I tried to ask two ladies sitting at the post office desk in the university where I would find a post box, only to end up with no idea but three further sets of international air mail stamps. Huh?
It was hot, 38°, inside with no air conditioning. In recognition of this fact, I decided to skip the first papers of the afternoon (which had no real relevance to me) and have a long lunch by the river in the shade.
I ate again at Pizzeria Ljubljanski Dvor, this time opting for the Bavarska pizza. I felt a bit pathetic, with my “table for one, please”, but thought I’d better get over it before I launched north alone. I felt terribly official, lounging around with my IOSOT bag and conference badge, looking up at Ljubljana Castle. Though Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in Slovenian emanating from the bar opposite was a bit surreal. This soon changed to Samba. Then a string of hits by Italian favourite Eros Ramazotti.
The pizza arrived, and they weren’t kidding when they promised garlic. Yikes. I dug in, as the bar continued its Italian theme by sticking Andrea Bocelli’s Cieli di Toscana on the CD Player. I decided it wouldn’t be too bad to stick around for a while, perhaps in the manner of a siesta! Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that – and I’m neither.
I decided to go back for the Qumran papers taking up the last half of the afternoon, which started at 16.40. This gave me an excellent opportunity to return to St Nicholas’s Church (closed during our regular lunch break). Even better – the choir was rehearsing for the IOSOT German-speakers’ event at night (pictures of the church interior with said choir in action are here, on the IOSOT site). They sounded wonderful, and I sat down to listen. The church is very baroque, plastered with frescoes, but without clashing colours or too bold patterns in the marble, so it is not overpowering. It was also cool.
The pews were odd – they sat on a 50cm high platform and leaned back, in blocks of fifteen-or-so pews. Sort of like a one-horse open church.
I decided it was time to leave for the 16.40 session, but I was so absorbed with the choir, who were running over an alto part at the time, that I forgot that the pews were not on ground level. I dropped like a rock, before staggering about a bit, desperately trying to locate my misplaced balance. The non-alto portion of the choir dissolved into laughter, to the consternation of the altos and the frustration of the choir director, which only made the other singers laugh harder. Once he realised that they were reacting to something rather than merely failing to take the task seriously, he looked angrily up into the organ loft, then realising that he was about to look my way, and still being a wee bit off-balance, I did something ridiculous but instinctive – I hit the deck. This made the choir collapse again. I made my exit.
Despite all this hilarity, I made it back to the Law Faculty for the papers. When I gave up for the day, I sought Alissa and Narges to tell them I was disappearing with the room key (back to the room, so it was okay), then detoured via a supermarket for a litre of pineapple juice and some snacks for tea. Mmm.
Tuesday dawned. With papers of some relevance all afternoon, I missed the first part of the morning in order to pack. It was hot again, so once I had had a shower, I went looking for cool spots. Unfortunately the door on the ground floor of the hostel, which had given us some promising breezes, was closed. Happily, I found a tiny local supermarket with air conditioning and decided to hang out there for a while. When, after a good 25 minutes, I was cool enough to proceed, I realised that the only exit was through the checkout, and after being there so long I felt I had to buy something. So this is how I ended up with another litre of pineapple juice – it was either that or salami. But there comes a point when water doesn’t cut it, and you need some kind of extra sustenance, so I was glad to have the pineapple juice all the same.
I continued to the university via the Bible exhibition put on for IOSOT and the Slovenian Year of the Bible, at St Jozef’s church. It was mostly facsimile, but beautifully presented and there was a display of some of the earliest Slovenian language Bibles and liturgical objects. Also, there was a modern Slovenian artist’s (I wish I had written down her name) interpretation of the way of the cross and crucifixion. She sees events mostly as the interplay of light and colour so her paintings were atmospheric and impressionistic.
Thankful to be no longer clad in sandals, I hobbled up to the market and got some random fruity-type lunch. I was happy to take it easy after yesterday’s pizzastravaganza. It was really too hot for the papers, but some were interesting nonetheless, and we all traipsed along the river to find food afterwards.
We stopped at an Italian-sounding café (Caffe Romeo), but it turned out to be a Mexican restaurant! Alissa was concerned that all the burritos appeared to include a fair amount of cabbage and zucchini (that’s courgette to the more British among us). I ordered beef nachos, and needed help!
By the time our quesadillas and “Quesada” (which we’re pretty sure was actually a tostada) arrived, I think I was almost full. But it was all excellent, and a surprise! Here’s Alissa looking happy about it all:
Before bed, I had a shower, but waking up at 1 am after only dozing, I needed another to get off to sleep again. Then I had another at 3.30, and woke again at 4.30 despairing of ever sleeping again. But before I was forced to jump under another icy downpour, I walked around our floor and found an open window, with an acceptable breeze. I stood there for almost an hour, thinking about my time in Slovenia and the fun I had had with Narges and Alissa, overlooking Ljubljana at dawn and watching the silhouette of the Alps emerge to the north.
I continued to the university via the Bible exhibition put on for IOSOT and the Slovenian Year of the Bible, at St Jozef’s church. It was mostly facsimile, but beautifully presented and there was a display of some of the earliest Slovenian language Bibles and liturgical objects. Also, there was a modern Slovenian artist’s (I wish I had written down her name) interpretation of the way of the cross and crucifixion. She sees events mostly as the interplay of light and colour so her paintings were atmospheric and impressionistic.
Thankful to be no longer clad in sandals, I hobbled up to the market and got some random fruity-type lunch. I was happy to take it easy after yesterday’s pizzastravaganza. It was really too hot for the papers, but some were interesting nonetheless, and we all traipsed along the river to find food afterwards.
We stopped at an Italian-sounding café (Caffe Romeo), but it turned out to be a Mexican restaurant! Alissa was concerned that all the burritos appeared to include a fair amount of cabbage and zucchini (that’s courgette to the more British among us). I ordered beef nachos, and needed help!
By the time our quesadillas and “Quesada” (which we’re pretty sure was actually a tostada) arrived, I think I was almost full. But it was all excellent, and a surprise! Here’s Alissa looking happy about it all:
Before bed, I had a shower, but waking up at 1 am after only dozing, I needed another to get off to sleep again. Then I had another at 3.30, and woke again at 4.30 despairing of ever sleeping again. But before I was forced to jump under another icy downpour, I walked around our floor and found an open window, with an acceptable breeze. I stood there for almost an hour, thinking about my time in Slovenia and the fun I had had with Narges and Alissa, overlooking Ljubljana at dawn and watching the silhouette of the Alps emerge to the north.
I lay back down to catch a couple of hours more sleep before leaving Slovenia. I gazed up at the grafitti once more. Farewell, Marjeta and Tomasz, I hope it all worked out.
As I was drifting off, I noticed another, more recent scrawl in the same hand.
"Marjeta [hearts] Ivan"...
Ah.
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