15 to 17 May - Last days with family in Slovenia

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Once we made up mind to move on the last days with the family seem to go like a flash. In the 2 and a bit weeks since we arrived we've done a fairly comprehensive round of all the aunts. uncles and cousins on both sides of the family. Its been a really special time even though at times the language difficulties (my broken Slovenian and the lack of English on the part of the older folk) has made conversation a challenge. I come away from most visits with a head ache but Gina reckons my Slovenian has improved since our last visit. I have to say that I was really surprised when words some how emerge from the deeper recesses during a chat. And I am chuffed that I have conquered the word for cafe - okrepcevalnica - with ease. Chatting with my uncle Janez is always funny. We stammer away, me with a few words of Slovenian, and he seems to always break into German. A hoot.

On one of last visits we head over the ancestral village of my mother's family and visit my aunt Svetka and family. She is ninth out of ten, with my mother eighth and Janez the runt at ten. As usual lashings of homemade smallgoods - salami and prsut - are served along with potica (a walnut cake) all washed down with home made wine. Cousins Tone and Brigitta and family join us. We tour the farm - they raise cattle to sell off for beef and keep the usual range of chickens and rabbits for their own consumption. Harking back to another time, the barn where they keep the cattle is located under the house that Svetka and her husband Tone live in.

After a lot of food and wine we make our way back to Novo Mesto. My cousin Matjaz (son of Janez and Marjana), who visited us in Australia a couple of years ago is keen to meet up with me. I oblige but under some duress as I have a steaming headache courtesy of the days feasting at Svetka's home. A couple of days later we visit Matjaz and his partner Alma at their weekend home out in the hills away from Novo Mesto. They live in Novo Mesto in a really nice part of the old town but the rent is tough and their dream is to move to their country recluse and grow vegetables. Like the rest of Europe, times are fairly tough in Slovenia, and both find it difficult to find work. Alma is a restorer specialising in stone work (tough gig at the best of times) and has just quit an administrative job where she was being paid 3 Euro an hour. Interestingly while we are in Slovenia, the Government and Public Sector unions agreed to a pay cut of 8% for all Government workers. Something I would have thought impossible in Australia but who knows what is around the corner. Another thing we found interesting while talking to my cousins Alenka and Bostjan is that the police recently went on strike over pay. Their strike action was to stop and inspect every car at the Croatian border instead of the usual random check. Their zealousness created havoc at the border crossing with queues going back for kms.

Aside from the family visits and the occasional short venture into the countryside, Ellen has managed to get in a few horse rides at a local riding school. The Hosta riding school breeds and trains horses for the famous riding school at Lipica, where they train them for the Spanish Riding at Vienna. Ellen reckons the credentials are topnotch and she's befriended one of the young lads who works there, Tomas, and they go out for trail rides into the foothills of the Gorjanci. Fabulous country to ride through. More on the riding school here http://hosta-lipizzans.eu/

On our second last evening in Novo Mesto we take Joze and Vesna out for dinner at what we have been told is a pretty good restaurant. Its actually an inn (in Slovenian gostilna) which is the most common way for Slovenian to eat out at. It turns out that Joze has eaten at the gostilna on a few occasions but is welcome all the same as he reckons its one of the better places around town. The Gostilna Vovko is a family run affair thats been around for a few generations and specialises in the local goodies, especially river fish like trout and mushrooms. Without wanting to sound like a food bore, it was a lovely meal topped off with some very nice fruit brandies made on the premises, some very exotic flavours like pine needles and vineyard weed. Have a look at the restaurant here http://www.gostilna-vovko.si/

Our last evening we spend with Alenka and Bostjan. While Gina and I are moving on to have a look around Slovenia, Ellen is staying put in Novo Mesto with Alenka and Bostjan. You would have to go along way to find a nicer young couple than these two guys and Gina and I are genuinely happy that Ellen is staying with them. Ellen too is looking forward to it as well, to be free of us finally, and to continue building the friendships with cousins and other friends in Slovenia.

And that was that, the end of our little jaunt to Novo Mesto. A beaut spot in the true heartland of Slovenia.

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Photos

Cousin Matjaz
The philosopher of the family

Cousin France and his smallgoods
All home made - the best I have ever eaten