The Slovenian Air ..

To sit in the balcony of a hotel, overlooking a scenery and have a cup of coffee ,in the morning ! Or a glass of wine in the later part of the day .. I wouldn’t do both ! Infact I have never sat in a balcony before ! But today I had to just sit here to feel this place for one last time. Writing is not what I would ideally like to do from here ,but then to voice the thoughts about Slovenia in general as I leave it today was what I had in my mind since I wrote about Vienna.

In the tourism world, when the place is beautiful and accessible likewise ,it doesn’t take long for hoards of people to arrive and spoil its serenity. Lake Bled is one such place. With a population of just over six thousand inhabitants ,and double the number of people visiting ,every week, it should’ve lost its charm over the years. But then I would’nt be sitting in the balcony if it did.

Slovenians are friendly ,the most friendly I have met in this part of the world. I usually interact more with receptionists ,waiters ,the old woman at the ticket window etc. Here I have spoken to the shoe maker ,the fruit seller and the honey vendor to name a few and they all talk with the same warmth and friendly attitude. A country where the language Slovene is always hard fought to be spoken ,first under the German’s ,then under the former Yugoslavia ,where everyone had to learn Serbo – Croatian and would be punished if not spoken in Government institutions, English comes quiet naturally to the guy on the road.

The cream cake is the most famous export of Bled and even today the guys who invented it are proud to serve it to every person that’s comes in. When the conversation extends beyond just a cup of espresso ,then the talk about Slovenia joins the recipe for the cake. ‘You can make the cake home’ he says but you can never feel the same at home as you feel here by the lake in this air.

Yes .. the air ! That’s what I was looking for. The air in Slovenia is different .. The air is inviting ! Travel to Slovenia once in your life time and you would understand what I am talking about .. 

Vienna .. auf wiedersehen

Ahmed, my Egyptian contact told me once when he heard me speaking, broken Arabic in an Egyptian accent, “if you stay here for a month more , you will speak like a local”  ..the love for a language can make the toughest of them all, easy to learn and a country or a place is no different.

Austria and the city of Vienna is one such place. No I mean in the opposite. No matter how beautiful a city is ,if you cant get yourself to love it ,it simple doesn’t work.

I came here to Vienna first in 2009. When I arrived at the train station it seemed like a regular European station ,when I stepped out and walked on its streets ,the buildings were just so beautiful ,each of them seemed like a palace. Renaissance style was invented in Italy but it seemed it was fully adapted by this city. On my first night ,I remember I felt nothing ,this night in Vienna felt flat after Krakow.

The next morning I just stared at the beauty of this city ,whether in its buildings or its parks. I tried to fall in love with it ,atlast it came from similar quarters ,when I went to a wine growing region nearby got drunk on cheap wine. Cheap and Vienna don’t match but there they served wine in a steel jug. Can you imagine the cost of wine in a jug was less than that of a glass in the city 4 star hotel. Well all those buildings and their shining façade and after all my trips  (this being the fifth time) .. All I remember of this city, is the sun shining on that steel jug that day.

Vienna has a museum quarter a booming restaurant scene and lots of opera houses .. it all seems like a beautiful woman whom you never connect with.  I am glad I am moving out of here. Tonight is my last, here in Vienna and I dunno if I would ever come back again(we are quitting on Vienna and putting in Croatia for our Autumn 2012 onward tours).

I thought I would feel a little about this city on this last night here. But all I can say is auf wiedersehen .. thats 'bye' in german for you .. 

Poland

The Schindlers List .. The Pianist and all the other war movies are our only images that we see from that period. To watch these movies is one .. to see where it all happened is an entire different experience. This is my 3^rd time in Auschwitz ,the largest of the Nazi Concentration camps here in Eastern Europe. Today I can sit under a tree and write ,but the first time I came here ,I couldn’t really bring myself to sleep in the night’s that followed.

There were images on the wall .. images of the first polish and Hungarian jews that were brought in. The images were hung on the wall of Block 10. The block from where only your corpse would come out after being sent in. For 2 consecutive nights I woke up to those eyes on the wall.

History has never been of any interest to me. Coz for me ,history was Egypt and then the civilizations of Machu Pichu etc .. but this was not history this is the past ! The past which my driver shared  with me. Both of his grand parents were executed here in Auschwitz .. suddenly it all seemed very real and of recent years.

The polish over the years have suffered a lot ,first at the hands of the Nazis and then the red army.  Actually these people hate the Communists more than the Nazis. There was once a year in the 80’s ,he said ,when in Krakow the only ration available was bread ,milk ,salt and potatoes. Can you imagine an entire year eating the same food. How different is it, than starving which the Nazis imposed ?

The Euro 2012 starts in 10 days .. Poland is one of the hosts and everywhere the football fever is alive. I know the polish national team is not very strong compared to the other European teams. I hope one day Poland wins ..

Krakow . 2010 . 2012

Krakow 2010

I walked the market square with an old town hall at its centre. Sat in a café had my beer and spoke to some English people next to my table. Read a book about Krakow as I sipped on the lager but couldn’t really concentrate on the book and was more into looking at the people walking around the square ,the polish women to be precise.

Krakow 2012

I am on the first floor of a café which overlooks the market square but the only reason I am facing the square is that I have a better connection speed here to the local internet. I am drinking a coffee and not really interested in the table next to me. The book on Krakow is out being replaced by a map of Russia on my desktop on which, from the last 2 weeks I am trying to locate a flight that will take me to Siberia on a shortest connection from Mumbai.

The only thing common – my love for Krakow  and in general the Polish land. Why do I feel different about Poland and why I don’t feel the same about Germany or Austria ? Well I really don’t know and don’t care .. coz for me East Europe has always been about Poland and Hungary. These are two crazy countries with people who though don’t understand a word of what I speak ,still look inviting, to me. The food is the other big draw ..  I am sure some year there will be a new place to be explored in here and I will return to my beer and book mornings and then there will be the settling down times with a coffee again.

As of now its lunch time !!! 

Turkish Airspace

I should’ve ideally written this from Turkey around twenty days back. This year we discovered Trabzon and the region around it ,Discover !! no .. it was there asking to be visited. I am glad I answered its first call. Its funny how a place sometimes owes its quotient of attraction to the place you are getting there from. I used to always enter the city of Istanbul from Mumbai and fall in love with it everytime I took the bus ride from the Airport to the Hotel. This time however I was coming from Trabzon ,Uzungol and Sumela in Turkey. Istanbul was just another city !

As I write now the map on the flight monitor shows Istanbul still 90 minutes away but Trabzon is to my right ! Yes it’s the Turkish air space .. I have never flown from west to east over Indian air space ,but I guess the feeling would be the same. Home is right under ! The frequent flier miles was what I used to fly this airline for ,but I guess its that and the sound of Turkish !

I had set to write this one about Berlin and my travel to Central Europe but I would like to keep it to where I am .. Turkey !