All aboard the magic Theaker bus

How lucky are we?  Here we are on the other side of the world and along comes Theaker, our Amazonianly gorgeous high-flying aerialist friend, complete with her Slovenian magic bus to take us to places we would never have made it to alone.

Who drives the magic bus?  Theaker drives the magic bus

Who flies the magic trapeze?  Theaker flies and turns the world on its head

I lied, that's Livija & Theaker on the left

Theaker took us to Cerkno, an enchanted mountain village which is North-East-ish in Slovenia where she was doing a show for the Festival Ala.  That gave us the gift of meeting the organiser, Livija, who became our personal guide and new friend. Of course, I don't have a picture of her; this seems to be the case with many people we've really had fun with (Gabi, Roger, Peter, Michael, Libby, Gra, Bea, Gina are also on this list...)

What a treat to spend time with someone who could show us around and tell us all about it.  I know more about Cerkno than most other places we've been to.  From the profound - a 55,000 year old bone flute (the oldest instrument in the world) was found here - to the profane - you can buy g-string knickers in a vending machine at the pub... Why?  Excellent question.

Knicker machine

But we weren't only obsessed with one-size-fits-all-knickers-in-a-ball for 2 euros each... masks were also a source of great fascination and the local museum (in tandem with Livija) was great.

The masks and costumes belong to the Laufarji - a company of 'runners' who originate from way back when (Pagan times) to mark the end of winter.  The carnival was sadly lost around the time of World War I* but some clever folk revived it in 1956 and it's been going strong ever since. 

*This area suffered terribly throughout both World Wars, but also hosted a strong partisan element and even a cleverly hidden hospital

This first picture shows the character of Pust, who is the scapegoat for everything (natural or otherwise) that has gone wrong over the past 12 months.  Much of what happens in the carnival involves him, particularly his indictment for all the wrong-doing (which comes across as quite humorous) and symbolic execution.  After he is put to death there is both a dance of celebration and a mourning.  The costume is made from moss.  If it rains, it can weigh up to 100kg. Even when dry it weighs as much as 80kg.  That's dedication, hey?
 

Other Laufarji characters represent 'typical' members of society - some are traditional, and others modern.  Below you see the old lady who sweeps away winter and Pust's brother, the pine man.  There are drunks and a neanderthal character too. Well, you can see for yourself on this video
 

The costumes creep Ayesha out (rather Doctor Who villain-esque, they are) but I'm rapt in the whole idea - the reminder that in Australia we so lack the vividness of changes in the season.  Even more than that, we lack in relevant symbolism.  All our inherited 'festivals' are topsy-turvy, out-of-touch with nature and what's really happening.  I'd love to go back to Cerkno for this...

We hit the road, and what roads!  Masterful driving of the beast by Theaker takes us through great scenery...

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..and to the UNESCO listed Scocjan Caves. Down we went, but couldn't take photos in the depths of it.  Such depths!  Such ancient, ancient evidence of time before us.  So much more than us!  We tried to calculate the age of the 'Giant' stalagmite... about 15 metres tall, growing at 1 to 1.5cm per hundred years.  Go on, work it out and be humbled.  

More Doctor Who sensations ensued in the vast canyons below ground... check the photo in this link if you care to.  Dragons.  Gollums.  All were surely there, or had been.
 

delerious explorers

cool explorers

And then we crossed the border to Croatia...

Yay! Celebrating border crossing in back of Theaker's bus

Reaching great heights in Bled

As a reprieve after the ups and downs of Salzburg, we headed back to Slovenia to the gorgeousness of Lake Bled.  Here we stayed in the bestest place so far, Kaps Penzion, ,a kind of alpine lodge all decked out in wooden furniture made by the dad of the owner/hosts.  Beds, towels, shower all sooooo very comfy which was great after the workout we were undergo later in the day.  Scroll down to see Ayesha's account of the very adventurous stuff we did...

Kaps Penzion

view from our balcony

view from our window - the very lovely Bled castle

Ayesha recreating a photo we took in 2006 

  After a frustrating luckless search for lunch, we went up a large hill only to discover that we couldn't do our amazing plans that we'd been looking forward to (Mum actually looked like she was going to cry!) because it was 'raining' (it was hardly spitting).  Dad stayed in line determinedly (he says he was 'stoically telepathising the woman to see the error of her ways').  She had walked away and sat down with her arms folded refusing to sell tickets.  Eventually, it became obvious that it wasn't going to rain and, as more people turned up, the sheer force of numbers (and Dad's will) overwhelmed her.  Win!

Soooo, we went up in a chairlift with amazing views...

and then finally we got to the top, harnessed up, did some training and hit the ropes... the high ropes course...

We all managed the green course, then Mum & I did the blue course while Dad took some photos and ate ice cream.

 


I was the only one with enough energy to tackle the Red Course - the hardest and highest one.  You can see how high I had to climb.  

All I'm going to say now is that I wished I had some gloves and I wish this was close to home so I could do it again, and again.


After all that, we still had something fun to do - we went on a summer toboggan back down the hill.  At first I was quite nervous and went slowly, but then I got my confidence up and just raced.  At the end, Dad said he realised the acceleration and brakes handle was just like a video game controller and he went 'zoooommm'.  You can see the track in this photo.  

And then we said, “Yeah, let's go to Austria”...

...for the novelty, y'know, of just popping over to another country with another landscape and language; because a train trip through the glorious Julian Alps seemed like a grand idea. And so we got a train ticket, booked a hotel, woke up horribly early and headed, with packs on backs and bags on fronts and hats in hands, to Ljubljana train station. It was Friday 13^th July. Not that we're suspicious.

Kath was without her first cup of coffee. Not a pretty sight; not a pleasant character. It didn't look like she was going to get one for the next 2 hours because the walk took a little longer than anticipated and the train was near due. Luckily, or so we thought at the time, the train had been delayed by 20 minutes and the much sought-after coffee was gained and guzzled sooner rather than later. Mood grew positive in the Norcross-Gaskin crew as we boarded the train to Villach.

Then the weather came in... low cloud and rain, obscuring views, making Howie look like this...

On our approach to Villach, we are reminded that the delay means we've missed our connection and have to wait 2 hours for the next one. That's okay. We're in German speaking realms now and enjoying (giggling over) the sound of words like “Abfaht” (departures). *apologies to my German speaking friends! Ayesha's a bit stunned and disgusted to see and smell people smoking in cafes in Austria... we forget that she's grown up in a smoking ban environment. We have lunch in the tiny non-smoking room of a bar where the smoke creeps a little under the door anyway.

Onto the Salzburg train and the weather closes in, with almost nothing visible. Howie looks like this...

(I know, it's terribly sad,isn't it?)

Hooray, we're in Salzburg. Let's walk to the hotel because it's only 3 blocks away. Howie takes off at his usual packs-on cracking pace (faster than his standard walk). There are roadworks, and we take a wrong turn. Three blocks becomes 10. The wheel on a case we're dragging (a hand-me-down from Ross) finally succumbs to its jam and stops turning. By the time we notice, it's flat on one side! We arrive at the hotel about 7 hours after leaving the Ljubljana studio to be told check in is at 1500 and we must wait another 30 minutes. We do, and duly collect the key, going upstairs to find the housekeeper still in our room. Long story short, they stuff up and the room takes another hour to be ready for us. Grumble, grumble. We start to count our misfortunes on this Friday 13^th...

Until, we have refreshing showers and walk out into the afternoon. The clouds miraculously part for us and blue sky appears. We find ourselves in gorgeous sculpture gardens, Mirabell Park...

 The old town is splendid in sunshine...

We take the Festungbahn (funicular) up to the amazing Honhensalzburg fortress, for an audio tour and spectacular views that include the House of the Protector of the Cabbages (that's the little place in the middle of the grassed area). What the..?

Howie has a go at shooting crossbow and is frighteningly accurate...

 

And he gets an icy cold one...

Now he's happy :)

We took this photo to demonstrate the great length of German words.  Google translates it to mean "FEED-WATER QUENCHING".  Of course.

We took this one to show the spot on the trams where you can stand with your dog.  That's cool, hey?

And we eat Mozart chocolates outside Mozart's birth house while singing 'Twinkle Twinkle'.

All's well and all that stuff. Good night Salzburg. Oh, and the weather was kinder for the return train journey the next day. It looked like this...

In Ljubljana, the old, the new & nature co-exist...