To - Postojna.
Distance - 53km
Time - 3 hours
Total - 3753km
Before I went out yesterday evening I was seduced by an 'all you can eat' barbecue at the hostel for 6 euros. Three full plates later I considered that I had had good value. It was washed down with Slovenian beer. There are two brands of Slovenian beer, one is Lasko and the other is Union and just to be fair I had one of each!
A short walk to the City Exhibition Centre and I was at my concert venue for Sierra Maestra. The ticket time was 9pm and at half past the support band came on. Cutting through the language I think they were called Professor of Blues and were very much a Retro Blues band but with young band members. They were very talented, the lead guitarist was great and the harmonica placer was excellent too. They did about an hour which is a little long for a support band and we had to wait till 11pm before Sierra Maestra came on. It was the last gig of their tour and it looked like it. A couple of the singers could hardly manage a smile. Having said that the music was authentic and hugH quality especially the guitarist and the trumpet player. They were still playing at 12.45am but half the audience had left, probably because of the time. It's such a pity they didn't start earlier.
I was back on the road in the morning. I short journey to Postojna. I was wrong about the hill because there were two. Both were gradual even though there were a few hairpin bends before I got to Postojna. I arrived at the Sports Hotel and Hostel by lunchtime and checked in. The weather forecast had been totally wrong so far because it was beautiful and sunny when it had forecast rain. I got a hostel room for nine people but I am the only one. What's the point paying extra for single rooms when you can get big dormitories to yourself? The lady told me that the admission fee for the cave is 23 euros! That's steeper than the hills I have cycled up! I bit the bullet and set off to the cave and called into the Tourist Info on the way. I bought a cave ticket there and got 5% off, well it's not much but it's nice to get some reduction.
It was still lovely and hot in the sunshine. I walked to the cave (Jama in Slovenian) and found that this is a big operation. There were many coach parties from Austria, Germany, France, Croatia and Italy. It felt a little bit like a cattle market. In fact I was at the back of the second train that transported people into the cave. When we stopped I went in search of the English speaking tour on,y to find they had set off without me and I had a heck of a job battling my way past other language groups to catch them up. I commented that the English speaking people must be the fastest walkers. The cave itself is massive and very spectacular. I took several photos but haven't bored you with them apart from one. Photos don't express the beauty or the size of the place properly. It's certainly bigger and more spectacular than anything I've seen in the UK and that comes from someone who got his 'speleologist' badge in the scouts! - not many people know that!
Of course when I came out the sun was still shining but a big grey cloud was lurking and rain just held off until I got back to the hostel. It gave us a good downpour.
Going through these places that no-one has previously heard of made me become philosophical. I have always liked the phrase 'Wherever you go, there you are'! For me, this means that wherever you go, you are the same person so it doesn't really matter where you go its more about your state of mind and what you make of it. A new place doesn't make a new person, you are just the same. What does this mean in reality for me? It means that I am hungry wherever I am! That seemed to take a lot of philosophy to work out that I'm a greedy pig! There is a fat person trapped inside this (fairly) thin body.
The evening got sunny again and I walked to the top of a nearby mountain called Jelicova. There was a cafe at the top and the views were fantastic. The cafe was playing Bruce Springsteen. I enjoyed it just as much as going into the cave. The photos don't do it justice. As a result I have chosen my favourite Bruce Springsteen track 'Jungleland' as my song of the day.
Italy tomorrow.
Photo 1, Can you guess what this is a picture of?
Photo 2, A photo of a nice field and woods.
Photo 3, Sport Hotel and Hostel.
Photo 4, on my way to a Jama party!
Photo 5, Entrance to the Cave.
Photo 6, Stalagmite and Stalactite.
Photo 7, Water wheel and wear next to Cave.
Photo 8, view from Jelicova.
Photo 9, Another view from the top.
No comments:
Post a Comment