Slovenia to Italy. History, Heartbreak, and huge pieces of Ham!

I’m back! (from holiday that is). So it’s time for a bit of an update. Basically it was great. Ljubljana was friendly as ever, the Celica hostel is still the best and, once again there was a street party booming away in the center of town. Also, I finally made it to Global which, situated at the top of a tall building makes it the highest bit of night clubbing I have ever done ..and yes we are talking about height here.

As for Italy, well what can I say – we were welcomed by the friendliest hosts we could have hoped for. Not only were we given beds and shown the sights of Gorizia but we were plied with home cooked Italian dishes, red wine, coffee and more cheese than you could shake a greater at. It was excellent. As I mentioned before – this was also a significant weekend for Slovenia and a significant weekend for Gorizia/Nova Gorizia. At 12 midnight on Friday 30th of April Slovenia joined the EU and Gorizia joined Nova Gorica. To mark the occasion there was a gathering in the city center (read the speech below) and the un-veiling of a new mosaic marking the old border between the two towns. This was followed on Saturday by a concert by the one and only Goran Bregovic! …no, we hadn’t heard of him either.

Other highlights:

A photo of me and the biggest piece of processed ham you have ever seen – maybe in the world

A smashing pie

Mike’s catch all foreign accent (next time you see him ask for a demo)

Moyer in the dungeon

The second biggest ham ever – nice try Slovenia

Lasko

and Grappa …no not Grappa – Grappa is bad.

What did I learn?

I like espresso

I like Gorizia

I like Itallians

I like meals that last for hours

“Come siete?” means how are you

“Si” means yes

and finally never say “Si” to a bottle of Grappa or your answer to “Come siete?” will definitely be “drunk!”

So, If anyone who looked after us is reading this “Thank you, Grazie and Hvala” From Mike Moyer and Oxford.

Eddy. PS – I’m not explaining the heartbreak – you’ll have to ask me about that.