See you to Slovenia and the Cebelas

After the resort town, I woke up sore as usual from the camping on uneven and hard ground. We had a big plan for the day to go to Slovenia’s largest rock festival, but surprisingly we stopped in at home for a few hours in the middle. Just enough time for his dad to shove us with a massive meal, take a shower, and head out again.
We met Andrej’s friends Anya, Nina, Ana, and Petra at this massive French grocery store I have never heard of (which apparently is big in some parts of Europe), and picked up some food and drinks for the festival (called Rock Otocec). It was to be a long festival. Our tickets lasted Friday night until 10am Saturday morning, and we had not purchased camping passes, so it was either stay up the entire time and listen to the music, or sleep in the car. A combination of the two was the end result.

In unfortunate timing, there was a massive downpour during the main acts of the festival, and it proceeded to rain the majority of the time. When we headed into the ground it was not raining, so after awhile it began to rain and a few of us decided to make the 30 minute trek back to the car to pick up our rain jackets. Those that didn’t feel like spending 6 hours soaked and getting sick. We went back, watched the main act in the rain, then moved underneath a huge tent where the majority of the festival goers went. After some music and dancing, some of us proceeded to the cars around 4am. On the heels of camping the night before, it was quite the rough morning waking up in the front seat of the car at 9am. Tired and sore. But quite the fun evening.

Some food and drinks before the festival:






Of course Andrej had another plan for after this. The 8 of us headed in the two cars to a river an hour or so away. Well, we made a quick stop to check out some random American war plan that was sitting in some field along the way. So anyways, this was a pretty secluded area with a nice small restaurant bar. The river was interesting because on one side was Slovenia, on the other side was Croatia. So, swim to the other side, leave the European Union 

Croatia on the Opposite Side:


Shwarzenegger poses by the river:


Brecht is a big boy:


We relaxed here for a good 6 hours, and drove home (with a stop at another castle along the way). However, the day certainly was not done. After just enough time for cooking dinner and showering, we headed out to one of the weekly summer gatherings in the area of his town. The fire department in each neighboring town throughout the summer hosts a bit of a party/festival and invites all the other towns. There is socializing, some beer drinking, and some traditional Slovenian polka dancing.

We won a fishing hat!



Mark & Anya trying some Slovenian Polka:


I spent two final days relaxing on Andrej's farm. Talking to his dad and sisters, eating great food produced on their land, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery and amazing hospitality. His dad presented Mark & I with hats and coin pouches when we left. Really, incredibly kind family and awesome experience.

I'd love to go back to Slovenia some time and if anyone is looking for a beautiful place to visit someday with unbelievable scenery, varied terrain, and kind people, this is it. Hfala Slovenija!

Ongoing Slovenia

Day 2 of the Slovenian experience began with a little work on the farm. I rode on the back of the tractor Andrej was driving to their other plot of land where we were going to cut and pick up grass for the cows. During the summer they are cutting and picking up grass nonstop all over their farm to store for the cows to eat during the winter. Cutting grass had never been such a time consuming and complex thing to me until now.

Plowing a plot of grass:

First, use the cutting tractor to cut it down. Then, drive the next tractor, which helps to place all the chopped grass in nice rows. Then, drive the third tractor, which is pulling a big carriage, to pick up all the cut grass which is now in rows. Since the field are so big, this takes time. And since we had some additional people on hand, aside from taking some trys at the tractor, Mark Brecht and I were able to also rake some stray grass into the lines which helps to do a much more thorough job. Being allergic to grass, my eyes were itching like a mosquito bite on your butt. And a nice itchy throat. I had to rinse my face thoroughly after this session. Guess I wasn’t cut out to be a grass cutting farmer!

Andrej taking charge on grass management:


Andrej & his dad most likely chatting about grass and tractors:
Andrej supervises Mark on the tractor, Brecht is a great raker in the distance:


After packing our bags into the car we headed out on our seemingly weeklong Slovenian road with Andrej in the cockpit. Andrej seemed to know his country like the back of his hand, amazing since it is filled with small and windy roads just about everywhere (one main highway goes N-S and E-W, that's about it). The first stop was Andrej’s families church, sitting atop a mountain like a Walt Disney movie, with goats walking around and ridiculous views.





Then the Belgian, Brecht, naturally made the executive call that he wanted to visit a Slovenian brewery. So it was decided. Slovenia only has 2 big beers basically, but they have a very small handful of microbrews which are not so widely available. We arrived before lunch, had a pint, and the bartender personally phone the brew master up for a personal tour. The brew master was really friendly. He understood English but only spoke a little. He showed and explained us his processes, and it was decent, light beer. It was interesting to hear about why there are so few Slovenian microbreweries, because with the waterfall of taxes from different places, in the end, he basically can barely break even. He said he will probably have to close his brewery soon because of it. Of course he was extra hospitable and gave us large samples of every beer as we chatted about the brewing process and even Slovenia and the US (his sons play American football!)




The fermenters:


We spent the rest of that day and night in the capital, Ljubljana. It is a nice city, but I believe the real beauty of Slovenia is all outside Ljubljana. However we visited their castle on the top of a hill, bought some hand-made vanilla bath soap (I’ll be smelling fresh and feeling wide awake for a month now!), browsed the fruit market, and ran into about 5 or 6 of Andrej’s friends here and there. Andrej seemed to know someone everywhere he went since he worked 11 or 12 jobs in different parts of the country before the program.

View from the castle:

A main square;


Watching the sunset from a surrounding hill:


We spent the night having a few beers outside in a plaza of the bohemian area of Ljubljana. Just lots of people hanging out and relaxing. While we were about to drive home, we ran into four or five more of Andrej’s friends. Since everyone was just having a grand old time, we didn’t head back until 5am, after stopping in and having another Serbian delight called Burek, the name of which escapes me know. Basically fried pastry dough filled with meat or cheese. So anyways, the 6am ending to the first day was just the beginning of the Slovenian marathon-week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burek

Slovenia the Great, the Beginning

So after leaving Berlin I had a half day stopover in Zagreb before heading to Slovenia to meet my classmate Andrej. Zagreb seemed like a small but nice capital city, surrounded by mountains and with lots of green areas. I don’t have much else to say about it except here are a few pictures.



Andrej met me at the train station of his town, Zagorje, with two other classmates Mark (Canada), and Brecht (Belgium). The 1.5 hour ride from Zagreb was a good introduction to what the majority of Slovenia is like. Beautiful mountains filled with lakes, rivers, windy roads, mountains side farms (including vineyards), Yosemite-like terrain, and generally one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen.


We moved onto Andrej’s families farm and his awesome and hilarious dad greeted us with a barbecue and proper Slovenian food. In general that implies meat, more meat, potatoes, more potatoes, and some salad. One of the grillables include a typical Serbian/Bosnian pork sausage called cevapcici, which is also popular in other former Yugoslavian countries like Croatia and Slovenia.



Following dinner I had my turn with the cows. They have 14 cows on the farm, which they feed primarily grass but also a little corn that they are growing and drying on their land. First I fed the lone calf, filling up the wine bottle with it’s mom’s milk and letting it gulp it down immediately. Then I proceeded to have Andrej’s mom show me how to milk the cows. No problems there. Talk to it a bit, hit it on the side, and proceed milking into the pan. They milk 5 of the 14 cows twice a day, in the morning and evening. So the family has fresh milk daily. Then, I proceeded with the shit shoveling, which must be done daily also. Let me say, 14 cows create a lot of shit! I split the work with Brecht and we each filled about 3 or 4 wheelbarrows which probably consisted of only about half of the day’s poop.

Feeding the calf:


Milking under supervision:

Scooping the poop into wheelbarrow and removing:


They also have a big chicken coop. They just keep the chickens for eggs. Plus 3 pigs, which they use for pork (they make and dry their own sausage which was phenomenal). Then they have lots of random fruit trees over their land. Cherry, walnut, apple, pear, and so on, so they are having fresh fruit many times throughout the year. Then they are also growing lots of lettuce, tomatoes, green/regular onions, herbs, peppers, and a variety of other vegetables. Plus they have a bee house and make their own honey. This in addition to the 6 lounging cats and dog make it quite the full farm! And it is in a truly breathtaking setting in the middle of the mountains. Andrej said his dad rebuilt their house when he inherited it but it has been in the family for 6 generations. They have a wood burning stove which they are filling each time they cook. They distill their own schnapps. They are growing wheat which after cutting they send out to be milled, then they make bread regularly. Let me say, being used to crappy white bread, that stuff is dense! 1 or two pieces and you are full. Even they say most Slovenian farmers aren’t doing it this way anymore, his dad just really enjoys it.
Hanging and drying corn:
One of the wheat fields:

Chicken Coop:

The view of their house and barns from the top of one of their hills:


The hilarity of the entire time on his farm was that his dad thought I was way too skinny and wanted me to get bigger by the time I left. I would sit next to him, he would scoop my portions (which would be massive for what I am used to), then say ‘repete!’ at the end, for repeat. I definitely say that by the end my appetite had expanded. Definitely faaaaaar from hungry at the end of each meal. And communicating with papa Cebela was hilarious and done mostly by hand gestures or through translations by Andrej or his siblings. By the end Mark & Brecht & I had learned the basic phrases like thank you, good morning, etc. On the day we left he gave Mark & I hats and coin pouches. It was truly enjoyable and relaxing there and the hospitality was overwhelming. Andrej even clothed me before I left since they seemed to have hundreds of extra shirts lying around and I now am the owner of 3 new (used) Slovenian shirts! Haha…

The day's milk (after boiled the layer of cream forming on top is used in the coffee... never had 'real' cream but it is a unique and strange texture).

Where the poop is stored to be used for fertilizer:

The bee house:


The main barn storing some tractors, 14 cows (feeding holes on the side), 3 pigs, the upper half storing grass for the winter, and in the back Andrej's brother has a shop where he repairs smart cars::