Ancient Water, Venetian Water

On our way to Italy today, we visited Postojnska Jama (Postojna Cave), the world’s third largest cave behind Carlsbad and Mammoth in the states. Pictures were unfortunately not allowed inside, but it was as awesome as Blanchard Springs in Arkansas. 

Did you know that caves are, as this had been, safe places to be during an earthquake because they are hollow? Slovenia has 21,000 known caves with 300 new ones discovered each year. This is earthquake and natural hot springs country. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites we saw take 10-30 years to grow one millimeter, other formations like the limestone curtain shapes take 100 years to grow a millimeter. It was amazing to see rock that predates Christ. We headed into Italy, entering first through Trieste ending in Venice. Arriving the evening of June 18^th, we also spent the 19^th and 20^th of June in the city directly with a transition to Tessera for the night of the 20^th. 

Perhaps because it is June, Venice’s beauty is all the more tragic. People go to see it but there are so many people there taking it in, that it’s far beyond its human capacity in the touristy areas of the city. While car free, the boats and smell of diesel, noise and canal stench takes away from the experience. I’m not sure the future of this place unless somehow it is treated more like something precious and a larger entity intervenes. Our hotel, while optimally located suffered from mold and inability to properly handle the mid 80s humidity. I wish our stay had been much shorter. 

Venice didn’t disappoint me with its artsy and traditional food creations. I now have a third Venetian mask for my collection.

The Naval history museum which is partially translated and even has a Swedish section is time well spent. The museum has a very impressive collection of armaments from wars and model boats. The oldest pieces on hand are 17^th century vessels and a lovely room devoted to the evolution of the modern gondola.

Sacred Water

After a walking tour of Ljubljana this morning, we headed into the Julian Alps to see Lake Bled. Its waters are a divine Carribbean/Amalfi coast blue.
A dip of my ailing left foot left a pain-free warm tingle the rest of the day. After all these days along the Dalmatian coast along the Adriatic, it was here in the north when I finally came upon my first Dalmatian swimming in Lake Bled with her owner.

Prior to Christianity’s intrusion, it was believed that the island in the middle of the lake was home to Živa, the ancient Slovenian goddess of life and love. In the 9th century, the church was built on the Pagan site and remarketed as the Church of the Virgin Mary. We asked if they had any Živa souvenir statues we could take home and of course the answer was no.

Inside the church we all took turns ringing the wishing bell. The story is that those who come to honor Mary are to make a wish and pull on the rope to make the church bell ring to get it granted. The drive back was unbearably long, with no insult intended to the vast beauty of Triglav National Park. We also had mere minutes to spend enjoying Lake Bohinj.
On our way out, the only thing that prevented revolt from being ripped away from Lake Bled was Martin’s relenting to our demands for cream cake (kremina rezina), a regional Slovenian specialty. Yes, looks innocent enough but every bite was worth every calorie.

Our morning tour of Ljubljana revealed a deeper and interesting controversy about the long-time dictator Marshall Tito, (first referenced in the Belgrade entry). Some say the real Tito died back in 1943. He lived in secret prior to that time and yet the resistance forces he mobilized were so unified that news of his death would have caused chaos. Many facts point to a different “Tito” having been secretly placed in power from the mid 40s to his death in 1980. Evidence that the famous Tito was in fact really a Russian nobleman exists:

* The real Tito was missing one finger and was trained as a locksmith (and yet he played piano to entertain the Queen of England)
* The Tito who in 1948 broke Yugoslavia’s relations with Russia’s Stalin would have been more likely if the 2nd Tito had in fact a Russian nobleman.
* Another discrepancy I was unable to get clear on languages Tito spoke Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian, or not.

Fresh Waters

Our lunch in Makarska yesterday made last night a rough one. I was running a fever fighting off something awful that no doubtedly came from bad food. We spent 6 hours on the bus today with two one hour stops and I began to get really loopy (this is probably when I’m most zany or fun, depending on your perspective). Our guide Martin can talk about local villages and history for 20 minutes at a time without stopping. After these many days, I’m beginning to wonder just how someone is able to do this- I mean without any pauses.

Our long journey ended in a place it was cruel to wrench us away from the next morning, the Plitvice Lakes (16 naturally terraced lakes), another UNESCO site. View the full collection of photos here.