An Authentic Meal

Last night, one of the entrepreneurship faculty members, Patricia, invited us to dinner at her home.  In typical Slovenian fashion, we arrived at 7:30, drank wine until 8:30, sat down for a course of appetizers, started the main course at 9:30, and had dessert at 10:30.  The food was fantastic and plentiful.  The wine was as well.  Her parents make their own sausage and had just completed a batch that morning...it was probably the best sausage I have ever tasted.  Dessert was followed by appertifs of an herbal liqueur and absinthe.  The herbal liqueur was tasty, but we're not sure why anyone in their right mind would drink absinthe on purpose.

After everyone left at midnight, Patricia conned us into opening another bottle of wine.  We had stayed intending to help clean up, but (also in typical Slovenian fashion) she wouldn't let us.  So, it was a late night for us old-timers (Patricia said she would invite us back for one of her "parties"...if dinner ended at 1am, we're not sure what to expect at a party).  But, it was loads of fun and will be one of our more memorable evenings here. 

The Castle

We live literally right below the castle in Ljubljana.  Castle hill is about ten yards (or meters, whichever suits you) behind our apartment and rises nearly vertical.  There is actually an old stone staircase that climbs up from the courtyard outside our apartment part of the way up the hill.  We have been told it used to go all the way up the hill but wasn't maintained.  Standing on our back patio and looking straight up, you can actually see the top of the castle tower with the Ljubljana flag flying overhead.  There is probably an analogy to medieval peasants that is appropriate here, but we think it's pretty cool anyhow.

When Grandma and Grandpa Ebben were here in early February, we made a trip up to the castle on the funicular, or glorified elevator (look it up, I had no idea what a funicular was either).  The view from the castle walls is fantastic, as you look directly below at Old Town, with the Cathedral and market, and out to the snow-capped mountains on the horizon.

The kiddos refer to it as Cinderella's castle.  Since it is visible from just about everywhere in the city, it's commonplace to hear shouts from our crew of "Look, it's Cinderella's castle!  There's a big clock!  And a big flag!"  Celia tends to drop her L's, so we cringe when anyone is within earshot...

Impressions

Today marks our two-month anniversary here.  Crazy.  We knew the time would fly, but we are only two weeks from the half-way mark.  It's going much faster than we ever imagined.

Someone asked us the other day what we missed the most from home.  Believe it or not, there isn't much.  Life here is simple, but nice.  We have to do a little more manual labor -- for instance, clothes dryers haven't caught on here yet, so everything has to be hung to dry (it seems as though the general take on dryers is "we've lived without them this long, why do we need them"...kind of like my parents and cable tv).  We also have to go to the market just about everyday given the size of our refrigerator and we walk pretty much everywhere we go.  However, in a way these things make life more relaxing: we know nothing is going to happen very fast, so it's tough to get impatient.

Something else that's struck us is the general stock people here place on trust and doing the right thing.  We experienced it right when we got off the plane:  our taxi driver couldn't fit all of our luggage in his van, so he simply said he would leave half of our luggage there on the curb, under the watch of another cab driver who happened to be standing there, and deliver it later.  And off we went.  And our luggage was delivered an hour later.  A day or two later, we got some soup from a small restaurant to take home for dinner...they put it in some plastic containers and said nonchalantly, "Just bring these back tomorrow," as if it never crossed their mind that somebody might not do that.

The most significant example from our standpoint was when we left Chantelle's duffel bag at the train station in Ptuj.  When it didn't arrive on the train in Ljubljana the following morning, the Ljubljana station director was visibly perturbed.  He apologized that someone had told us this would happen and didn't follow through on it.  He also said, "It is your bag and we need to get it back to you," even though it was completely our fault, and he took it upon himself to arrange for its delivery.  He actually took my phone number and called me later in the afternoon to tell me which train it would be on.

It's difficult not to like a place when you have those types of experiences.  And life isn't bad when your biggest complaint is having to stay up all night to watch college basketball.  From our perspective, this is a very easy place to live.

Lake Bled

Last week was rainy and cold.  This week was just the opposite: sunny and warm every day.  In fact, there's a running joke here that we've heard a few times about how when it gets warm we'll wonder if anyone in Ljubljana has a job...we saw that in full force this week as every outdoor cafe on the sunny side of the river was packed all day long.

Because it was so nice, we decided to take our first road trip in the family station wagon and drove up to Lake Bled yesterday afternoon.  We packed ourselves into the car without a centimeter to spare in the backseat (we will need to get a picture of this, it's comical).  After a brief struggle at the petrol station trying to figure out how to open the fuel door (think Chevy Chase...only Chevy didn't need his wife and a Slovenian man who didn't speak any English to figure it out...and Chevy's wife didn't constantly remind him of this afterward), we headed up into the mountains.

Lake Bled is a beautiful mountain lake town, just forty minutes from Ljubljana, and is one of Slovenia's most popular destinations.  As with many old Slovenian towns, the focal points are a castle and a church: there is a castle perched high on a cliff overlooking the lake and a cathedral on an island in the middle of the lake.  We had lunch outdoors in the hot (yes, hot) sun and then took a stroll around the lake.  The kiddos loved the swans and ducks and Rosetta continued her new hobby of saying "Dober dan" to all passersby.

Most importantly, all went well with the new wheels and we (me) only stalled the wagon twice there and back.  The most excitement came on the way home as we were turning left, a block away from our parking spot, and couldn't figure out the traffic signal.  I just trusted the guy's horn behind me and went.  A little nerveracking...it's one thing to not know what you're doing; it's another to not know what you're doing while driving a stick.

Abecedarium

Last night, we got a babysitter and went to a restaurant on the river called Abecedarium.  Nothing exciting, but interesting history... The building in which the restaurant is located was built in 1528 as the mayor's house and is in the oldest remaining building in Ljubljana (yes, 1528).  The "Father of Slovene Literature," Primoz Trubar, later lived in the house in the 1560's.  He is famous for writing the first Slovenian published book, Abecedarium, an eight-pager intended to help people learn the alphabet.

Another Sunday at Tivoli

After a week of rain, the sun was out in full force today and we thought we should let the kiddos run off some pent-up steam.  We went over to Tivoli, as did many other folks, and hiked up into the forest that covers most of the park.  Rosetta said "Dober dan" to everyone we passed (her new favorite thing to do) and received mixed reactions of surprise and amusement.  She must have her accent down reasonably well, as a few responded to her in Slovenian, to which she would respond, "I'm Rosetta, and this is Celia and this is Sy" (kind of like, "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl).  After an hour-and-a-half of hiking up and down the hills, we had three tired, hungry, and happy kids.

We also finally got a car today, a Renault Megane station wagon.  It's not pretty and we'll be packed into it like sardines, but we feel great about our first set of foreign wheels.

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St. Patty's Day

Not surprisingly, St. Patrick's Day isn't a big holiday in Slovenia.  In fact, as nature's way of emphasizing this, the Lubljanica River turned from its normal green to brown today with all of the rain that we've had.

Still, we decided we should check out the festivities at Patrick's Irish Pub this afternoon.  It was fairly quiet, but that was just fine.  Mommy and Daddy tasted a couple of pints of Stout from Slovenia's one and only craft brewery, Human Fish (we learned that the human fish is a blind amphibeus creature that lives in the Karst caves).  Good stuff.  The kiddos got strawberry juice, pomfrits, Guiness tattoos, and lots of coasters...the pub's owner, Mitja, gave them each a stack to take home.  And they got to spend time with their favorite folks from Tennessee, Cindy and Don.

Sy was decked out in his best Packer green, and as luck would have it, Mitja is a huge Packer fan.  He thought it was the greatest thing in the world to have a little Packer fan in his bar on St. Patty's Day and spent most of his afternoon hanging out by our table.

Ambassadors

Yes, we are ambassadors of American culture and style.  I guess this is what happens when you mix three kids with a week of rain and a small apartment.

The Ljubljana Zoo

It was a picturesque day in Ljubljana yesterday and we decided we would make up our date with the zoo.  The walk was longer than we had thought (almost three miles), but beautiful.  The road to the zoo winds along the southern edge of Tivoli Park, with quaint little neighborhoods on one side and paths leading up into wooded hills on the other.  Where the sun hits, there were patches of purple and white flowers in full bloom and bees buzzing from one flower to the next.  The zoo itself sits back in the trees and hills of Tivoli and is as much a walk through a forest as it is a zoo.

We met our friends Cindy and Don there, who were quite amused at a visit to the zoo with our crew.  We've decided our kids need more animal education, as they shouted out random animals at whatever they saw:  at the sea lions, "It's a BIG FISH," at the mules, "Look, COWS," and so on.  We're sure they thoroughly confused the Slovenian children who are learning animal names in English.

The kiddos had a blast.  There is a petting zoo with goats and little pot-bellied pigs who roll over on their sides to have their bellies scratched...after a brief moment of tentativeness, they made it their goal to pet every animal at least twice.  There was also a pen with baby chicks and Celia and Rosetta each got to hold one (Sy was disqualifed after trying to grab one by its head).

Once again, we ended our day sitting outside with pizza and a beer.  After logging all those miles, we figured we deserved it.  Life is good.

Another Doctor Visit

We've come to the conclusion that we can't do anything efficiently here, partly because we can't do anything efficiently in general and partly because we just don't know what we're doing.

Yesterday was no exception.  We were planning to go to the zoo, but Rosetta woke up complaining about pain in her shoulder and there was a noticeable lump on her collarbone that wasn't there before.  So, our day went kind of like this:

- We debated whether we should go to the doctor or wait.
- We decided we should call someone and ask first.
- We debated who we should call.
- Chantelle called the triage nurse back in St. Paul on Skype, who said we should probably see a doctor.
- We debated on whether we should just show up at the clinic or try to call to ask about making an appointment.
- We decided we should call someone who can speak Slovenian to call and ask for us.
- We debated who that should be.
- Chantelle called our friend Charlotte from the Embassy (who took Chantelle and Rosetta to the hospital when it first happened) and she said she would.
- We waited for Charlotte to call back.
- Charlotte told us that we should just show up at the clinic with all of our paperwork.
- We decided we would have lunch first, then go.
- We got to the clinic about 12:45 and there was no one at the reception desk.
- We waited about 15 minutes and were finally told they're closed from 12:30 to 2:00.
- We went to a coffee shop to kill an hour.
- We went back and were told to wait outside the doctor's door; if he agreed to see us, then we should come back to the reception desk to get our visit put in the system.
- We waited and were told the doctor would see us.
- We went back to the reception desk and set up our appointment.
- We waited to be called in, they called us in, the doctor said it looks fine.
- We went back to the reception desk, waited to pay, paid, and left.

The bad news is we spent our entire day working on what turned out to be about a 45-minute appointment (they actually have a fairly efficient system once you are at the clinic; it was figuring everything else out that took all day).  The good news is that everything looks okay with Rosetta, the zoo can wait, and we were finished in time to sit by the river and enjoy a beer for happy hour.

Costume Party

We were invited to a children’s costume party yesterday afternoon to celebrate the end of Pust.  The party was put on by one of the women at the Embassy and took place at a large children’s center in Ljubljana.  Rosetta and Celia dressed up as bunny rabbits and Sy dressed up as a kid with bedhead in sunglasses.  The party was fantastic…there was a band playing children’s songs and the kiddo’s danced their (cotton)tails off to če ste zadovoljni in ti to veš (“If you’re happy and you know it”) and other songs we recognized.  In fact, we were having so much fun that we were there a full half-hour before realizing we were in the wrong room at the wrong party.

So, we changed venues.  And the kiddos had even more fun there.  There were legos, trains, art projects, and plenty of snacks.  Rosetta and Celia made Mardi Gras masks, and were very proud of themselves.  True to form, Sy was infatuated with the older boys who were beating on each other with toy swords, ate his and his sisters' shares of snacks, and we had to pry him away from the legos and trains when it was time to go.

As a couple of sidenotes… We learned yesterday that the Nebotičnik (the thirteen-story “skyscraper”) was the tallest building in southeastern Europe when it was completed in 1933.  So, us poking fun at the name was pure ignorance.  Also, Rosetta had a follow-up doctor appointment today and looks like she is doing just fine.  Let’s hope it continues!

Pust, Ljubljana Style

Yesterday was Ljubljana’s Carnival parade, which went by our apartment and across the Triple Bridge to Preseren Square.  It was far more tame than what we witnessed last weekend in Ptuj, but was still a lot of fun.  The second Saturday of Carnival (or Kurentovanje, as they call it in Ptuj; or Pust, as they call it in the rest of Slovenia) is masquerade day, so everyone was out in full costume.  In fact, Rosetta, Celia, and Sy were the only kids out who weren’t dressed up.  Good thing they're too young to care.

This parade was complete with bumble bees, a fire-breathing devil, brass bands, lots of accordions, a few Kurenti, and even a Muammar Gaddafi float (we’re not sure where that fits into Slovene history, or Carnival for that matter).

The best part was the polka band that played in the square after the parade.  They reminded us of the Essen Haus in Madison, except that they were dressed as purple and yellow jokers, which reminded us of the Minnesota Vikings.  We're pretty sure they sang “I don’t want her, you can have her” in Slovenian.  Celia had a ball dancing around in circles and waving a ribbon she picked up off the ground.  Sy also “danced” a bit; unfortunately, we’re fairly certain he’s inherited his old man's sense of rhythm.  Mommy and Daddy had lots of fun watching.

We ended the day with pizza and then dragged three exhausted kids and two exhausted parents home to bed.

Mommy's Birthday

Yesterday, we had another birthday in our apartment, and each of the kids had a special present for Mommy:

- Sy sang happy birthday to Buzz Lightyear and Zurg
- Celia did a poopy in the toilet and ran into the kitchen with her pants down to tell Mommy
- Rosetta broke her collarbone goofing around with Celia, while we were out having dinner and a babysitter was here (we aren't sure exactly how it happened because she did it after she and Celia were "in bed")

Rosetta wins.

Our Embassy Visit

Along with everyone else in our program, we were invited to the U.S. Embassy this morning to meet with the Ambassador, Joseph Mussomeli.  Of course, the kiddos chose this morning to sleep in, to not want to eat breakfast, to not want to get dressed, and to not want to walk down the stairs.  And, of course, I chose to go by memory and realized half way there I had no idea where the Embassy was.

But, we did make it and it was a very cool experience.  Ambassador Mussomeli and his staff members were very, very nice and went out of their way to make us feel appreciated (and "official").  They gave us a lot of great tips on things to do with the kids and to make life here easier with them.  The kiddos most enjoyed snack time and consumed a month's worth of cookies and brownies.  It was time to go once the ensuing sugar rush set in...

By the way, the woman holding Rosetta is Cindy, her "adopted" mom.

Kurentovanje Part II

For the most part, our trip to Ptuj went smooth.  The kids were great on the train ride and had a great time once we were there.  They were even perfectly fine at the parade, which was surprising given the costumes and noise.  The weather was nice, our hotel was nice, the people we met were nice.

But, a trip to Ptuj wouldn’t be a trip to Ptuj without us doing something dumb along the way.

We arrived early at the train station on Friday, met some friends, Don and Cindy, who were joining us for the trip (and who the kiddos absolutely adore), found our train, and got ourselves and our bags and strollers on board.  As we were boarding, Rosetta, who is always good for a one-liner, said, “Mommy, do you see any trains?”  So far, so good.

Two-and-a-half hours later, we rolled into Ptuj.  Being naïve tourists, we expected to have a few minutes to get ourselves off the train when we stopped.  Not the case.  The train stops just long enough that if you’re standing at the door with your luggage when it stops, you might be able to get yourself and some of your luggage off the train before it takes off again.

So, the train stopped, we got the kids and our bags off, I stepped back on the train to grab the strollers…and the doors shut and the train started moving.  Chantelle, the kids, and our bags are on a train platform in Ptuj, and I’m headed to Hungary with the strollers.  Fantastic.  Fortunately, Chantelle got the conductor’s attention and he stopped the train.  I literally threw the strollers off and jumped off myself.  Lesson learned, disaster avoided.

But…we still had a train ride home to mess up.  And we took full advantage.

We got to the Ptuj train station early Saturday evening and we were going to have our ducks in a row this time for getting our bags, our strollers, and ourselves on board.  However, somewhere in the middle of carrying our bags and strollers down the steps to the tunnel and then up the steps to the platform, we left one of our bags behind.  And it was Chantelle’s.  Don’t ask me how because we only had two duffel bags (yes, that means that Chantelle had one duffel bag and the kiddos and I had another), but we didn’t realize it until we were boarding.  Don jumped off the train and ran down the steps to see if it was in the tunnel to no avail.

So, there we were, on our way home, assuming Chantelle’s bag was gone for good.  Chantelle was trying to figure out how to replace everything in her bag, I was trying to figure out how to add one more item to the vast inventory of screw-ups I’ll be reminded about until the day I die.

Again, we were fortunate (apparently all of Grandma’s prayers are saving us from ourselves)…The train conductor came and told us our bag was in the Ptuj office – someone had found it and brought it there – and they would put it on the train to Ljubljana in the morning.  Phew.

But, of course, it wasn’t quite that simple.  The train arrived in the morning, there was no sign of the bag, and I couldn’t find a conductor who spoke English to ask about it.  And the train was about to leave again, maybe with our bag on it.  I ran up and down the platform like a lunatic until I finally asked a gentleman who turned out to be the Ljubljana station agent…he asked the conductors and they told him the bag was still in Ptuj because they weren’t sure what to do with it.  So, I went with the station agent to his office, he made a phone call to Ptuj, and he assured me that it would be on the Sunday evening train.  And it was.  Lesson learned, disaster avoided...until next time.