Rainy days and rainy nights

Sounds familiar? It does if you live in central Europe. This June sucks big time. I don't quite remember any June being that bad. Even if some day it's not raining from morning, there are bound to be showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Not exactly the best start of summer. In two days, on the 20th June, the longest day of the year shall occur. This is when our ancestors celebrated the power of sun with lighting big bonfires at night. Whole communities would gather even long after the Christianity was introduced. This was the night when magic things would happen, and nature ruled. Nowadays people don't even notice this nature's calendar... Isolated between with walls and watches... Hope rain stops this weekend. It would be nice to be able to take a long deep breath of fresh, clean air filled with fragrances of flowers somewhere in the forest on the longest day of the year...

Smell of summer

I realize I might be neglecting this blog lately. It's just that there's nothing to much to write about. Lately it seems each work day falls into a boring pattern, and it doesn't seem like I might be able to change it soon. And unfortunately, weekend is only two days per week...

I hope summer brings something new, and I hope this something new is going to be good. It seems like weekends are gonna be filled with playing tamburica- we're already booked solid through July, and at the end of August we're performing at the international tamburica festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia. And in the mean while- there's few goodies here and there- like weekend in Prague, and of course picnics, swimming, canoeing... Anyways, I attached few pictures of Kolpa river just to remind you and me of what's to come. I took it last weekend when my brother and I walked the path down Kolpa river all the way to Dejani. Last weekend Kolpa was still a bit coldish- with about 18 C.

Today it's raining...

And I feel like listening to some light music. If you're from around here, there's a good chance you haven't heard song on this video. It's nice- a bit country with a Celtic touch.

The May holidays

May holidays just ended. In Slovenia, 1st and 2nd May are public holidays, and since this year it happened on Thursday and Friday we got whole 4 days off work. Much needed I must say, though lately I have a feeling, that I come from holidays more tired than on work days.

Maypole above our village

Anyways- loads of things happened in previous month. I won't go much into detail about that, but at least some of those events were good. Some even very good; at least tamburica related events are here- our group got another gold award on national competition, and we appeared on tamburica festival in Banja Luka- and met some really great people there. More about that perhaps on some other occasion. Also nature did it's yearly miracle by turning brown and gray into green and colorful. It's amazing how this change affects us all- it's like we're give a great boost of energy and life. Good work- Green George!
I won't go into not so good stuff here. It's in human nature to remember good stuff in life, so I won't have a blog entry to remind me of those...
Well, let it be enough for now. I know that after one month break I probably should write a lot more, but today I just don't feel like it. ;-) Cheers!

Low-cost airlines & Slovenia

A week ago Ryanair stopped flying to Maribor (from London Stansted). Official reason was, that the route was not profitable. The real reason was that it was just not profitable enough, and local tourism industry just wasn't willing to pay enough to make it THAT profitable. And it's not like this is first time something like that happened. Easyjet, the only remaining low-cost carrier flying from Slovenia at this time canceled the route from Ljubljana to Berlin almost two years ago. And Wizzair (Polish-Hungarian low-cost airline) canceled flights to London Luton, and few months ago finally canceled its only remaining route from Ljubljana (to Brussels Charleroi). It seems like an epidemic. And it's not happening only in Slovenia. Ryanair reduced the former daily route from Celovec (Klagenfurt) to Stansted to 3 times a week. It also pulled out of Pula and Zadar during the winter season (the cancellation of Pula routes might be permanent). Yet all these airlines keep expanding- to the east. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bolgaria, Baltic states are hot destinations at the moment. I guess all those workers who migrated to Western Europe after EU accession are the generator of this move, as well as potential market and cheaper destinations. Let's face it- British stag parties aren't looking for culture, but cheap beer and accommodation. And with property prices so low in these new parts of EU the flow of the people is in both direction.

The happier days for travellers- Ryanair's takeoff from Maribor airport

Where is Slovenia's role in this? Well I guess having (regular) national airline (owned by the state) flying from only one fully equipped airport doesn't really help bringing new low-cost routes. Brnik airport is expanding quick enough (at least according to its management) so it doesn't need to lure potential low-cost airlines and (what is probably more important to them) reduce one of the highest airport taxes in this part of Europe. Government's lack of interest is almost legendary- if I recall well- it didn't do anything to help Maribor airport find new routes at all. So much about equal regional development. So- the end result is obvious- we the citizens of this "paradise on the sunny side of Alps" are forced to either pay more than our East-European neighbors, or travel far by road to the nearest airport offering privileges of low-cost flights. And everybody from above are trying hard to make us believe it's out of their hands. Sure it is. Don't understand me the wrong way- the biggest cause of the trend is the race for profit of the airlines- but please, don't tell me there's nothing we can do about it.

The genesis

After more than 3 month of idleness, working on other parts of website, all the booze drank in this time, it's finally here!!! The English translation of our folklore group website. Although it's not 1:1- at least at the moment most of the content is not translated, but it's a really good start anyway. There are most important things- like description of our group, video content, picture galleries, guest book, and contact form. So- thanks to Mateja! And Joomla fish.
And if something seismic happens and Vanja finishes her translation, there might even be a German version soon. ;-)
Anyways, you can check English version here, and Slovene version here.

It's been long time since Tena married

I just had to post this video. It's beautiful tamburica song, and what's more, I really can relate to it. No comparison necessary. I know that those of you who don't understand Slavic languages don't get it, but well- let it be enough to say it's a soul mover. :-I

Wednesday trip to the world of limestone

When I re-read my last post this morning, I told myself there must be something more interesting to do, but soak in warm water for whole day. So I thought to do a little trip south. I decided to do sort of Ljubljanica trip- I took the old road from Ljubljana to Postojna, took a detour at Planinsko polje to Unec, and made a great walk at Rakov Škocjan. Rakov Škocjan is a natural park. It's main attraction is a gorge of river Rak, one of many names for river Ljubljanica as it appears and disappears on the limestone terrain of this part of Slovenia. Rakov Škocjan is especially known for its two natural bridges- one of them is even so big, the road leads across it, and at one stage there was a small church built on it- ruins of which can still be seen. Anyways, the most spectacular part of this park (at least for me) is the very point where Rak flows out from cave. It's surrounded by steep cliffs of each sides, there's a natural bridge over it at the very start. Rak disappears and reappears from couple of caves, before it finally emerges few hundred meters from this point for its 5 km course- where it disappears again into the underworld. It is a great walk- and if there's been rain or snow lately you are bound to get at least a little bit wet from water dripping from cave walls above you... The route itself goes down into gorge, than up again, and crosses the river twice. Truly spectacular!

Rak river as it emerges from the underworld

Man made bridge in the gorge

Natural bridge (Mali most)

My next intention was, to climb hill Slivnica above Cerknica lake, but unfortunately due to snow I decided to leave it for some other time. The lake was less than half full, so the view probably wasn't all that spectacular at that stage. The rest of the trip was mostly drive back to Ljubljana- across snow covered Bloke plateau, and the road from Ribnica to Kočevje. My note- I'd recommend this trip to everyone.

And across the universe...

... there's nothing especially new. But seriously, I'm almost in a state of panic. Took a week off work since there wasn't that much to do at work at the moment and there's gonna be a lot soon. And I thought I'd decide along the way what to do with this one week. My original thought was to go somewhere North- not to far, like České Budějovice (yes I know the hidden agenda isn't to much hidden with this one). Or perhaps go to the seaside, or to the spa. Well- it's virtually Wednesday, and I still haven't decided anything. It's not like I made no plans. It's just that Murhpy comes along with stuff like bad weather, or something similar. So, if nothing else pops out, I'm going to Atlantis tomorrow. I know- kind of retired people behavior, but hey, at least I'm relaxing somewhere else but in front of TV.
This is probably a part where I should say something I missed saying in my last post, right? ;-) Well I'm not going to. There!
I can't wait for real spring to come.

Since I turned the big one today....

... I don't want to write anything deep, or depressed, or nerve-wrecking. ;-)
Actually... I don't want to write anything at all. So guess what (all 5 of you who are going to read this post)- you're stuck with a video again. Bummer!

Gotto go now- I feel pain in my spine. And my knee is a bit slow today. :-/

It happened in Juneau...

... believe it or not. Not a long while ago. I was surprised, as these things go, but on second thought it was expected. And perhaps long overdue. But shocking nonetheless. So, what now? To go ahead just as if nothing happened? Isn't that a bit hypocritical? Don't know, but at current time it seems like a right thing to do. As I mentioned before- easy way out can be the right way out sometimes. A bit of a Joycean problem, you see? Absolute truth is something to elusive to comprehend.
Enjoy the weekend...

Made a really great curry yesterday... ;-)

Póg mo thóin

It's funny how some words in one language, mean something completely different in other language. One of most unfortunate case of that is naming some global brand with some fictional name, which turns out to mean something in one language. For example- car names. Even in related languages one word might have two completely different meanings. For example- Czech word for blowing air into (for example a balloon..) means in most South-Slavic languages (including Slovene) to do... you know- the F word. ;-)
I remember visiting Ireland in July 1997. We were in these traditional pub in Kilkenny, and there was a music session in progress. All of the sudden the musician started singing a song, which to me sounded virtually impossible to understand. Due to accent some Irish are hard to understand even when they are sober. And this time I was rather confused- musician didn't look that drunk (true, there were 3 empty glasses infront of him, but that's no match for real Irishman). What I did seem to understand was, that now and there he was saying F... this, and F... that (this and that being words I didn't understand either). Well, I don't mind a bit of cursing, but it was still strange hearing that much in one song, so I asked my friend what was going on. Well, as it turned out, musician was singing song in Irish - "An Poc ar Buile" (The mad puck goat). And what (at least to me) sounded like F word was actually "An Poc". Well check the video, and you'll see what I was talking about. And yes- of course my comment caused some laughs in that pub. ;-)

And just in case you were wondering what the title means- it's basically your simple "Kiss my ass" in Irish. You didn't think the punk band like Pogues would name themselves after Barbie doll, would you? Anyways, it doesn't sound at all like what it means, so if you want to blow some steam without insulting people- there you go. And if you need something more exotic, try this. ;-)

Pikapolonica

I've been a bit busy lately with work, and with getting our folklore group web page online (check it out here, though for now it's Slovene only). It might take me a little while more to switch from very busy to not so busy, so in the meanwhile- here's a video of one of my favorite songs. The English translation of the title would be lady bug, but don't worry- it's not about insect world. ;-)

Sun & winter

This has been a strange winter so far. At first it was warm, than it got really cold, and some places got a nice, not to thick blanket of snow. This kind of weather stayed all the way to the New Years. Back home we even got snowy Christmas. It almost felt as past winters when we didn't have to think about global warming, and all that mattered to us kids was the amount of snow it would fall. As these things usually go the winter didn't stay like that- SW winds brought us warmer weather and rain, and snow blanket soon vanished.
The constant in Ljubljana this winter was virtually no sun. As people who live/lived here know- Ljubljana is tucked in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills. Which means, that it's often cursed with temperature inversions and fog/low clouds in late autumn and winter. This winter it was especially bad- there were only few days when clouds and fog gave way to some sunshine. You almost get to understand the depressions and other psychological problems cause by light-deprivation in countries near the pole regions. The scientific explanation is, that due to the lack of sunshine not enough of vitamin D can be produced (vitamin D is being produced in skin exposed to sunlight), which in turn causes several health problems including depression. Due to the long nights in winter, working in offices just worsens effects.

Anyways- luckily for us, the sun is winning again. Even in Ljubljana. Yesterday and today were two glorious cloudless days. Wind finally chased the fog, and with days getting longer we finally got a privilege to come from work without the need of artificial lighting. And even have a nice walk outside...
The winter didn't give up yet. It doesn't have to- it's still January, and I'm still hoping for some more snow. But even snowless winter days are so much nicer with that bright orange sphere up there in the sky. You just get a taste of what's to come. Until than- bon hiver people...

The ultimate spectator sport

No, it's not football. It's not basketball, nor baseball. Nor chess. ;-) If you ask me- it's ice hockey. It's fast, rarely ends scoreless, it's not to comercialized. And what's best- you get to have the figting matches if you're lucky- that's two sports in one. ;-)
There were some really notorious fights- tagged with names like "Bloody wednesday". They rarely end up with to much blood. I guess with a sport that fast in a cold arena, surrounded by crowd, you got to feel the head rush. ;-)
OK, here's another legend- the 1987 punch-up in Piestany on junior world ice hockey championship. It was played between Canada and Soviet Union, and at one stage fight broke out. Now the weak link in this game were judges who didn't know how to calm the players down. At one stage they had to turn the lights off in whole ice hockey hall to stop the fighting- another first in history I think. The end result- game was terminated and both teams were expelled from competition, which hurt Canadians more than Russians- Canucks were fighting for the gold. Oh, BTW, the end result of the (unfinished) game was 4:2 for Canada.

It's (another) foggy day...

As things usualy go good things don't last long. Like with weather- we had a great white Christmas, plenty of snow for New Years. And what we have today? Rain and fog. :-/

I know- talking about weather isn't really most interesting thing to talk about, but sometimes it just gets to me. I can survive hail storms, constant heat, humidity, but once snow begins to melt it's like EVERYTHING starts to irritate me.
There's been a lot said about effect of weather on our behaviour. As with measuring animal intelegency you can always interpret data in many ways. The effect of weather on physical and psychological condition of people has been quite well documented to the point that weather forecasts contain bio-forecasts. It's not well understood how and why this happens, but we know it does. As sunny weather and high pressure tend to have good effect on human beings, the change of pressure and gray skies affects us in more negative ways. There are always extremes- in our part of the world it's foehn winds bringing sudden hike in temperature, and more unpleasant effects on human beings- depression and higher suicide rates in days this wind is blowing. Foehn winds are by now means only weather-behaviour-affected phenomena- there are Chinook winds in North America, and many more.
The weather itself is not the major cause of our mood, but it can merely amplify the mood. Which basicaly means- if you tend to be depressive- moving far North or far South with long nights during winter won't do any good... Nor moving somewhere where it rains a lot. On the other hand- it wouldn't be interesting if we'd all live on the Equator in a hut on a sunny beach, would it? ;-)

So, you like Fairy tell of New York?

It's blasting from everywhere this holiday season. Enough is enough- I like Pogues, but at the moment I'm not that much into Christmas. Here's alternative:

Is it time yet

Just as the whole world around me is going crazy about Christmas holidays I got a bit fed up with the whole concept. It's not the new thing- just as Christmas decorations are being put out earlier every year, the sooner one looses this special festive feeling. It's basicaly the question of what Christmas holidays have come to.

Everybody's poisoned with buying more and more gifts. And everyone (at least in Slovenia) is expected to plan things to do on New Years Eve. Like life'd depend on how you spend the last day of old year and first day of new year. People are making unrealistic decisions about changing their lives, and when they broke those very decisions few weeks later they think that next year's gonna be different.
It's all shite if you ask me. Being there for people is more important than getting them gifts. And if you're sleepy on New Years Eve- go to sleep, you might as well do something good for yourselves and recharge batteries. And don't make any New Years resolutions. At least not to ambitious and not in public. ;-)

Just to get into Christmas spirit

I'm abit ashamed to admit I'm a brand new user of Windows Vista OS. Blush, blush. Couldn't help it- it came with the computer. So, since I've got quite some time while I wait for Vista to decide to finally install and run programs I chose- here's something to entertain me and get me into mood for C holidays. ;-)