Slovenian strut
Without reading my last post I guess I left tales of my adventures somewhere in Vienna. As I think I may have mentioned, I thought Stockholm was an amazingly beautiful city ...and then I turned up in Vienna. It might be the ancestral lineage supporting the bias but somehow it became more appealing to me than any other European city I've visited to date. Alas, my time in Vienna was only short and after only a couple of days I was heading south by train to Maribor in Slovenija.
Yawn and you'll miss it
Somehow I'd managed to turn up in Europe during a year when Winter had decided to take its own break. Other than a couple of days below zero on the Arctic Circle most days since then have been in the high single digits of even entering the low doubles. Everyone that I had spoken to up until that point mentioned how seasonally uncommon it was but SO WHAT !!! I WANTED SNOW DAMN IT !!! Austria couldn't supply any of that and thus in frustration I ventured into Slovenija in order to catch up with Glass and his family plus hopefully make some turns on Slovenijan slopes.
The first thing that I noticed once I had crossed the border was the lack of artificial light. Somehow Slovenijans, and for that matter all former Yugoslavs, appear to have a dislike for adequate street lighting. For years this had always made places like this feel a little more mysterious and I guess had always felt familiar at the same time as many parts of Belgrade had and still do look/feel the same. In any case Glass was kind enough to pick me up at the station and give me a 30min tour of Maribor - which in reality is about all anyone will ever need. It's not that Maribor is an aweful places, it has some cute characteristics and areas of charm but I guess it would be like visiting Wollongong for a week ! What do you do after the first hour !!??
Glass and his family live near the hillside/mountain area of Pohorje. I'm guessing that if you had to walk from his front door to the main run you'd be able to do it comfortably in under 10mins. Waking up the next morning and gazing out onto the mountain I noticed is strangely devoid of one critical form of water !! F**K !! The main run was somehow open with the assistance of some God awful type of artificial snow that was so icy and thin that nobody dared to even tempt fate. What was worse for Maribor is that the main Winter event for the year, the Zlatna Lisica (Golden Fox), an alpine ski event for women, had been called of for that day as the conditions were absolutely atrocious. Apparently during this time of year you get about a 100,000 people descend on Maribor for the event and for at least a week there is some sort of Winter social scene but as it happened on this occasion the lack of snow meant the lack of everything else. In any case Glass and I did manage to get up higher and over to the otherside if Pohorje where the artificial snow had held up as well as could be imagined.
One of the first things that you notice when you start to ski/board is then when you clip out of your 'snowriding device' the walk you instantly inherit is a John Wayne, Robocop, Arnold Schwarzennegar hybrid. Now one of the first things I noticed about the Slovenijan strut is that they really got into it, so much so that even without their boots they looked as though they were heading for a high noon showdown... I'm not sure if these guys were hardcore or had checked out too many Charles Bronson movies but it certainly provided me with some great laughs.
More Slovenijan tales in my next update ....
Without reading my last post I guess I left tales of my adventures somewhere in Vienna. As I think I may have mentioned, I thought Stockholm was an amazingly beautiful city ...and then I turned up in Vienna. It might be the ancestral lineage supporting the bias but somehow it became more appealing to me than any other European city I've visited to date. Alas, my time in Vienna was only short and after only a couple of days I was heading south by train to Maribor in Slovenija.
Yawn and you'll miss it
Somehow I'd managed to turn up in Europe during a year when Winter had decided to take its own break. Other than a couple of days below zero on the Arctic Circle most days since then have been in the high single digits of even entering the low doubles. Everyone that I had spoken to up until that point mentioned how seasonally uncommon it was but SO WHAT !!! I WANTED SNOW DAMN IT !!! Austria couldn't supply any of that and thus in frustration I ventured into Slovenija in order to catch up with Glass and his family plus hopefully make some turns on Slovenijan slopes.
The first thing that I noticed once I had crossed the border was the lack of artificial light. Somehow Slovenijans, and for that matter all former Yugoslavs, appear to have a dislike for adequate street lighting. For years this had always made places like this feel a little more mysterious and I guess had always felt familiar at the same time as many parts of Belgrade had and still do look/feel the same. In any case Glass was kind enough to pick me up at the station and give me a 30min tour of Maribor - which in reality is about all anyone will ever need. It's not that Maribor is an aweful places, it has some cute characteristics and areas of charm but I guess it would be like visiting Wollongong for a week ! What do you do after the first hour !!??
Glass and his family live near the hillside/mountain area of Pohorje. I'm guessing that if you had to walk from his front door to the main run you'd be able to do it comfortably in under 10mins. Waking up the next morning and gazing out onto the mountain I noticed is strangely devoid of one critical form of water !! F**K !! The main run was somehow open with the assistance of some God awful type of artificial snow that was so icy and thin that nobody dared to even tempt fate. What was worse for Maribor is that the main Winter event for the year, the Zlatna Lisica (Golden Fox), an alpine ski event for women, had been called of for that day as the conditions were absolutely atrocious. Apparently during this time of year you get about a 100,000 people descend on Maribor for the event and for at least a week there is some sort of Winter social scene but as it happened on this occasion the lack of snow meant the lack of everything else. In any case Glass and I did manage to get up higher and over to the otherside if Pohorje where the artificial snow had held up as well as could be imagined.
One of the first things that you notice when you start to ski/board is then when you clip out of your 'snowriding device' the walk you instantly inherit is a John Wayne, Robocop, Arnold Schwarzennegar hybrid. Now one of the first things I noticed about the Slovenijan strut is that they really got into it, so much so that even without their boots they looked as though they were heading for a high noon showdown... I'm not sure if these guys were hardcore or had checked out too many Charles Bronson movies but it certainly provided me with some great laughs.
More Slovenijan tales in my next update ....
posted by Helisher at 9:49 am
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