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…no place for a bald guy.

After years of waiting, several aborted attempts and much faffing – it’s finally time to pack my walking boots (Alpina of course) and climb, all-the-way to the top of Europe’s largest super-power – the mighty Republika Slovenija.

Whilst lazier, cigarette-smoking, beer-loving Slovene’s often protest, it’s accepted knowlege that you’re only a real Slovene once you’ve stood on top of Slovenia’s highest mountain (and national symbol) – Mt Triglav. So , that’s what I’m gonna do. I have a ‘rest week’ from work and that gives me 8 days to fly to Slovenia, collect Obi (my car), climb Triglav, celebrate Slovene style, visit some of my favourite people and drive 1000 miles home again …and back to work.

I don’t think it’ll get me a Slovene passport, I need to learn Slovene or marry Katarina Kresal to achieve this (the second being most likely (and prefereable)) but I like the idea of being a slightly better qualified Slovene (in one small area) than most of my Slovene friends.

Meaning ‘three heads’ Mr Triglav appears on the Slovenian flag and was first accended on August the 26th 1778 – 200 years before I was born. Its a relatively small mountain (2,864 metres or 9,396 ft) but its way bigger than me (and anything else in the UK) and thanks to some pretty steep drops – my fear of heights doesn’t like the idea at all. However, it has been my ambition to stand on top of Europe’s most beautiful country for many years and so, with only a few days to go, I’m getting excited. From what I understand, the accent up Triglav isn’t too hard (can be done in a day if you’re a sprightly fit Slovene) but I’m taking a more gentle two day trip that includes a night in a wooden mountain hut on-route. I’d pay for this on it’s own 🙂

If you ignore Amy Winehouse, the highest thing we have in the South of England is probably a tree or a church tower so, I thought I’d prepare myself (mentally) for my first trip up a mountain by reading ‘touching the void’. If you haven’t read it (or seen the film) – it’s a light-hearted tale of two British chaps who climbed around on some small rocks in Peru (the weathers not good, one of them takes a bump, they write a book etc…) but strangely, it led me full circle back to Slovenia! I Googled for the author ‘Joe Simpson’, found him on Wikipedia, linked through to Siula Grande (the mountain the climbed) and found, oddly, that it was famously climbed by a Slovene guy called Pavle Kozjek. It turns out that Pavle Kozjek is a pretty tough (but dead) Slovene who learnt his trade conquering Slovene mountains. Actually, I just read this article about Pavle and he’s a fascinating guy. If it wasn’t for Martin Strel he’d probably be my all-time Slovene hero. However, Martin gets that title for comedy value. Swimming the river Amazon is as funny as it is impressive.

Hopefully, I wont be touching any voids (or cloth) on my trip but I will be on the lookout for the following.

1. The Zlatorog
2. Dedek Mraz – the Slovene father Christmas (or Grandad frost) who (apparently) lives there.
3.

Anway, if you’re looking for me in Oxford next week – don’t, and if you’re in Slovenia and have time for Lasko, Burek, talking and Alpine fun – you know what to do…

Eddy

Reggae for your retinas… or, err – a ‘Morris Dance’ for the mind…

Click HERE for 170 reasons to open your eyes.

OK, so I got your attention 😉

It’s Sunday morning on the 19th of April and today is Easter day in Ukraine and other Orthodox Christian countries. I left Chisinau on the 19.55 Chisinau-Moscow train and I’m about two hours from arriving at Kiev. The journey has been pretty standard. The conductor calls me ‘Hey! English’ every time he wants my attention, the border guards (stern looking military women again) finger my passport angrily until they realize I’m not gonna offer a bribe and then give me the ‘angry sigh’ and ‘disappointed look’ that Ukrainians do so well. Everything else just wobbles and creeks. Even by Russian standards – this train is a wobbler.

So anyway, I have until my battery expires to write about Moldova but before I started this I had to decide, am I gonna rant about the political troubles in Moldova? The answer is – no, it’s a big topic so I’ll tackle the political situation on its own later.

Monday (they day after I last wrote) wasn’t very exciting but I managed to explore Chisinau in the Sun, watch life unfold in the busy street markets (where you can buy everything – eggs, sunglasses, kittens, washing machines etc etc) and then met up with Cristina for a drink in the evening. I met Cristina when I was in Chisinau two years ago and thanks to Facebook keeping in touch isn’t a problem. However, I had a few problems trying to meet her because I was 5 minutes late so I arrived, waiving my arms and smiling like an idiot from the other side of the road only to realize that the girl I’m harassing isn’t Cristina! Whoops. Then I was saluted and then told off by a Policeman for sitting on the Stefan Cel Mare statue (maybe he was saluting Stefan I dunno) and then, after I found her we found refreshments in a nice French brasserie.

The rest of the week, until Friday followed a pretty similar pattern only some days I met Oxana, on Tuesday I visited Martin Wyss from the IOM mission in Chisinau, Wednesday an opposition activist from the Our Moldova party and Thursday Alexandrina from Couch-Surfing. Yes, I know they are all girls but this is purely coincidental – honestly.

How do you like Moldova?

It’s the first question that rolls of most peoples lips and thankfully, I can answer in all honesty – I really like it. Once you’ve adjusted to the state of the infrastructure it’s easy to be charmed by the Moldovans. Firstly, unlike the UK – everything happens in front of your face (OK not everything) but a lot. People are expressive, friendly and often loud and you’ll see levels of poverty (unrivaled elsewhere in Europe) fighting for space with the men in leather, the Vogue-like girls, Police in Ladas and the well-connected in BMWs.

In addition to my previous list.You’ll also find:
> People eating bananas the wrong way! This doesn’t make any sense to me but people in these parts have turned the banana world on its head. They hold the long stem and peel it from the bottom-up! It’s just not right.
> SIM cards that cost 3 Euros and last all week (see the helpful girls in the Moldcell shop on Stefan Cel Mare if you need one)
> Cash Machines where you can withdraw 20 Lei (1 Euro and 30 cents)
> Men drinking beer like water at any time of the day
> Amazingly overpriced restaurants (Chisinau is more expensive than Koszeg)
> 3 Million mini-buses to take you anywhere in the city. (once on board, pay your 3 lei to the driver by handing money to the person in front of you and then wait for your change to arrive the same way)
> Stray, but harmless (because they’re mostly sleeping) dogs
> Plastic flowers
> People everywhere who speak English (at least enough to help which they’re happy to do)
> Ambition – its everywhere in Moldova
And…
> wherever you are – a sea of multi-coloured head-scarves. No self respecting communist grandma would leave home without a head scarf, blue and white dress and woolen tights and the Moldovan babushkas do it in style and their head scarves almost warrant sunglasses.

What you wont find:
> Fences, gates or roofs painted any colour except green and blue. Now, I dunno why but, variety of colour is NOT the spice of life when it comes to Moldovan fences. It’s a kinda unofficial national colour which has nothing to do with the flag. You paint your fence and gate – you do it green and blue, it’s not open for debate,
> Kids without a hat. Moldovan kids (actually, looking out of the window this might hold for Ukraine too) are all wrapped up in thick coats and topped with thick woolly hats. Everywhere you go you’ll see little round faces peering from a ball of protective layers. It’s amusing because a) it’s insanely hot here this week and b) because I asked and everyone agrees that mothers here are a little over-protective. A bus load of kids arrived next to us on Friday and they all waddled of like Moldovan penguins.
> Free and fair elections but, like I said, we’ll deal with that later…

Eddy

PS, I