"At home Jocelyn always gives me a hard time about tipping, so it's nice to show her that the whole world doesn't operate that way. I get a little sense of redemption when I show her by trying to tip a waitress, only to have her run over to us to say I gave her 20 extra cents by accident. Sweet.
This guesthouse family is super nice (I suppose it is their job), but we feel welcome. This day is the most relaxing so far. Sleep in. Walking to Otočec castle is pleasant through the forest. It is a hotel now, but it still is nice to look at. I keep poking Jocelyn to give hitchiking a try, but she is discouraged from the start, so we just walk to the nearest town. Even here people speak perfect English. I am pretty impressed. I prefer a little language struggle in my travelling, makes it seem a little more authentic. But man, is it ever easy to get around here. We eat maybe the best pizza I have ever had, and chase it down with a bottle of Cviček.
On the walk back, I try to prove that hitching a ride is not impossible. An old man stops and picks us up. Told you so, Jocelyn. But for all the glory of proving myself right, we end up driving way past where we were supposed to go. Oops. But we are on free time now and there's a sign for a bar in view. We go in, I order in Slovenian. Eventually I run out of words, but of course she speaks English and has just been humouring me. Nice that I gave it a try anyway, I think people appreciate it. We aren't far from where we have to go. Saunter back to the guesthouse pick up our bags. Jocelyn is now more inclined to give the thumb a try even though out last ride didn't work so well. We get a ride into Novo Mesto no problem and make the train to Ljubljana. I'm excited to show off the city, I've been back here enough times now to have my bearings. We check into a crappy hostel to give Jocelyn a different flavour of travel. No hot water, hassle about staying past check out. The place sucks, but you've gotta stay at the poor places too if you're gonna have any perspective.
We wander around, grab some food, drink some pivo. Meet a cool waitress who seems to be moonlighting as a tour guide and turns us on to some cool things going on in the next few days and invites me along with her. Exchange numbers. I give her a sticker for my band. I brought a stack of them to carpetbomb the country with. All this Slovenian travel is going to provide fuel for some new songs. Check it out at www.myspace.com/reykjavictim and see what I come up with. Some of these town names are pretty musical.
So I guess I have some things on my plate for the next days. We go get some more beer in Metelkova with my friend Ema when she gets off work. She's a cool cat, I'm glad she's on my team. Provides a little insider information about this place.
We drink until 4am. It's hard for us to wrap our brains around being able to buy beer from a bar, and then just walk away with it. Silly Canada doesn't quite have it's act together in this department.
Next day we go to the Challenge Future office for a little interview with the prize winner. I think I give them what they need. We take photos and get some t-shirts. The place is a pain to get to. We don't have a transit card (and don't want to buy one) but the bus driver just groans and lets us on anyway. Free ride. It goes in the right direction, but we still have to walk a bit. It's nice to have this goal for the day, makes me feel important.
Back to the city center for free again. Walk up to the castle, wander around the river. It's really a nice city. I give Jocelyn all the that I have, afterall, I am an expert on Slovenia now.
Back to hostel Celica to rest out legs. This is my home base. I like to think that I'm getting special treatment by using the Internet and storing our bags in the luggage room, as if I have wooed the reception girls with my endless charm. But in reality they are probably this nice to everyone; that or they just can't remember if I'm actually a guest tonight or not.
This is the last night for Jocelyn. I think I put together a good trip for her (us). I had a good time. She'll catch the night train to Venice and then get on a plane tomorrow.
And then there was one."
No comments:
Post a Comment