Month: June 2007

Well my trip is winding down and I will be leaving for the US next week. I am currently in Ljubljana, Slovenia and loving this small city and country. In many ways the geography is similar to Somewheresville and the surrounding environs, but with the Julian Alps thrown in for good measure–green, rolling hills, farms, and small towns with very friendly people.

The AA meetings here are numerous and very welcoming. There is also a ?convention? of sorts in the mountains this weekend that I will attend…actually it’s more of a Slovenian Roundup than anything else, but it should be a fun time. On Monday I scoot back to Croatia and Zagreb for a three night stay and then back to the US on Thursday. I fly into AN airport that has recently been on the news, so I am hoping for no problems other that the usual cavity search from the TSA. Just kidding! There is no cavity search, but it feels like it sometimes.

I’ll post again from Zagreb!

Johnnyboy

I left Split on Monday with my friend at the helm of his sturdy SEAT two-door sedan. SEAT is a Spanish Volkswagen, kind of…

We arrived in Plitvice (pleet-vee-chay) National Park around 5:30pm and I checked into my simple, clean room while he continued on to Zagreb. The next two days were lovely for me…alone except for a few other tourists (the season hasn’t yet begun) and some of the most spectacular waterfalls I have ever seen. It also rained off and on for the time that I was there, giving the mountains and lakes a dramatic cast. I managed to squeeze off about 170 pictures while I was there.

(On Thursday morning, I waited in the early hours on the side of the road in order to flag down the regular Zagreb bus for a lift to Karlovac (kar-low-vatch) where I would change for Pulapoola), where I am currently sitting here at Enigma Internet updating for all the faithful readers who have become disillusioned with my absence over the past 4-5 days.

There is a lovely Roman amphitheater here, as well as some splendid temples. The city museum awaits tomorrow, but today was great fun. I decided to take a trip just north 15km and then take a boat out to Brijuni (or Brioni, in Italian) which was Tito’s private island retreat for many years…1946-1980, actually, six months out of the year. The place is a real Hollywood paradise, complete with a wildlife sanctuary, exotic flora, and Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, and medieval Christian archaeological sites. On the bus to the dock, however, I ran into a new pal, a woman named Lottie, a Briton currently living on Okinawa with her Japanese husband. She is a few months pregnant, but was active enough and traveling alone, so we hooked up platonically for a fun afternoon. We will meet up again tomorrow evening for a free classical music concert in a Franciscan monastery at 8PM.

Guess what? Both her parents are recovering alcoholics…coincidence?

I leave for Slovenia on Sunday, and will spend the rest of the week there. My friend Marko has told me that there is another AA convention next weekend in Slovenia, in the mountains. It will most likely be in the Slovenian language, which isn’t much like Croatian, but what the hey, the message is the same…

Next update…Ljubljana, Slovenia!

Johhnyboy