11 to 14 May - Meeting the cousins in Dolenja Vas and Ljubljana

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On Friday 11 May we took le petit poir for a drive over to Dolenja Vas to meet up with rels from my father's side of the family. Lacking sufficient fluency I set up the day, time and place with my cousin's son through Facebook. To get there we decided to drive up the freeway (autocesta) and cut across the hills into the next valley from a northern approach. Despite what the map seemed to indicate it was not the easiest route due to the narrow winding through much of the hill crossing. It was at least picturesque, however we arrived half an hour late. No real matter though.

There to greet us was cousin Irma, her mother Marija (my father's sister), and her children Matija, Diana (with husband and baby) and Tilen. We were later joined by other cousins (Roman, Metka and Damjan) and some of their partners and children. Seated outside the family home on a pleasant spring day, it was a lovely way to spend the day and later evening getting reacquainted. It was especially good for Ellen because most of the young cousins had pretty handy english. For most of the evening we relied on the young cousins, in particular Tilen and Mirjan, for the translation between english and slovenian. However they all soon departed, with Ellen, to watch Tilen play futsal in a local league game. And so Gina and I were left with cousins Irma and Roman and aunt Marija to fumble away in conversation. And manage we did, with the assistance of the dictionary I'd purchased along with some healthy hand gesturing and a good deal of patience and humour. I surprised myself that the conversation was slightly more complex than the previous week when I'd sat around with uncle and cousin and we'd only manage to agree that newspaper was made of paper. That was probably the low point in the conversations I had with the rels while we were in Slovenia. So after making some plans for a further visit to meet up with more members of my father's family, we headed off back to our base in Novo Mesto.

The next day we head up to Ajdovec to meet Joze's father and sisters and siblings. Ajdovec is located in the hills nearby Novo Mesto, not too far from the weekender we visited the previous week. It was another pleasant day catching up with members of the family including my cousin Toncka who I hadn't seen since 1969. After a hearty meal we walk around the family's land, a large parcel of forest which they occasionally take some trees from to sell for the wood. On the walk we came across my cousin Tone's small hut. Its located in a clearing on the property at one of the highest points providing fantastic views back to the alps. Cousin Tone is a priest who is in charge of the cathedral at the town of Kocevje, over the hills near Dolenja Vas. He uses the hut as a sort of retreat, and it seems just perfect for that sort of thing. On the way back to Novo Mesto we stop by the cemetery at Borst to check out some family graves, (Visits to churches and cemeteries are obligatory in Slovenia) where I make some notes for the family research purposes.

After returning to Novo Mesto, we meet up with Joze son, Uros, to make the longish trip to Maribor to watch the big derby game between Olympia Ljubljana and NK Maribor. Joze and Vesna have 2 sons - Uros and Klemen. Joze is the production manager at pharmaceutical company Krka, the largest company in Slovenia and biggest employer in Novo Mesto. They specialise in taking expired patents and with assistance from facilities in China and India, manufacture generic drugs for export to western Europe. By Slovenian standards Joze and Vesna are extremely well off. And so Uros and Klemen have had the opportunity of very good education in the capital Ljubljana. As Uros is football fanatic, he is passionate about Olympia and only to happy to make the trip over to Maribor for the derby. Unfortunately the championship has already been decided with Maribor run away winners of the league, and the game this evening only for bragging rights between the two biggest clubs in the country.

After the 2 hour drive (very long by Slovenian standards), we arrive at the rain drenched city of Maribor. It's population of 200,000 is second only in size to Ljubljana which is about the size of Canberra. We park the car and make the walk through the suburbs to Maribor's Ljudski Vrt stadium - the People's Garden. Just love that translation. We have prepurchased the tickets and join the queues to be frisked. As its raining everyone has an umbrella, however under the security protocols for football games in Europe, they can't be taken into the ground lest they be used as a weapon. We deposit our two umbrellas on the pile by the turnstiles.

The game kicks off just as we take our seats amongst the Maribor supporters. The small knot of Ljubljana supporters surrounded by security in the corner of the stadium erupts. Flares and large fireworks are set off and the security over react by charging into the group. Things settle down after a couple of supporters are dragged away. Exciting stuff but its pretty tame compared to what used to happen back in the day. The game itself is a just a shambles for the first 30 minutes as the players of both teams spend a lot of time taking cheap shots at each other. The second half is a lot better but it goes fairly predictably as Maribor surge to a comfortable lead. Just when we thought the result was beyond doubt, Olympia make a comeback snatching a late goal. We are supporting the underdogs, so Gina and Ellen leap to their feet. As we are surrounded by home team supporters, I grab Gina and restrain her from showing too much excitement lest we are assailed by the local fans. With the game moving to a dramatic climax, Uros suggests we make a runner to the exit gates. We reach the top of the stands as Olympia score another to make it 3-2 but Uros insists we go because they can't win, even a draw means little to him. We make to the exit gate and reach the pile of umbrellas just as the final whistle goes. Realising it will be hopeless finding our umbrellas, Uros tells us to grab anything and go. A pity for home team supporters that buy things like scarves, and umbrellas, in club colours because their umbrellas are the first to disappear. We find our car and drive out of Maribor very happy for the experience.

On Monday 14 May, we head up to the capital Ljublana to visit my uncle Janez (father's brother) and his family. On the way we decide to call in at Kocevje and pay a visit to my cousin Tone at the cathedral. As the visit is unexpected, he is gobsmacked with us turning up on his doorstep. After he calms down he gives us a tour of the cathedral. We notice that there are a lot of inscriptions on the walls in german. Tone tells us that the cathedral was built by the local german community at the turn of the century. Apparently there were something approaching 30,000 germans living here in the early part of the 20th century but under Nazi occupation the community was forcibly relocated back to the fatherland. There are still a large number of ghost villages up in the hills that surround Kocevje, left vacant when the community moved. After the tour, Tone insists that we have lunch with him at a local hunters lodge. Over plates of local game meat, we talk about goings on in the family and about life in Australia and Slovenia. Such a lovely bloke, its good to have a priest in the family...to match those on Gina's side.

Its mid afternoon by the time we reach Ljubljana to visit my uncle Janez. After leaving Kocevje, we meet up with cousin Irma who escorts us up the road to Ljubljana. She and I drive together in her car with Gina and Ellen following Le Petit Pois. Despite my mediocre Slovenian language, we manage to keep the conversation going for the whole hour in the car. Gina and Ellen in the tailing car say that there was a lot of hand gesticulating going on. We spend the afternoon and evening with Janez, wife Milka and one of their sons Andrej. Andrej has done a lot of work on the family tree tracking the family on my father's side back to the late 1700's. With destruction of churches during the wars, tracing parish records is a pretty difficult task so his accomplishments are very commendable. I set myself the task of doing similar research on my mother's side and we talk about the difficulties of tracking paper records, particular when documentation of events past was a bit tardy. We talk long into the evening about family goings on before we say our goodbyes. Ellen has mentioned her desire to spend some time in the hills doing outdoor adventure activities. Like most Slovenians, Andrej is an outdoors type and he tells Elle that he'll arrange something for her.

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Photos

Gina, Ellen and cousin Barbara
A great friendship develops between Ellen and Barbara from this meeting

Cousin Irma and family
From left: Irma, Diana, Matija, Tilen and Aunty Marija

The dictionary
Marija, Irma and I talk with the aid of a English-Slovenian dictionary

Cousins
Ellen with Jost, Tilen and Mirjam

Maribor Ultras
Its cold but most the guys in this stand are topless