’s tones, yet never dull
Snow white pillars, pure limestone tower
Fantastical shapes no man could create
Loom leeringly from shadowed alcoves
And brush past without moving
To one side stands Pisa’s tilting tower
And there the pride of New York
There domed mosque with minaret
Yet still more – a gallery of statues
That man never set his hand to
And from the ceiling and the floor
Stalactites and mites adorn.
In hues of red and shades of brown
Solid curtains drift delicately down
Rippled like pulls of taffy
Or Grandma’s ribbon cookies at Christmas
With sparkling flecks of red and white
Or maybe strips of wavy bacon.
And hanging down from on high
Pencil thin and fine as angel hair pasta
Delicate icicles of stone
So fine they would melt at a touch.

After leaving Postojna, we drove as fast as we could down to Lipica, where the Lipizzaner stud farm is located. Cate, who is a horse person, had a riding lesson scheduled. It was very cool watching her on one of the famous horses, but I was glad it was her and not me! I could not understand what her instructor was saying! While Cate had her lesson, Deb, Jane, and I took a carriage ride around the grounds. The grounds were beautifully maintained and seemed to go on forever! As we were getting on the carriage, a man, his wife, and two children were getting off. Seeing my sweatshirt, he said, "Luther College? That's where I graduated from." Small world!! When all the rides were finished, we had a leisurely lunch at a nearby town and then went to find accommodations for the night. Since we hadn't been sure exactly where we would end up each night, we had not booked hotels in advance. So we drove to Trieste, just across the border into Italy. Unbeknownst to us, a regatta - a boat race for all you non-boating types - was going on and the city was packed. Traffic was bumper to bumper and there was absolutely nowhere to park. It took us about an hour to work our way out of Trieste and back into Slovenia where we headed down the coast, stopped at the first hotel we found in Koper (where we learned what was going on in Trieste), and called it a night. Day one of Slovenia adventure complete.
The next morning, we ventured out into Koper to explore the city center. As we learned from our hotel receptionist, the coast area had been under the control of the Venetians, so the layout of both Koper and the next town we stopped in, Piran, reminded my of Budva, and, of course, Venice. My absolute favorite part was in Piran where we discovered there was the Cathedral of St. George. Excellent! Since my time studying abroad in England, I have looked for St. George in every country that I have visited, and almost always find him somewhere. This time he was everywhere - statues, paintings, on bells! The statues they had of St. George were marvelous. The dragon did not look wimpy, as the dragon too often does, and the princess was actually changed to the dragon. Although she looked a bit too helpless if you ask me. Also in the Cathedral of St. George was this very interesting crucifix that was originally made sometime between 1370 and 1380. It has since been changed at least 10 times, as they discovered when they first restored it in 1972-73. The really neat thing about this Crucified from Piran (as it is called) is the shape of the crucifix. It is not your typical cross shape, but a Y, symbolizing the Tree of Life. Deciding that we were finished with the coast, we jumped back in the car and took a quick but very scenic drive up to the capital, Ljubljana. Ljubljana's symbol, we learned from one of our many pamphlets, is a dragon. Back when Jason and the Argonauts were sailing about, they ended up around what is present day Ljubljana. There they encountered a monster (dragon) and killed it. As the pamphlet said, "Strangely enough, it was the beaten monster(and not the winner Jason) who became the symbol of Ljubljana" (misss/Use-It Europe). Once arrived and parked, we took the funicular up to the castle where we found a children's festival, Americans on holiday, and a second chapel dedicated to St. George. The view was amazing since mountains encircled us. After the castle, we ate a wonderful traditional meal at Sokol (Hawk) - the mushroom soup and pork was amazing! Our final stop in our brief visit to Ljubljana was the Dragon Bridge. Two dragons guard each side of the entrance to the bridge, scowling down at all who pass below. Then it was back in the car for a forty minute jaunt north to Lake Bled where we found ourselves a great apartment to stay in and ended day two.
Day three found us waking and packing with the sun - beautiful sunrise over the mountains - so that we had time to see the church that is on an island on Lake Bled before driving back to the airport. Though a briskly chill day, we layered up and walked down to the shore where we found a boatman and his friends who were about to row a Russian tour group out to the island. He thought we were "very early" to be up and about, but let us join the Russians for the ride out and back. With Bled castle looming over us and the mountains as its backdrop, the ride was beautiful. It was also amazing watching the men row. They rowed standing up and with the oars never leaving the water - a full body workout! Although supremely beautiful, that is not the church's only draw. The story is that a young widow, whose husband had been murdered by "brigands" lived in Bled castle and was used all of her money to buy a bell to be put in the church's steeple in memory of her husband. But while the bell was being rowed out to the island, a storm rose up and capsized the boat, sending the bell to the bottom of the lake (which looks quite deep and was rather cold). More devastated than ever, the young widow couldn't bear to remain in Bled and left for Rome where she took vows and became a nun. After her death, the Pope donated another bell to the church on the Isle of Bled. "Legend has it that those who ring the bell to honour the Blessed Virgin and make a wish will see their wish come true"(Church of Mary the Queen pamphlet). Aside from the ringing of the bell, the church had a beautiful gilded alter from the Baroque period and the remains of frescoes from the Gothic. Once we made it back to the mainland, we had time for a quick walk around and a piece of Bled cake (no it is not red) before driving back to the airport to catch our flight. It was a great trip in an amazing country, and we are already planning on how and when to get back. We certainly fell in love with Slovenia, and as my t-shirt says, "all you need is sLOVEnia"!


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Inside PostojnaInside Postojna
Inside Postojna

Some of the curtain stone that I think looks like ribbon cookies or bacon


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