Sarajevo
Tuesday, July 3, 2007, 07:58 AM
We arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday evening after a long 11 hour drive from Ljubljana. This could have been a lot quicker but we decided to take what seemed to be the slowest possible route through the countryside. It was well worth it though as we saw some amazing scenes as the landscape gradually changed the further south we got. Green hills and mountains, steep gorges and in contrast destroyed and burnt out houses all featured along the way.
After crossing the Bosnian border we were re-directed onto a gravel track struggling with roadsigns only in Cyrillic. However, we continued in the right direction and ended up at our first destination of Jajce (Egg). Here we saw 2 beautiful waterfalls and strolled up to the fortress which is on top of the egg shaped hill hence the name of the town.
It was a big contrast arriving in Sarajevo with the numerous high rise appartment blocks covered in bullet holes still scarred by effects of the war. Nevertheless, Sarajevo is a beautiful city and a perfect place for wandering around, drinking coffee and watching the world go by. I particularly liked strolling around the little shops in the Bascarsija to soak up the atmosphere. Its such a bustling city its difficult to imagine the horrors that occurred so recently. Visiting the Tunnel museum with our taxi driver guiding us made the war seem more real and opened our eyes to the individual experiences of the locals. Sarajevo is a city full of history and aside from the memories of the 1990s siege the assassination point of Franz Ferdinand also lies in the centre of the city by the river.
Last night we went for a traditional Bosnian meal where the food and service was great. We had to laugh a bit though when a little boy turned up begging wearing ladies high-healed, knee-high pointy boots. The waiter also found this amusing and called out the kitchen staff to take a look!
Today we will travel to Mostar and then onto Dubrovnik for the next leg of our trip.
[ 2 comments ] ( 52 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1230 )Orchestra Tour of Slovenia
Saturday, June 30, 2007, 08:14 AM
Today is the last concert of our tour in Slovenia. It started last week in Mokronog and finishes today in Ljubljana. We've also been to Ptuj, Slovenj Gradec, Novo Mesto, Portoroz and Dobrna. Most of the concerts have been outside which always adds a few extra problems aside from the acoustics of playing in the open air. In Mokronog it was so windy that music was flying everywhere and music stands were falling over, in Ptuj the monastry bells liked to join in with the rehearsal every 15 minutes and yesterday in Dobrna it poured with rain during the 2nd piece so we had to go inside and wait for it to stop.
Today's concert is up at the castle so hopefully the sunshine will return. After that we have about 10 days free and it will be nice to have a break from Smetana's Bartered Bride overture! Tomorrow we are off on a bit of a roadtrip down to Sarajevo, onto Dubronik and a couple of days in Korcula.
[ 1 comment ] ( 21 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 2108 )Travelling about
Friday, June 22, 2007, 05:49 AM
We've both been travelling around quite a lot lately. Firstly, we had a relative to stay, Marilyn, and we were able to use the car for the first time the weekend she was here. We went to Bohinj for a picnic which we just managed to finish before the heavens opened and it poured with rain. This seemed to be a regular feature of her visit as a couple of weeks ago we seemed to get a daily downpour at least once a day! From Bohinj we also went to see the Savica waterfall and took a walk through Vintgar Gorge.
The next day we went to Croatia. The first stop was Pula to see the impressive Roman amphitheatre. Pula seemed like a nice place but fairly industrial so we decided to head back up the coast to Rovinj. Rovinj is a really pretty town and we came across a great restaurant looking over the harbour and the food was really good too. The weather was lovely and we strolled around the old town and up to the cathedral where the view over the islands near by was beautiful.
Since then we have both been to the UK. Stefan left to work there last week and then I joined him. When I arrived I met up with him and his work mates who were craving a steak at the Swedish gothic rock bar/restaurant, Garlic & Shots. It's a bit of a crazy place where they live and breathe garlic but it was fun and great to see them again. I didn't smell so good afterwards though!
That night we stayed in a hotel and when we were looking for a taxi in Leicester square area a guy with a trishaw offered to take us for the same price despite our 20kg enormous suitcase. It proved a bit of a balancing act and the guy must have had very strong legs by the end but we made it.
From London I went down to Devon and Stefan went to Sweden. We have been invited to 7 weddings this year and 2 happened to fall on the same day but one was in Sweden and the other in the UK. In the end we decided to go to one each and it was great to go back home and visit my parents. Tammy and Pete's wedding was great fun and I caught up with other school friends which was so nice. We finished the evening with a traditional barn dance but in true marj style I managed to slip and bruise my knee! I had a great time though and it was a lovely day despite a bit of rain.
Before heading back to Slovenia Stefan arrived in Devon with his parents. It was great for us all to be together again and on Monday we went for a walk along the East Devon coast. It was sunny but very windy and I'm surprised we didn't get blown off the cliff it was so strong. On Tuesday, we left the parents all together and flew back to Ljubljana. It's certainly been a hectic couple of weeks. Now the tour starts with the orchestra around Slovenia...7 concerts in 9 days I believe!
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3.1 / 1743 )Switzerland 2 and a new car
Friday, June 8, 2007, 09:06 AM
Well, I really haven't had much to write about lately hence my lack of blog entries. I went to Switzerland with the orchestra but even that wasn't much to write home about. We spent most of the 4 days on a bus and the rest of the time sleeping and playing in 2 concerts. The strangest part of that trip was the changes in weather which seems to be a common topic on my blog. We left Ljubljana in 30 degrees sunshine and travelled through rain, hail, mist and even snow!
I've been back in Ljubljana a week now and the biggest bit of news is that we have finally bought a car so we're looking forward to being able to travel about more. At the moment we are planning a trip in July to Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. I'm sure I will certainly have stuff to write about after that!
[ 2 comments ] ( 17 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1025 )May holiday
Friday, May 4, 2007, 08:40 AM
On the way back from the wedding a few weeks ago we drove right up to the top of Nanos, a mountain towards the West of Slovenia. The weather and views were amazing. Click here if you're interested to see the photos.
This last week has been a complete holiday for me. I spent 2 days with our now previous neighbours and we spent one day climbing Smarna Gora and the other at Lake Bohinj. Both days were really nice and it was good to get out of Ljubljana for a while. However, I never knew that Smarna Gora was over-run with crocodiles! Dunja, who is now 6, had to lead the way down the mountain to make sure we didn't get eaten alive. Luckily we survived to tell the tale!!
Aside from that, I've been soaking up the sunshine with friends in Ljubljana. It's been quite quiet as most of the population here seems to have headed off to the Croatian coast. Things will return to normal next week as it's back to work on Monday.
[ 1 comment ] ( 27 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1574 )Spring update
Friday, April 13, 2007, 10:49 AM
I've been a bit quiet on the blog front lately so I thought it was about time to write a new post. I'm hoping that next week my life can get back to some kind of normality as it's been pretty chaotic lately.
The main reason for this is that we have been moving to a new flat. Stefan has been living over here for 4 months now and as you can imagine when 2 people try to squish into a one room appartment and one of them is working there all day it gets a little overcrowded! I feel quite sad about leaving my 1st home in Ljubljana and my neighbours but it was definitely time to find a bigger place.
We moved in 2 days ago and despite our arms feeling twice their length after all the bag carrying we feel very at home already. We are up on the 9th floor so our balcony has an amazing view down the river through the town and we can see the castle one side and the mountains the other. The weather has been so great lately that when we were out on the balcony last night it felt as if we were on holiday!
For the Easter weekend last week we took a flying trip to Devon to visit my parents. It was great to be home but because it was so short and packed with things to do it was quite tiring rather than relaxing. I met up with a
friend I went to school with when we were 3 and we went to see our first ever school teacher so that was really nice to catch up. Also made it for a lovely walk along the coast on Easter Sunday. Branscombe beach is open again after the Napoli ship disaster so we went there and walked up on the cliff.
We are playing at a wedding tomorrow near Nova Gorica. We are looking forward to it but a little nervous about the music. At least the weather is looking good!
[ 5 comments ] ( 83 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 101 )Spring begins
Thursday, March 22, 2007, 03:48 PM
After over a week of beautiful sunny weather, on Monday the snow arrived in full force. I wasn't too impressed given that this week should officially be the start of Spring. However the sun returned yesterday to melt the snow away for my birthday. It was a good day and we went out in the evening with friends. I had a great time and I've just uploaded the photos
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 2.9 / 1554 )A Goodbye and a Visit to a Slovene Doctor
Thursday, March 8, 2007, 03:32 PM
One disadvantage of expat life is that you see too many people come and go. A couple of weeks ago we said good bye to Hamali who has now gone back to England after her 6 month placement here. Although she was only here a relatively short time she became a really good friend and I was sad to see her go. However, we had a great leaving party for her and it so happened that this coincided with ‘Pust’ (carnival) hence the masks in the photos!
Things have been relatively quiet since then but the weather, up until a couple of days ago, was almost like summer. We were able to sit out enjoying the sunshine along the river. Unfortunately, now the rain has returned but it still feels like winter passed us by this year.
One big step I made, however, was to visit a Slovene doctor for the first time. I stupidly hurt my foot at the gym and in the end I had to give in and admit I needed to get something for it. However, the visit proved to be somewhat eventful. First of all my medical card didn’t work. I later discovered that you are supposed to put it in a machine to validate it every 3 months but as no one had told me this I had never renewed it! After I had been sitting waiting for a while I heard a bit of a scene going on in one of the examining rooms. Someone, who wasn’t from an English speaking country, was demanding to see a native English speaking doctor and he was kicking up a big fuss. Next thing I knew he was being led out in handcuffs with Police escort! Anyway, I eventually made it into the doctor’s room and after what I had just witnessed wasn’t surprised to find out that the doctor didn’t speak a word of English. This is Slovenia after all so why should he but I managed to muddle through an explanation of what was wrong in my broken Slovene and in the end it was all ok but just a little more eventful than I had expected!
[ 2 comments ] ( 77 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1824 )Ludwigshafen and Walkathon
Monday, February 12, 2007, 09:13 PM
After a couple of very busy weeks I travelled to Ludwigshafen in Germany with the orchestra. It was actually quite nice to sit on a coach for 12 hours after all the opera, concerts and rehearsals I had been playing in. The tour turned out to involve a lot more shopping than playing. In the 4 days we were away we travelled for 24 hours, I played my oboe for a total of about 2 hours and the rest of the time was spent shopping, socialising and a bit of sleeping thrown in for good measure. As well as seeing Ludwigshafen, I also went to Mannheim which is just the other side of the river. All in all it was a very easy, relaxed and nice tour.
Since I've been back everything has been good. I've had a few parties to go to including one for Burns night organised my the British Embassy. This involved a live Scottish band and dancing which was lots of fun. I'll put some photos up soon.
I'm also joining in a Walkathon organised by the American Embassy with the aim of 'Walking to Marrakesh'. This involves wearing a pedometer every day to see how many kilometers I'm walking and it involved a fitness test with the US Marines on Saturday. I wasn't sure what I was letting myself in for but it was quite fun in the end. We'll see if I've improved by the end of it when we have to do the tests again.
This week we are playing 'A Hero's Life' by Strauss. It's all very loud but good fun to play and should be a good concert.
[ 5 comments ] ( 86 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 912 )Busy Times!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 09:33 PM
Since I got back to Ljubljana I've been very busy. Normally January is a fairly quiet month for a musician but not this year it seems. Anyway, I'm not complaining really,it would just be nice to have an evening at home! We've been doing lots of recording with the orchestra and I've also been playing in some other concerts and the opera which has made a change. This Saturday I'm off to Austria for a chamber music concert featuring lots of modern Slovene compositions and then on Sunday the Filharmonija leave for Germany for a few days. We are going to Ludwigshaffen which is apparently about 12 hours from here by coach. Sunday's certainly going to be a long day I think!
Apart from all the playing I've had my cousin to stay which was nice and the expat social life here continues. I think we have to make a resolution to eat at home more though. There are just too many nice and good value restaurants here!
The weather has been terrible today. Still no snow and what should be piles of snow at this time of year is yucky rain. We even have thunder and lightning tonight. Hopefully the weather will improve again soon. I'm still hoping to go skiing at some point! Perhaps the city will be covered in snow when I come back from Germany..we'll see!
[ 2 comments ] ( 97 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1817 )Back Next
