National Day at the Lake

Monday was National Day in Slovenia, the equivalent of our 4th of July. One of the IAESTE Slovenia students, Saša, invited us all to a lake with her and her friends for the day. The drive there took about an hour on these tiny, one lane (but 2 direction) roads through the mountains. It was marvelous.

The lake was small and there were a few other people there, but there were several benches on the lake's edge and even a float with benches in the lake. We swam, picnicked, canoed, got tipped in the canoe, played croquet (my team won, and that's always important in croquet), badminton, swam some more and lazed around a lot.

The canoeists interfering with the fishing.

The Mad Mex of Slovenia

Its called Takos. And it has great outdoor tables and chairs that cantilever off the stone wall running along the alley way its on which goes from the street level down to the river. Very clever.

But the place has the same type of rusted metal light fixtures and decorations, and a yummy looking menu, so I was really excited. I mean, this is Slovenia, so far from Mexico and I hadnt seen a Mexican, black or otherwise non-white person since I've been here, but I thought hey, white people can cook Mexican food too, right? Wrong.

I ordered a margarita and a burrito and when I got my drink, it was yellow. But hey, maybe their lime juice is just different or something. Actually, they make margaritas with pineapple juice, ice and a tiny little bit of tequila. Ok, fine, the margaritas are a bit different, but its tough to screw up a burrito. Another intern, Catherine, had ordered enchiladas and when our plates arrived, they were identical. Granted, both were good; cabbage, chicken and melted cheese inside a rolled tortilla with piles of refried beans, rice, corn and salsa on the plate, but no enchilada sauce on the enchilada and no rolled up and folded-ness of the burrito.

After talking with the other 4 interns from the UK, I was the only one who actually knew what Mexican food was supposed to be like since they dont really have any in Ireland or England. I had never really thought about that, but its true, almost all of the US has tons more diversity than most of Europe. Makes me appreciate our country a little bit more...

I'm sorry Stu... but I found someone else

Look at that plate of meat!

This guy cooked our dinner Saturday night at the festival, what a man.

Day Time Adventures

The Lent Festival kept us busy at night, but during the day we also kept busy. And by busy, I mean we slept every day this weekend until 11 and found something to occupy us in the afternoon. Saturday Moore and Harper (they're both named John, so we're trying to differentiate them) and I went to Pohorje Mountain which is the ski mountain 5 kilometers out of the city. They have all sorts of (expensive) summer activities like a driving range, ropes course and mountain bike park. They also have this thing called the Pohorjet. Its a rail that runs down part of the mountain going back and forth across the slope and into the trees sometimes. You ride up in a chairlift and then ride down in a little car thats somehow attached to this track down the mountain. It looked mildly dangerous and really fun so we had to try it.

This is Moore waiting for the green light about to go down.

It was amazing! I ended up going so much faster than I expected and the turns were quite sharp in some places but luckily i had a seat belt on so you cant fall out. It was really fun, and there was a great view of the city from the top of the chairlift.

Then we found 2 semi-professional football (soccer) teams practicing and watched them for a while. I think they were on summer training, one team was from Croatia and the other team was speaking 4 different languages but I think they were a Greek team. That was pretty fun too.

Festival Lent

Friday was the start of the Lent Festival. Lent is the name of the old city area down by the river, nothing to do with Easter or anything. For 2 and a half weeks Maribor is FULL of people and there are concerts and performances every night, its been a lot of fun so far. The street along the river is just full of people and little tents set up selling Slovene fair food which is basically tons of meat in any form possible. There's also cotton candy (which the British people call candy floss) and popcorn and crepes and lots of beer. The main stage is actually floating on the river and there's a huge seating area set up just on shore, its pretty amazing.
We saw a band called the Fool Cool Orchestra on Saturday night, it was a jazz orchestra playing very unique music that was a blend of new age, jazz, and rock using all sorts of different instruments. The featured soloists were an electric guitar and an accordionist.

I've never seen an accordionist jam out on a solo before.... quite interesting.

Sunday night we saw a French group called The World Upside Down...Feet on the Ground. They had a stage set up in the park that wasn't actually a stage at all but metal scaffolding on four corners that went up probably 60 feet. In between all the corners were vertical sheets of heavy duty clear plastic and the performance could be viewed from all sides. There were probably 12 people on trapeze swinging and dancing on both sides of these clear, vertical stages in various costumes and acts. It was really amazing to see a performance not limited to 2 dimensions on such an alternative stage area.

I think we'll go to see a jazz/flamenco group tonight perform in the 'judgement tower'. Its a little cafe/pub that looks like a former grain silo or something, but much wider. It looks really nice and cozy and the stage supposedly always has the best performances.

I need a Hero

To give a little background, there's a radio station here, Radio City, that is played EVERYWHERE. All the restaurants, bars, the bank and everyone in my office listens to it. Its all American pop music from the past 30 years, everything from Im too Sexy to the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys and Africa. The song Larger than Life from Footloose was just on and I was walking down the hall of the office and there's an older guy, who doesnt speak much english, singing 'I need a hero, I need a hero till the end of the night....' walking behind me.

Quality.

I have an address

Acadia Klain
Studentski Dom. 5
Gospesvetska C. 85
2000 Maribor
Slovenia