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| The Kelemen Quartett |
The concert on Thursday in the Music Academy was interesting. It had several pieces by Debussy and Ravel on its program and made me realise that I hardly know either. Ravel was better than Debussy, but the quartet that were the main performers, as well as the lady who is the Director of the Music Academy and is an excellet harp player, were all excellent. Bozsa and Eszter were good company as ever and we decided that we want a few of the subscription tickets for next season in the Palace of the Arts. I am in charge to get next season's opera subsciptions tickets while Bozsa is getting the ones for the Palace of the Arts. I have now got into the swing of so much good music that I don't know what I would do if I lost the facility. Let us hope that will never happen!!
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| The view from my bedroom window |
And then on Friday I left for Slovenia in a 9 seater Mercedes minibus. Unfortunately, as a last minute change we also had to give a lift to four youngsters whose coach suddenly was held up until Sunday, so the bus was full. We took ages to get out of town, which is not surprising with a Friday afternoon departure. We got to our accommodation by about 10.30pm which wasn't too bad. Stanjel is an amazing place. It is like a hill fort with a castle on the side and high stone walls all round. We couldn't drive all the way to our B&B as the entrance gate into the fort was too narrow. Luckily the owner of the B&B came out to pick us up in her, much narrower, car.
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| A typical house in Stanjel |
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| The view from Stanjel towards the mountains |
The views the following morning were impressive. I only found this place by accident on the internet, but I must admit it is not the first time I proved to have an unerring instinct to come up with fantastic places. On top of all this the lady who owned and ran the place turned up to be an absolute gem. Very helpful, kind, attentive and nothing was too much trouble. The comments in the Guest Book proved that she is like this to everyone. The B&B was spotlessly clean, well equipped, nicely done up, even though that it was situated in 2 renovated ancient, medieaval stone houses and their stables.
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| The entrance into the hill fort of Stanjel |
Day one of the orienteering took place on a new map, which was not as full of sinkholes as it is usual for the area, but it was still suitably hard. I entered Open, which was far too long for me, but I struggled and managed to finish the entire course on 2 out of the 3 days. The second day the wind got even fiercer and I didn't really feel well enough to run, but went out anyway. I find it difficult to breathe in strong wind and anyway, this was the longest, so I cut out the first 4 controls and started at 5.
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| Day 1 at Dobravlje |
On Day 1 after the orienteering we went down to Trieste to see the Miramar Palace which was quite impressive. The sun shone and I could take a few good pictures. We didn't go in as the sun was setting and we wanted to get back for dinner. On Day 2 the rest of them went down a very deep cave and I stayed in the bus reading. After that gruelling course I just didn't feel up to another 3km with 500 steps. Shame, as it seemed very impressive in the brochures, but such is life!
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| Day 3, which was my favourite |
The last day of orienteering was both excellent and a bit painful. Excellent as the sun came out and the wind dropped. I felt really good and up to even jogging some of it. The planning was much more to my liking with its short legs and very technical, varied control locations. This lasted until just after control 9, when I managed to fall over so badly that I fell on rock and probably broke a few ribs. This happened roughly in the middle of my course, so there was no alternative but finish it and I even managed to beat Klari, my friend, who beat me on both of the first two days. Why? Because she got lost and I didn't. Even after my fall and the likelihood of broken ribs I went slowly and carefully and made no mistakes. She, on the other hand, got lost pretty much, although she wouldn't tell me where. Admittedly, both of us were out for nearly 2 hours and I only beat her by a bit less than 4 minutes, but it still made me happy.
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| The Julian Alps from the A1 motorway |
The ribs were not broken according to the ambulance doctor that attended the orienteering event and I decided that I will manage without further pushing and prodding by other doctors. The pain got considerable later and she did say that it will be with me for a minimum of 3 weeks. I felt my ribs myself and didn't think they were broken, just very badly bruised. In spite of all this, I still think it was a very good weekend away, interesting orienteering, lovely B&B and gorgeous countryside. I love Slovenia and this being my fourth visit to the country I must admit, it is amazing and worth visiting. En route home we went slightly out of our way and visited a tiny village which had an amazing castle built into an enormous rock face. That was something to see, but yet again we did not have the time to go inside, perhaps next time! The traffic was not bad and I was at home around 9pm, when I had to own up to Roy about my injury. He is such a darling and he has been looking after me so well ever since that I feel a lot better already!!
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| Predjama Castle |
We have also put off our return to the village due to my injury as I would like to rest up for another day at least before attempting a 2+ hours bus journey on the delightful roads that our county has. Unfortunately I had to miss the teachers' protest today as well, but am following it on the internet and it is going pretty well.
Next post probably from the village next week.
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