Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Slovenia, Slovenia

I realize that only days have passed since my last post but, somehow, I feel about a year older.

We were in the Slovenian seaside village of Piran, a medieval kind of place with narrow alleys and fading houses. I loved it there. It's the kind of place where ancient bruises, seen and unseen, pockmark both the faces and facades. August is high tourist season so the locals are overrun and have mostly run away. But way back up stone stairs and through the village mazes, you can still eavesdrop on grandmas scolding children and smell home cooking though windows. Women chat while hanging laundry and people congregate in doorways, chain smoking in the thin breeze of the night.

I love it in its sexy, broken kind of way, and find myself more at peace in this kind of chaos than in Austria's picturesque beauty.

The cleanest part of town was the edge - the sparkling Adriatic, which made for cool, salty swimming. The boys played in it like seals, but the 'beach' was just a nasty strip of asphalt, better suited for car repair than lounging and the shore was rocks and shells.

So, despite my newfound Slovenian love, me and my cut-up feet voted 'ay' to a company move to the sandy beaches of Northern Italy and, after a brilliant evening storm, we headed for the tourist trap town of Grado, from where I sit and type.

Grado is an "any-beach-town-in-the world" kind of place, replete with sweet shops and fudge. But the beach is great, the water is warm and the drive here - by way of Slovenia by way of Croatia - was a blast.

And, what the hell... I'm in Italy. On my birthday. What could be bad?
The view out of our hotel window. Ok, the room did have a plumbing problem and smelled like sulphur, but somehow the shit smell became part of the Slovenian charm.

From the Piran shore you can stand in Slovenia and see the Italian coast to your left. To the right, you see Croatia.

Storm over the Adriatic. The 360 degree lightning made a dazzling skyshow that lasted for over an hour.

3 comments:

  1. Mom and Dad, waiting anxiously for today's blog, wish you the same. Good pix.

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  2. Happy Birthday, Randi and Eddie! Glad to see you are still enjoying Europe.

    ReplyDelete