Meeting Dad's Family (and more of Mum's Family)

Cousin Stanko and his daughter Petra

Andrew and my cousin Franc standing in front of Franc's apartments

View of snow capped mountains heading to Kranjska Gora
Gorgeous green countryside
Taken from the backseat of the car - snow piled high along sides of the road going up the mountain

Strič Jose and Andrew
Ella, Samuel, Petra, Polona
Corn cobs hanging on a rack to dry (Sevlje)

Dad's house at Sevlje

Neatly stacked piles of firewood (Sevlje)

Monday 27 April 2009/Tuesday 28 April 2009

On Monday we visited my Dad’s eldest brother and his family. The following day we followed my cousin Stanko to my father’s family home on the farm at Sevlje where my cousin Lojze and his family now live. Lojze has 3 children. The youngest who is 6, plays the accordion. He learns it at school. Dad plays the accordion and we videoed Tine playing the accordion. Dad will be happy to see someone else in the family playing the accordion.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

We had to stop the postman to ask directions to visit the last two aunts in Podpeč because the house numbering was irregular . The postie made a quick phone call and then asked us to follow him and he showed us the way.

Teta Pepca procured lunch, spaghetti with delicious sauce, garden salad, plenty of Teran red wine, juice, coffee, tea, biscuits and potica. Teta Pepca said she would love to travel to Australia if she had the chance.

Teta Maria lives in the next street to Teta Pepca. Her husband does woodwork in his spare time and gave us a vase and a pipe he’d made out of walnut wood.

Teta Maria served a big bowl of strawberries and a plate of home made croissants filled with nutella and big glasses of juice. Marco, her grandson lives with his grandparents and he helped translate.

After Podpeč we called in to cousin Stanko’s house which was in a village near to Podpeč. Stanko’s daughter Katya plays the zither which is a stringed musical instrument kind of like a cross between a harp and a hawaiin guitar. It is commonly found in Slovenia. Dad plays the zither and we videoed Katya playing the zither for him to see. He is going to love seeing that.

Thursday 30 April 2009

On our last day in Slovenia we met up at Stric Jose’s house again to follow Stanko to Begunje which is Dad’s eldest sister’s house. The house is near Lake Bled which is a beautiful spot we didn’t get to see but we plan to on our next trip.

My cousin Franc turned up not long after we arrived. We went to his house and then he drove us in his car to Kranjska Gora which is minutes from the Austrian border. He showed us the snow on the mountain still piled 10m high. The road was serpentine-like winding up the mountain and he drove fast. I got a bit car sick from the drive and the heater was on so hot it was stifling.
He took us to where he lives in a block of apartments which he has built. He has sold a couple of them and rents the others out as holiday lets. He also showed us the famous ski jump at Planica.

After this we went back to Begunje where Teta Minka gave us some dinner. My cousin Willi was there. That was the first time I had met him. Teta Minka was telling me that she thought I had a good husband and Andrew was a good man and the children were fletna (which is good).

Meeting Mum's Family

Me, Ella and Teta Ana holding a photo of Mum
Teta Marjetka and Stric Ivan
Teta Marjetka, Katya, Ella and Samuel
Srecko, Teta Pepca, Stric Rudi, Ella, Samuel and me

Marko, me, Ella, Samuel, Teta Maria and her husband (whose name escapes me)

Martina, Hannah, Rok, Marjetka, me, Ella, Samuel,

Ksenija, Blaz and Luka

The little shrines are everywhere in Slovenia
Beautiful tulips in Teta Marjetka's garden

Ksenija and Ella

Samuel and Ella in front of Teta Marjetka's garden

At Zemono
Zemono

The Hubelj Spring spouting from the mountain

Hannah and Ella at the drink fountain near the spring

The Hubelj

Caged brown bear

The steep climb from the house in Visnje

33 Visnje

A nice cold beer and freshly squeezed lemonade at the gostilna

View of village of Črni Vrh

Gorgeous tulips in the centre of the road in Ljubljana

Man with tricky sticks in the market

Ksenija with Samuel and Ella in Prešeren Square

We arrived in Slovenia mid afternoon. We stopped at a fuel stop, bought a map and paid for the vignette which is required to drive on Slovenia’s toll roads. It’s valid for 6 months. The young guy at the servo came out to the car and put the sticker on our windscreen where it was supposed to go.

Slovenia is a very beautiful country. It is so pretty and green and mountainous and the water in the rivers is the most amazing clear emerald green colour.

The main purpose of our trip was to visit relatives. Both my parents were born and grew up in Slovenia and had 9 brothers and sisters each.

I have to admit I was abit stressed about visiting because of the language barrier and also that I hadn’t seen many of them in 25 years. Some I have never met because my parents migrated to Australia when I was 2 years old.

We had to ask for directions to the place we were staying for 2 nights – at Črni Vrh. We were booked in to a gostilna. The gostilnas are usually owned and run by a family and they serve traditional food that is grown in the region or made locally. Andrew thought the gostilna was great once we finally found it. He likes the personal touch of getting to know the people who run the place and who is cooking your meals.

Thursday 23 April 2009

It was raining when we woke up on Thursday morning to go on our first visit to Teta Ana (my Aunty). Teta Ana is 18 months older than Mum and they were very close when they were growing up.

We found Teta Ana’s house without much problem. We had to drive up and down a few times then we asked someone and they told us where Teta Ana lived.

I met Teta Ana at the door clutching the video camera in my hand. I wanted to film her when she saw me. She was very happy to see us and she thought the kids were beautiful. Samuel and Ella were very quiet during the visit and Teta Ana kept saying they were pridna (which means good).

So now I had to try and converse in Slovensko and talk about my brain going into overdrive. Every time I wanted to say a word I could only think of it in French. Very strange. Little by little we managed to have a bit of a conversation. I phoned Mum during our visit and they had a chat. Teta Ana’s husband Lojze was there and also my cousin Robert. Robert is in a wheelchair after suffering two aneurysms. My aunt cares for him at home. Someone comes in once a week to help. Robert is the same age as Andrew, 43.

Samuel and Ella said that Mum and Teta Ana were like twins. Their mannerisms, speech and facial expressions are very similar. It was like being in the room with Mum. Teta Ana made polenta for lunch which the kids love when Mum makes it. They eat it with plain yoghurt which the kids don’t like and Stric Lojze thought it was strange that the kids didn’t eat yoghurt with their polenta.

All my rellies are very self-sufficient. They grow their own vegetables and fruit. One uncle has a vineyard and grows enough grapes to make 1000 litres of wine, others make schnapps from different fruit they grow. They keep pigs to fatten up for meat for the year and some have chickens to supply fresh eggs.

Friday 24 April 2009

Mum's youngest sister, Teta Marjetka lives at Budanje. When we arrived Tomaž (my cousin) and Ksenija (his wife) were there and they both speak english so we were able to have a decent conversation. Teta Marjetka had made a beautiful lunch. Samuel was impressed when they were explaining that everything was home made – the cheese, the clobasi (sausage), the bread, the wine, the olives and that was just the nibblies.

Lunch was homemade chicken soup with fresh homemade noodles, wild asparagus risotto (asparagus grown near Ksenija’s place), roast chicken pieces and then salads (cucumber salad, tomato/capsicum, lettuce). Then fresh fruit salad and cream. Lots of wine in between and juice for the kids. It was delicious.

My cousin Blaž and his wife Martina were there too. They have three children and live nearby in a house they’ve just built. Tomaž and Ksenija live above Teta Marjetka’s house in a new part of the house they’ve added on. Considering the age of some of the villages, most of the houses we visited were modern and very attractive. The children often continue living in the family home even once they are married and have children of their own mainly because it's so expensive to buy land and build a house.

After lunch Teta Marjetka and Ksenija took us to Visnje which is Mum’s family home which we believe has been in the family for 9 generations. It’s very old. No-one lives there anymore except for the cows who have a room downstairs. Strič Ivan (Mum’s brother) has lived there all his life until he built a new house just up the hill abit.

Visnje is not a big house. I asked Teta Marjetka where everyone fitted. I don’t know where 9 children would have slept. She shrugged and said she didn’t know. Actually there was 10 children I found out because there was another baby in between Teta Ana and Teta Pepca who died aged 6 months.

Thank goodness for Ksenija being there to translate. Otherwise the experience would not have been as good.

Saturday 25 April 2009

We returned to Budanje on Saturday morning and we sat down for lunch virtually straightaway. Have I mentioned that we never stopped eating the whole time?

In the afternoon we went for a drive up a mountain to see a brown bear which is kept in a cage. It was great to see a bear in real life but I'm always sad about animals in cages. Animals aren't meant to live in cages are they? They had a couple of baby goats there too which the kids had fun feeding.

Ksenija took us to look at the Hubelj Spring which is in the Vipava Valley. The water comes spouting out of all these holes in the rock from the inside of the mountain. It’s very impressive but after heavy rain it’s even more stunning.

After the Hubelj we went to the village of Zemono to meet more cousins. They live next to the famous Manor House Zemono which was built in 1683 and can be seen from miles around. These days it is used as a wedding hall and also for concerts and exhibitions. There is also an exclusive cave-like restaurant underneath.

Sunday 26 April 2009

On Sunday after meeting up with Tomaž and Ksenija we wandered along the riverside markets in Ljubljana and enjoyed a coffee in Prešeren Square before heading out to Postojnska Jama, one of the largest and most visited caves in the world. The caves were discovered in 1818 and there's 20 km of galleries. We were in an English speaking group which somehow included a gaggle of Japanese tourists who set a cracking pace and we weren't able to dawdle along too much because there was so many people following behind us.

Venice 21 April 2009

The view as you come out of the train station in Venice

In front of the train station

These photos were taken from the water taxi along the Canale GrandPiazza San Marco - Ella is in the foreground

After Florence we drove to Venice. The drive to Venice was pleasant. More pretty scenery and death defyingly high roads and bridges and long tunnels. I don't have much to say about Venice though because Ella was sick and I was still on crutches so not much going on there. We had a half-hearted look around. About the only sightseeing we could muster was a ride on a crowded water taxi up the Grand Canal which was okay once we could sit down. Afer a short walk around the streets we headed back to the hotel for a bit of quiet time.

We've been staying at novotels because they usually have rooms for families of 4 which are hard to come by at a lot of places. Also to Samuel's delight, novotels provide a playstation and computers to use for free and something new I haven't seen before is a small library of novels which people can borrow to read (some titles in english too) and return to a novotel anywhere in Italy in the next three months. What a great idea.

Pisa and Florence 19/20 April 2009

Samuel on beach at Savona

Ella on beach

In the hotel at Savona, the true meaning of a split system -

actually split between two rooms

Street vendors at Pisa

Buildings at Pisa

Ella holding up the tower

It's hard to believe they manage to keep all the crowds

from crushing that beautiful grass but they do.

Piazzale Michelangelo

The statue at the Piazzale Michelangelo

Samuel on his DS at the restaurant in Florence

Ponte Vecchio - along the inside of this bridge are

all the gold jewellery shops and also thousands of people

Buildings near Ponte Vecchio

On Sunday morning we drove to Pisa. We arrived early, found a carpark only 3 streets away and I hopped around at an annoyingly slow pace on my crutches to look at the leaning tower. We were quite amazed that we found it so easily because the signage was terrible and we didn’t have a map. Hundreds of people were already there - it was very crowded and we didn’t stay long. We took a few photos as evidence but the day was rainy and gloomy and the photos look drab. The tower seemed kind of small to me and there were lots of people taking photos with their hands lined up against the side of the tower holding it up. Quite comical really. I’ve put our pictures doing that same silly thing on the blog.

People were climbing up the tower but I couldn’t face it on crutches. I notice they had put up some sort of fence/barrier around the edge of the tower which wasn’t there when Andrew and I visted in 95. I climbed the tower when I did a contiki tour way back in my other life and I remember the marble steps being quite smooth and slippery and winding right around the outside of the tower with no barriers. But I was fearless then. Not like now.

We took the wrong road when we arrived in Florence and ended up heading south instead of north but we’re so clever, it didn’t take us long to work out we were going the wrong way.

On Monday morning we took the free shuttle service from the hotel into Florence. The driver skilfully wove his way through the morning traffic with a bit of choice language directed at his fellow motorists along the way. Andrew and I were very happy to be sitting in the bus and not having to driving ourselves in to town . The traffic reminded me a bit of Barcelona, chaotic and every which way – you never know which way to look, they’re coming at you from all angles, cars, motor bikes, push bikes, pedestrians – it’s mayhem.

We bought tickets for the open top double decker City Sightseeing bus tour and it was the best thing. There was no way I could have walked around Florence’ cobbled streets all day on crutches. The tickets were €20 for an adult and €10 for a child. We pretended Ella was 5 so she could ride for free. We ended up taking both itineraries and covered a big part of Florence sitting happily at the top of the bus. We could get on and off as many times as we wanted at various sights but chose not to. It was nice just sitting there in the bus enjoying the sights and not have to do anything. We made a stop for lunch at a restaurant which was nice and we scored two free tickets for the carousel which the kids loved.

The day finished off on a bit of a sour note when we were walking back from the Ponte Vecchio and smelled the scrummy aroma of waffles and thought what a good idea. Anyway we were charged €8 for one waffle and €6 each for the other two. Admittedly they were double waffles (not that we asked for double). I was ropeable. Ripped off again. When are we going to learn. I tried to ask the lady the cost of the waffles but she wouldn’t answer me and kept insisting we had to go inside to pay. We should have just walked out without paying but we’re not that sort of people. Sometimes I wish we were. Actually I just had a thought as I’ve been writing this and I wonder if it was karma being returned because I lied about Ella’s age to the bus ticket person. I saved €10 not paying for Ella to go on the bus but then we paid €20 for stupid waffles that weren’t even very nice.