Excerpts from personal travel journal:
Sunday March 22, 2009 – Marco Polo Airport – Venezia, Italia
Although I bought this journal for my trip to Brazil, it is in Italy that I purchased it, it is in Italy in which I write my first entry, and it is of Italy that I shall write. I sit awaiting the commencement of my disembarkation from this spring vacation trip: to Washington D.C. via Frankfurt International. While my original intention was to visit [my high school friend] Paige in Rome, the trip metastasized into something much grander and I spent the last nine days on a whirlwind tour of Rome, Florence, Rome (again), Ljubljana, western Slovenia and, finally, Venice. I visited Claire Barber from NMH and Hilary Stout from Watkinson in Florence, Daisy Gonzalez from NMH in Rome, and Rok, Viktor and Anita from Ghana & DC travels in Ljubljana and saw the Sistine Chapel, the leaning tower of Pisa, the epic Coliseum, the sinking canals of Venice, and the beautiful Adriatic Coast…
Leaving a less-than-enjoyable midterm week and the stresses of college life behind, I flew out of DC Thursday March 13 around 5 in the evening on a Redeye to Rome. After arriving, on my own insistence, I found my way to Paige’s accommodations in the old nunnery behind the St. Agnes Church in Piazza Navona. We immediately jettisoned to the train station narrowly catching a direct TrenItalia to Florence. We were greeted warmly by Hilary, my (unfortunately) somewhat estranged friend from my 9th grade Watkinson days. She was so good to us the whole and offered up wonderful hospitality and companionship for the weekend—this even though she already had two friends from Marist visiting her for the weekend. In addition, Paige’s Honduras program/Conn College friend, Jack, met us there and spent the weekend as well.
We wandered the streets, ate in cafes, and, on Saturday, spent the afternoon in the antiquated, tourist-frequented Pisa greeted by blue skies, light breezes, and warm sunshine. Pisa hasn’t much to offer other than some classic pushing/pulling photo opportunities and tourist stands but we enjoyed the weather and the company. Florence, while a substantial town, was somewhat of an oddity. A cross-town stroll takes only 20 minutes or so, but taken during the right (or wrong) hour you could imagine that you are not quite in Italy yet not quite in the States, but in this odd middle world where Americans seem nearly as plentiful as locals—as if we took a wrong turn and stumbled upon a Vegas-style simulacrum of a Tuscan city. Firenze is the unofficial US student exchange capitol of Italy, with many US universities having sister institutions of there and some apparently even owning stakes in their Italian counterparts. Thus, everyone—nearly everyone—spoke conversational English and signs, businesses, and half the town seemed to be geared towards drunken American twenty-somethings. So, while my first weekend in Italy was enjoyable, it left a peculiar taste in my mouth that I couldn’t shake until crossing the boarder into Slovenia some days later…
We returned to Rome on Sunday so P could get back to school. The next three mornings I spent exploring the many sights in Rome: the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, Castel San Angelo, Vatican City, The Vatican Museum, Museo Capitoline, the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, the Jewish Ghetto, “Mussolini’s Typewriter,” Vitorio Emanuele II, Teatro Marcello and more, in addition to my usual urban meanderings. We cooked our own Italian dishes at night, spent time with her housemates, watched Office Space with her organizational psychology class and went out some. Tuesday night we went to a nice dinner at Mimi e Coco’s near P.Navona for good food and pleasant conversation. It was great and after we finished we spotted her friend Corey and his parents and stopped by their table for a chat…which turned into a bottle of which, which turned into two bottles of wine and a meat and cheese platter…and some grappa…and a trip down the street to an Irish Pub from some Saint Patty’s Day Jameson and Guinness. We eventually ran into the entire the entire ConnColl house in the streets and ended up having a nice evening with everyone (especially Corey and family).
Wednesday, after a somewhat unnerving morning and early afternoon storming around the beautiful-to-the-point-of-revulsion Vatican (it’s hard not to think about how all of this was funded and what it stands for even if it’s so beautiful) we hopped a train to Venice-Mestre with three minutes to spare. We ran out of cash and their credit card machines weren’t functioning so we got a free ride to the boarder and another free ride from there to Ljubljana (saving about $90 between the two of us!) arriving around 2am. Also, my last boat-bus in Venice was free, but I’m getting ahead of myself...We were up by 10am to start the day and see our first glimpses of Eastern Europe.
Ljubljana (L-youb-lyah-nah) is so beautiful. It’s a small city of only ¼ million people but the multiple cultural, architectural, and culinary influences make it a fantastic melting pot of a city—yet simultaneously nearly homogenous (oddly enough). Rok had some work as a courier after we went for a quick hike up a mountain so we tagged along with him as he drove around the city and he and Anita gave us a great history-laden tour. We ate a late lunch at (roughly translated) “The Peasant’s Food Harem.” The meal consisted of mushroom stew in a bread bowl with a “Peasant’s Platter” of sausage, blood sausage, tender roasted ham, incredible potatoes, buckwheat goo, kraut, and some heavy Slovenian red wine, Tiran (sp?) that made my head hurt. I thought I was going to burst!
Rok is always a good time and has a wonderfully candid outlook on life. If he doesn’t like something he’ll tell you and so you always know where you stand and can always be yourself. I met him and his friend Viktor on the beaches of the Green Turtle Lodge in western Ghana. We hung out for about two weeks or so. Last fall he and Anita came to the States and ended up staying with Micah and me in our dorm for about 11 days. They truly appreciate our hospitality and reciprocated in kind (and then some!) for Paige and me.
Thursday night they took us out to Metelkova, a former military barracks-cum-squatter settlement. It was about two blocks of downtown and for the last 17 years has been home to about a half dozen eclectic bars and clubs and what is referred to as “the Black Kitchen.” The old military prison is now the best hostel in the world (for only 18 euro a night) and almost every square centimeter is covered in eclectic, obscure, bizarre, and usually awesome artwork: mosaics, collages, posters, tags, paintings, sculptures, carvings, and more. It was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. DJ Jungle spun drum and bass with reggae-roots to a fast tempo (think Marley brothers meets dancehall meets European house music). The spot we spent most our time in (and where we met Viktor at) wasn’t much more than a smoky shack (very smoky) with a porch, but when 5 shots and 5 tallboys (big cans of beer) is €18.50 (or maybe even less, I forget) and the DJ is playing kind of “Jungle music” I could go all night…and we did until about 2:30. At the Black Kitchen a group of anarchists were organizing a fundraiser (yes, I recognize the irony…I’m not sure if they did) for some lectures they wanted to host by welling veggie mix and rice piping hot for €1.50. The lecture on Saturday had an Israeli Jew speaking on anti-colonist solidarity, etc, etc. I would have loved to go if we had been around…
The next day Anita prepared some delicious elemental foods for dinner and Rok met us back at Metelkova (squat camp) after we walked around the city center for a while on our own. The refreshing, albeit slightly cold, weather, light attitudes of the Slovenians, and the beautiful, varied atmosphere and architecture made for a nice stroll. I bought some cheese, schnapps, tea, and sausage to bring back home and P found some cool artisan glass earrings…It was a great day and a definite highlight of my travels so far. After Rok picked us up we stopped for some calamari in town and I ended up getting into some heavy political discourse with a former IR professor/advisor to the UK consulate and a former businessman who both quit their high-stress jobs to cook squid and be happy. It was a pleasant surprise. When I asked potential thesis topics for a Slovenia Fulbright the eccentric professor suggested: “why would a small W. Balkans country like Slovenia join NATO and what purpose does it serve today?” He also said, “If you really want to fuck [with] these people, ask them to explain Slovenian foreign policy in the last 17 years [since independence] because there is none!” and then mentioned something about Liza Minelli I didn’t catch…
Ljubljana is home to the biggest shopping center in Eastern Europe and I believe it. We went to pick up some groceries and the store was obscenely large. This store was bigger and better than a Sam’s Club and CHEAPER! I picked up a bottle of “Marshall” liquor (it doesn’t say what kind of liquor it is on the bottle, but I think it’s like Slovenian Jaeger) with a picture of the “soft dictator” Tito of Yugoslavia. P got tons of candy and Rok got some dinner supplies.
After dinner (and a little bit during, actually) that night we fell asleep EXHAUSTED from all the walking and eating. We didn’t have the energy to go out, despite Anita’s pleading!...
That morning we woke up early—7am—for a whirlwind tour (theme of my trip) of western Slovenia. Rok and Anita bickered mercilessly over where they should take us and in the end settled on three places over five hours. The entire jaunt was only 70 miles or so and that brought us to the Italian border (the direction we were headed anyway). The first location was small castle built into a sheer cliff/cave set against some lovely “natures.” The founder of it was a Slovenian robin hood of sorts circa 15th century. He was killed as the culmination of a six-month siege by the Austro-Hungarian army. Being the crafty Slovenian devil that he was, he had built secret passageways through the cave and used them liberally to gather sustenance (and would then launch full roasted pigs from its parapets in mockery of the siege forces. Eventually a treacherous servant ratted him out, having been bribed with gold, and told the generals that he could not be waited out and proffered a plan for his demise: the servant would light a candle at night when the count went to the toilet, a relatively thin and exposed wall of the castle, at which point the army unleashed all their catapults and crushed the rebellious noble.
The next stop was at the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Slovenia: the epic Škocjan caves (karsts). However, we missed the tour and just walked the nature trails around them and stopped at a nice little lodge for some stew and espresso. From there we high-tailed it to the coast to the most magnificent views I have ever experienced: Piran, the southern-most point of Slovenia and right on the Adriatic Sea. It is a peninsula and so to the east you can see Croatia in all its (much despised) glory and to the west, Slovenia and Italy (Trieste). We climbed to a high vantage point by a church and were mesmerized by the forceful and freezing sea breeze and the captivating views. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to linger because Venezia awaited us, so we had to motor to Trieste for our train. By the way, Trieste is an ugly, ugly town to the east, but the center and west and pleasant, typical hilly Mediterranean port town.
We missed sunset in Venice (sad story) because of all the cool stuff we did in Slovenia but we did manage to make it in time for the worst (and most expensive) meal of the entire trip! They sure know how to rip off a tourist in Venice, but I was expecting as much. However, the company was nice and we managed to have a nice evening despite. We also managed to get lost on the way to the hostel and walk around for about 30 minutes, freezing and toting bags. On the bright side, they gave us a private room for no additional cost and we were a hop skip and jump away from San Marco Square.
We made it to bed before midnight to wake up at 5 am Sunday (today). Since my flight is so early we had to get up then to have an hour or two to see some of Venice, catch the sunrise, and snap a few hundred photos. It worked out perfectly and I got some great snapshots. And so here we are. The plane just landed in Frankfurt and I had my first beer before noon since…probably ever. I look forward to my unfortunate five hour layover in Germany before going home. It would be nice to go to CT for a few days and see the family and the cats but you take what you can get and I’ve been given a whole lot recently (and always). So until my next journey (early June!!!): Ciao!
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