Over the past two weeks I’ve travelled around some of Slovenia with my brother, been to Zagreb with my friends and to Austria with the orchestra.

During my brother’s visit we went to the Škocjan caves. These were very impressive particularly the large chamber where the Reka River rushes through. This is something very unique although if you’re scared or heights you might not like the 45m high bridge! I think I was slightly more impressed by the stalagmites and stalactites of the Postojna caves compared to the ones here but the canyon definitely made up for that. We also went to Bled again and saw it in the snow which was so beautiful.

Zagreb was really nice but freezing! We wandered around the Christmas markets popping into a shop or café every now and then to keep warm and to test the chocolate of course! The city has some really nice architecture though, just a shame some of it was covered in scaffolding at the time. By the way, check out the portrait photo we saw in one window. One look at this and you’ll want your picture taken by these people for sure! Such a great advertisement!

The visit to Austria was fun if not a little confusing at times. We left on Tuesday to go to Villach and played a concert there that evening. When we all got back on the coach afterwards, I was waiting to be driven to our hotel so it took me by surprise when someone mentioned we were going back to Ljubljana. Turned out I had completely misunderstood what was going on and I felt a bit stupid with all my overnight things with me as we headed home. More incentive to learn the language! The next day we left for Salzburg which was really beautiful and we played in the Festival Hall which was a great experience. This time we did stay in a hotel and I had a really fun evening with some of the other members of the orchestra. The drive there and back was also beautiful through the Alps and the sky was really blue. However, it was a shame I didn’t really get to see Salzburg during the day but I guess that’s just a good excuse to go back some day soon!


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A few weeks back we had the first snow of the season here in Ljubljana. Snow is still quite exotic for me and it does look really pretty here. The showers were quite light in the beginning of the week but after a few days it was really snowing heavily.

Sam and I had planned to go to see Harry Potter that same week at the cinema just out of town. Despite the snow we decided to ahead with our plans and headed off for the bus. We wondered what was going on when we got to the bus-stop as there was a really big commotion. We were not going to be able to get a bus from there as it was all cordoned off so decided to walk up the main road to get to the station. Bad idea…..suddenly a whole protest was coming towards us, blowing whistles and shouting things we couldn’t understand. Our only choice really was to battle our way through them until the next side street which proved a little painful on the ears and very frustrating.

Anyway, with soaking wet feet form the snow we eventually made it to the station and onto the bus. We got to the cinema and film was great in the end and so cheap, even the popcorn! It had even stopped snowing when we came out so we went to do a little bit of shopping. However, when we came out of the shop it was tipping it down with rain! Not a good combination with the snow and really not pleasant to walk in. By the time we got back to the centre of Ljubljana we didn’t think it was possible to get any wetter until we landed in a puddle almost up to our knees and realised we had ice floating in our shoes! Our only option here was to laugh and get home as quickly as possible.

Suddenly snow doesn’t feel quite so exotic…..not this sort anyway!! Luckily it’s pretty much gone now…until the next time!


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Those of you who know me will know about my love of chocolate and as a self-confessed chocoholic I am always very happy to help out where chocolate is concerned. However, I did not expect a blog would be a way of doing this. Last week I received this email:

"Hi Marjorie,

I just want to thank you...for what you might ask! Well it's simple, here goes.

I too experienced the thick exquisite hot chocolate while in Venice a while back but unfortunately could not remember the name of the brand that i'd enjoyed so much and had been searching for it. I came across your comments about your experiences with the chocolate too but again thought alas, as you didn't mention any brand until....

Your picture (excellent picture) of you drinking your hot 'brew' and there it was, the mug, the saucer and the brand - Eraclea! Yes, I thought, now I can go and see where I can purchase it in the UK.

I guess this might be one of the strangest mails you might have had for a while, so I hope it put a smile on your face. I also hope that all is going well in Slovenia (I read a little of your blog). Feel free to drop me a reply if you like, you never know, we could share chocolate experiences.

Once again, thanks for your enlightening picture.

Regards,

Adam"

The same week I discovered that if you search for 'Chocoholic England' on msn.co.uk I come up as the first result with my website! I'm certainly very proud of this and I'm sure most of you will agree that this is very appropriate!

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Well, another week has passed and I’ve been in Slovenia for almost 3 months now. It’s gone quickly and I really would have thought I would have grasped more Slovene by now. Sorry to mention the language again but I got completely confused the other day when playing in a concert in Austria. I said to one man, “Ich verstehe inte, oprostite”. Some of you may have noticed my ability to combine 3 languages in one very short sentence – German, Swedish and Slovene!! I really am a lost cause!

I’ve now invested in a TV which I’m hoping will help a bit with my language difficulties. However, I have to admit I’m particularly enjoying the ‘Golica’ channel - It’s an endless reel of Slovene traditional songs and music performed in traditional dress in typical Slovene countryside and settings! Does anyone know if this kind of thing is common in other countries? Slovenes are obviously very proud of their music. They even sing-along in the pub (see photo!) It certainly gives you an insight of their culture.

This week is a bit manic at orchestra. We have been given about 20 pieces to play in 2 concerts this week. It’s mainly famous, well known stuff but there’s certainly a lot to do. It reminds me of being back in London and being presented with a whole heap of music. Only difference is we have 4 rehearsals here whereas in England we would just get one 3 hour rehearsal and the concert on the same day! That’s London speed for you I guess!


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Last week was a fairly normal orchestral week for me. Our usual rehearsal schedule is 9-12:30 (Monday to Thursday) and we have a concert on Thursday and Friday evening.
It doesn’t sound much but there are always plenty of other things to do such as oboe practice, oboe reed making and drinking hot chocolate.

I am in heaven with the hot chocolates here - They’re really thick and come in 30 different flavours!

The only unusual event last week was that I found myself unexpectedly playing in the ‘Slovenian Police Orchestra ’. I felt a little out of place being English and female but it’s another experience to add to the list. Bizarrely enough the 1st piece we were playing suddenly broke into a chorus of ‘Rule Britannia’! I found this quite amusing but I’m not sure anyone else got the joke.

My Slovene is very slowly improving but it’s going to take a lot of time. I understood a lot more of what the conductor was saying last week and managed to try out some phrases in the bank that actually worked. The one Russian girl in my language class has now multiplied to 5 Russian girls. This means we’re going at a fairly fast pace as they understand a lot of vocabulary. I just have to be careful to differentiate between when they are speaking Slovene and when they are speaking Russian. I don’t want to confuse myself even more. I’ll start speaking some kind of weird mixture!


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I thought it was about time to add another entry to my blog. I’m writing this while sitting at Stansted airport waiting for my flight back to Ljubljana.

The last few weeks have been busy but not so much from the music point of view - I’ve had a few visitors and been back to England.


Firstly, my parents came over to visit me. We took a day trip to Piran, a very pretty Venetian-like town on the coast of Slovenia. The weather along the way was awful and we even learnt a new word – megla which means fog! Luckily it was much clearer by the coast and we were able to wander round the small streets and sit outside for coffee. The following day we went to Škofja Loka. This was another very pretty place and we walked up to the castle on the hill. It was Sunday though so not a lot was open.

Last weekend, a good friend of mine, Lynette, came to stay for a few days. She recently celebrated a special birthday so I thought it would be nice to go out to a restaurant and celebrate it. I didn’t mean to poison her! The day after, whilst on a trip to Bled, she was really ill and we ended up in Bled hospital. Obviously the day didn’t turn out as planned and the only explanation seemed to be food poisoning. All was not lost however and after a good night’s sleep she felt much better. We had a lovely few days and visited the Postojna caves which were amazing to see. I’m looking forward to exploring the other caves around Slovenia.


I’ve just spent the last week in London. It was really great to be back and see some friends and hit the shops on Oxford Street again! I was also lucky enough to get to play in the Lloyd Webber show, The Woman In White, again. It was fun to play although there had been a few changes to the music since last time which made it a little more nerve wracking than usual!

So now its back to Ljubljana and Beethoven 3. I see some of you other bloggers are after some Philharmonija gossip. I’ll see what I can do but I think I have to be a little careful there!!


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The last two weeks have been somewhat busy and this has meant the time has flown by. The weather has been great which somehow always makes things seem even better.

On Saturday the 8th October I went to Varazdin in Croatia with the Orchestra. This was my first time in this country and although I only had a few hours there it was an interesting place to see. I took a walk around the town where there was a lot of beautiful architecture although some buildings were in a bad state of repair. This was particularly noticeable on the journey in where I found it interesting that next to nearly every very run-down house there was a beautiful newly renovated one.

This weekend I went to Venice with Sam. Floor and Matic (her boyfriend) drove us to Trieste where we were able to take a train directly to Venice. Trieste was much nicer than I had imagined and the weather was even better. Apart from us not realising we had to validate our train tickets, the journey went very smoothly.
Trieste Photos


I still can't believe how lucky we were with the weather and Venice was so beautiful. We walked straight to our B&B only to discover that our names weren't on their guestlist. They asked if we minded being upgraded to another hotel where we would get private rooms - as if! This hotel happened to be right next to St Mark's Square which was of course also such a hardship!

We left our things at the hotel and wandered off to St. Mark's Square and into the Basilica which was stunning. We then did some shopping on the Rialto Bridge before finding somewhere to eat in the evening. We discovered a very small restaurant just near our hotel and the food was so good. Only problem was, they seemed to want to serve us as quickly as possible as they must have had some other bookings. All in all we were in and out in about 30 minutes!

We spent the evening in St. Mark's Square listening to music - there was even an oboist playing! Having found a chocolate shop selling hot chocolate we thought we would buy some to keep us warm. The staff weren't very friendly so it served them right when Sam accidentally stuck her finger through a cake and we ran out as quickly as possible before we had to pay for it!

The next morning we walked back to the square again where there was something very slippery beneath us. Sam put two and two together and came up with 'poo and dew'! It was the only explanation for the mess early in the morning with all those pigeons surrounding us. We managed not to fall over luckily and took a trip up the tower where beautiful views awaited us over the city.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around and got a bit lost but we did find our way back to the train station. There was a guy on one street trying to get people to sign his petition. He said to us, "Your signatures please.....against women". Either he had got his cause slightly wrong or he was targeting the wrong people! Needless to say we didn't sign!

We took the train to Gorizia and it was all going well until we tried to find the boarder on foot. (If you cross by foot the train journey is much cheaper!) The man at the train station gave us completely the wrong directions, the signposts to where we were going suddenly stopped and we ended up going through a very scary traffic tunnel twice. After asking a few people we eventually made it to Slovenia only discover that as it was Sunday there was no transport running. Then as if by some miracle a hotel bus turned up. We asked the driver if he was going to Nova Gorica. He told us to get in and that he would take us there for free. He drove us right to the bus station just in time to make our coach back to Ljubljana. We have no idea who the guy was but are both eternally very grateful to him. For all we know we could still be stranded there!

More Venice Photos

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Just wanted to say thanks for the comments and for welcoming me! It's great to know there are other Slovenia Bloggers out there and that it's not just me struggling with the language! I started my language course yesterday at Mint. It was good but the other person in my group is Russian so finds it all much easier than me.

I'm very new to the whole Blog thing but it was really great to get some comments and hope to hear from you again sometime!

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Last weekend Stefan came over to celebrate his 30th birthday and we took a hire car to Lake Bled. Now this place is definitely worth a visit. It’s such a fairytale setting with the church on an island in the middle of the lake and a castle balanced on a cliff high above. Not to mention the Alpine backdrop. It was a very beautiful sight and we were even lucky with the weather. We took a walk right around the lake as the sun was setting and the views were really spectacular.


The following morning we took a pletna (boat) across to the island. We wanted to hire a rowing boat but in true Slovene style, they were not open early enough on a Sunday morning!


We then headed up to Vintgar Gorge where we walked along a wooden walkway through the Gorge, over rapids and reached the Šum Waterfall before heading back. Again, a stunning place to visit and it was a really enjoyable walk.

We then headed back to Ljubljana where we finished off the weekend at a Mexican Restaurant – great food and great value. We ate far too much though!

If you want to see more photos from Bled, go to my photo album:
Lake Bled Photos

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This Blog is all about my life in Slovenia. I’ve recently moved here to work in an orchestra. I’m a 24 year old oboist and married to a Swede.

Introduction

I arrived in Ljubljana on the 31st of August so have been here 5 weeks now. What a lot can happen in 5 weeks! I had nowhere to live, no understanding of Slovene and didn’t really know a single person.

With the help of Stefan, my husband, we managed to find a flat, a second-hand washing machine and open a bank account within the first few days which seemed quite an achievement in the circumstances.

I live in an apartment block in a very pretty part of the town and very close to the river. The 10 minute walk to work certainly beats the London Underground in the morning! I was living in London for the last 2 years so this small cosy place is quite a change for me.

Everyone here has been so friendly and welcoming that I felt quite settled quickly. Of course I miss home and my family but it’s such a nice place to be that I can’t complain. There are so many other places to explore around here too from lakes to caves to other countries. I certainly must make the most of my time here.

Language is one of the biggest problems, however, and I really don’t know if I will ever master it at all. The Slovene is language is so completely different to anything I have learnt before and my pronunciation is appalling! I am waiting for my language course to begin. It was supposed to begin last week but still nothing.

Playing in the orchestra and having a regular job (which I’m not used to) are both great. The orchestra are very friendly although the language barrier makes it hard to make conversation in rehearsal breaks.

My first week with the orchestra was all in Slovene. It was all a bit of a shock to the system but the other players around helped me and I survived the first week. The 2nd week was much easier as these were conducted in English and I was beginning to feel more settled in general too. The same week I also met some new friends at a mini-language course I went to - Sam from Canada and Floor from Holland. They have been a complete Godsend and I’m so grateful to have them here!

Very sadly towards the end of that 2nd week my friend, Hannah, whom I have known for a very long time died of cancer. These were, of course, difficult times and with being so far away it was difficult to believe it had happened. It so happened that I had a free week from the orchestra so I was able to go home and say goodbye to her properly. Not the happiest reason for going back to England but I’m so glad I was able to. I wanted to mention Hannah as she has been quite an inspiration to many people during her illness and most definitely to me. Just to see how brave she has been these last few months has given me extra determination to get through the rough times and live life as fully as possible just as she did.

So here I am 5 weeks on from my arrival and starting to really enjoy life here. Just need to get the language sussed – no chance!


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