The answer is ‘I love snow’
I spent the better part of close to two weeks in bits of Germany, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Austria. As the flight landed in Munich, the pilot cheerfully announced, “It is a beautiful day here in Munich and the temperature is -5”. And it was only mid-afternoon!!!!!!!!! A sampler of things to come?
Immigration was the usual hassle “Why are you here? For how many days? Where are you staying? Show me your hotel bookings. When are you going back?”. Satisfied with my responses, the official finally stamped my passport and murmured a gruff “Welcome to Germany”.
This is the first time I encountered temperatures below -15C and the fact that I am writing this means I did survive. Of course, I had astutely worn layers and layers of clothing (I am not revealing numbers but suffice to say that I would have put the Michelin man to shame). However, the cold did have an unforeseen consequence…I wanted to ‘go round the corner’ more often than usual and that was quite a feat given that I had to first take my hands out of the gloves and then maneouver….er…my way through those layers of clothes!!!! I am happy to report that no accidents took place!
The X’mas market was in full swing in Munich. The German market in Edinburgh is a two-shop wonder compared to what Munich had…..dozens and dozens of rows of shops all against the backdrop of the Rathaus and the Frauenkirche. And it took quite a while to get from one end of the market to the other given the more-than-regular frequency of the kiosks of Glühwein (mulled wine).
Whilst at Munich I committed the independent traveller’s cardinal sin by taking a conducted tour. This was to visit Neuschwanstein and Linderhof palaces (built by the Bavarian king Ludwig II as a homage to his favourite composer Richard Wagner). The former (‘New swan stone’) is apparently Germany’s most photographed building and was the inspiration for the Disney castle. It was built over twenty years during the 1870s and 1880s and the poor king never lived to see it completed. The palace does look rather fairy-tale-ish and this was, that day, accentuated by all the heavy snowfall that was hampering visibility and movement.
The conducted tour also took us to a village Obergammergau which had not much to it apart from the intricately-ornamented facades of the houses. The towns folk, when their town was ravaged by the plague in the 1600s, made a vow to God to stage a Passion Play there every 10 years….The next one is in 2010 and is expected to attract more than half-a-million people. Our tour only made a stop there so that all we ‘tourists’ could buy over-priced cuckoo clocks and souvenirs. In continuation of my no-souvenir policy, I only bought the obligatory post-card from that town.
Of course, not all was unwell with the tour – I did bump into some fellow-Indians and it was good fun to take in all the snow and sights in the presence of familiar company and language. Ended the day in a ‘beer hall’ which was a very different experience – imagine a complex of large halls with thousands of people downing beer by the litre (I’m not joking – one litre mugs). But the atmosphere was very convivial with families with little children comfortably meshing with football fans (who seemed to come directly from a Bayern match). When we asked for the vegetarian possibilities on the menu we were given a stern look that said “this is a Beer hall! You’re kidding about wanting vegetarian food, right?”
The next day (with a not-so-significant hangover) I moved to my next destination – Ljubljana (I still struggle with the spelling!) in Slovenia. The 6-hour train journey from Munich was a dream sequence – crisp whiteness all around interspersed with lakes (frozen or otherwise), valleys, towns, villages, rivulets, rivers, and mountains. I could, based on my companions in the coupé, genaralise that every Austrian has been to India. There was a physiotherapist who had just landed from Chennai after he had spent 5 weeks in an Ashram there (oh what we do to the westerners!). Then there was a girl who had spent one month in India a few years back. And sure enough when the Ticket checker came our way, he also proudly announced (when he found out where I was from) that he had spent two weeks in India.
Had to change the train at Villach (in Southern Austria) and the train to Ljubljana (which was finally destined for Zagreb) was an hour late. No wait, after 15 minutes they announced that it was only 30 minutes late. Then they said 45 minutes. And then they said 25 minutes. And then they announced that the train would be leaving in 3 minutes (without any clue as to which platform). Thankfully, there were many others who were to take the same train (as was evidenced by the sheer number of puzzled-looking people) and I knew that the train wouldn’t leave without all of us. The coupé where I plonked myself (and where I reduced the average age by two-thirds) did not have functional heating. The others, because of their age, were not willing to move because they would have had to shift their luggage. In my unintelligible gestures I volunteered to help them move their luggage but in their equally unintelligible gestures they said (at least that is what I think they meant) that they would stay put. With -10 degrees outside, I decided to move to a warmer coupé (after apologizing to my elderly co-passengers for leaving them in the cold).
As the train entered Slovenia the train track ran along the river ‘Sava’ – sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left side. This was coupled with lush (not green but white) forests where one could see people out with their horses or dogs. I was warming up to Slovenia (figuratively. Literally I was still freezing but less than before!). And after a while the sun came out and I managed to catch a few winks (notwithstanding the fear of missing my stop and landing up in the next country!). However, my reverie was broken by an extremely garrulous old lady who got on at Jesenice and decided to have a conversation (monologue) with a young man in the carriage. She talked non-stop during the entire one and a half hours till Ljubljana. Then she opened her bag, and in true desi style, took out her snacks of which she offered me some (I was pleasantly surprised since after 3 years in the UK I have sadly become used to seeing people eating without offering it to others first). As the train reached Ljubljana and I was preparing to get off she offered me more snacks to take with me and said ‘eat eat!’
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia which became a separate country in 1991 and is, sadly, often confused with Slovakia. In fact, a few years back, the Bush administration announced a grant of $4.5 million for Slovenia for being part of the coalition against Iraq. And then someone pointed out that it was meant to be Slovakia and not Slovenia. Well, it was George Bush’s administration, so what do you expect (Reminds me of the souvenirs one sees in Austria (meant specifically for people from a 'certain' country) which say “We don’t have Kangaroos here”).
Anyway, the origin of the word Ljubljana (lets get all pedantic now) is disputed. Some say it is derived from the Latin word for ‘Alluvial’. I prefer the alternative version according to which it is derived from ‘Ljubljena’ which is Slovene for ‘beloved’. Apparently Ljubljana was one of the stops Jason and his Argonauts made and here they slayed a dragon (the dragon is now the symbol of the town). The river (!) Ljubljanica flows through the town (calling it a city would be a liberal stretch of the imagination) and the town skyline is dominated by the castle (which stands atop a hill). From the castle, one gets great views of the town (which in this season looked like a pretty snow-globe) and its baroque buildings. What strikes the visitor is that almost every (I’m not joking) important building in Ljubljana was designed by Jože Plečnik. One of the landmarks of the town is the ‘triple bridge’ when the existing bridge turned out to be insufficient to cater to the demands of people wanting to go from one side of the river to the other, Plečnik decided to build 2 other bridges right next to it. Simple and efficient.
The main square of town is Prešernov trg which has a rather largish pink-façade church and a statue of the Slovene poet, France Prešeren (I had not heard of him before I went to Slovenia, the philistine that I am). In one of the buildings across the street is a wee bust of Julija Primic (the poet's muse) which is looking longingly towards Prešeren – which I thought was a bit cruel to the man considering that she ended up marrying a richer man.
I was the only tourist when I visited the castle - I was feeling a bit bad for the Slovenian tourism industry but then I compared it with Prague and its overload of British and American tourists and then I felt cheerful (the tourism department plays on the fact that ‘love’ forms part of the name of the country). The castle ticket also included a ‘Virtual’ (3D) film on the history of Ljubljana – normally I avoid seeing such touristy presentations but I was the only one there and there were 4 members of staff who did look quite pleased on seeing this crazy lone tourist in this equally crazy weather. So I did not let them down and subjected myself to the film (which, for the record, was not too bad).
It did rain and snow quite a lot when I was in Ljubljana (Note to weather Gods: If I had wanted rain I would have stayed in Edinburgh instead of going on a holiday!). When I was planning my excursions out of Ljubljana the helpful lady at the TIC informed me that ‘tomorrow would be a mild day. Only -7 degrees!’. And when I told here where I had come from she said ‘Oh UK never gets cold.’. She obviously has not visited Scotland in the peak of ‘summer’.
I had an extra rainy day to kill at Ljubljana and decided to take a walking tour of the town even though I had already seen most of the sights. I thought it would help kill time by tagging along with a walking group. When I got to the appointed place, there was no group to speak of. Only one corpulent gentleman - and he was the tour guide. So for the next two hours I was taken on a personal tour of the town which was fun but stressful as I had to appear interested all the time and had to keep on asking questions to ensure that my guide knew that I was awake and paying attention!
In the evening I was planning to take a sightseeing-by-boat tour along the Ljubljanica. But I spent more time than planned in one of the bars (they were playing great music) that I missed the time for the boat tour. When I finally came out I noticed a big commotion in the X’mas market (which runs right along the river). It was then I noticed that the boat which was used for the tour had capsized. I thanked my stars (and beer and the good music at the bar) for having missed my tour!!!!!!!
Ljubljana has an extremely high per capita presence of trendy bars and fashionable tea-houses (you know the ones where they have 100s of varieties of teas and serve desserts with intricate designs made out of chocolate sauce!). However, one thing that struck me was the long queues outside the confession boxes in the churches. Did it have something to do with the time of the year (X’mas) or was there a high incidence of sinning in this country, I was never able to find out. However, it was fun seeing the red light turning to green as soon as one confession was over and the next sinner would promptly take his/her place in the booth.
From Ljubljana, I made a day trip to the wee town of Bled. Castle Bled (Blejski Grad) was once the summer residence of the…let me see if I can get it right….the Karadzordzevici (once the Yugoslav royal family). It is easy to see why Bled is so popular with tourists. There is a large lake with a wee island (the only one in Slovenia) which has a beautiful church. On one side of the lake is the castle perched atop a steep cliff. All in all it is extremely picturesque. But the day I was there it was snowing non stop so the views were not what I would have wanted them to be. I did a bit of walking around the lake, stopped for coffee, walked more, stopped for tea….you get the picture? I had to walk quite a bit as I had to burn the calories I intook in trying the local culinary speciality - Blejska Grmada (cream cake) which was as soft and creamy as they come….
Well that’s it for now. More on Czech Republic and Austria soon.
By the way, the question was “Why the hell are you travelling there this time of the year?”
PS
- I never noticed till someone pointed out – Slovenia is shaped just like a chicken!
- Whenever I get stuck with the spelling of Ljubljana (and that happens often) I reminded myself with ‘L-Joob-L-jaana’
- ‘Hvala’ is how one says ‘Thank you’ in Slovene. Always reminded me of dirty fat politicians with dubious foreign exchange!
