Another joke from our Slovenian tour guide: If Melania and Donald divorce, Slovenia get half the United States, although it depends on the prenup…
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The day after our visit to Lake Bled, we took a trip to Trieste, Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, not far from the Slovenian border. Even though we only had a few hours, I was looking forward to being in Italy, which is my maternal lineage’s homeland. Also, B had never been to Italy, so it was fun to add another country to his international list, which is substantially longer than mine due to business travel.
We first went to Saint Just Cathedral, a centuries-old church on the hill overlooking the city. While other cathedrals were remodeled as artistic styles changed, this one remains in the Romanesque style and incorporates some features salvaged from Roman Empire structures, as you can see in the tower.
On entering the cathedral, my eyes were immediately drawn to the magnificent – and vibrantly colored – mosaic over the main altar.
The ceiling over the nave was also interesting.
To the left of the main altar, was this one with the Madonna and Child.
As one expects in old cathedrals, there were other small altars along the sides. I particularly liked the sunlight streaming into this beautifully painted one.
Painting detail:
Next, our amazingly skilled bus drivers took us down some narrow, twisting streets to Trieste’s main piazza near the sea. The square is surrounded by impressive palaces and government buildings. It is now called Piazza Unità d’Italia, a name it acquired a century ago when Trieste became part of Italy; it had previously been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Piazza contains the Fountain of the Four Continents. It was sculpted in the 1750’s representing the four continents known at that time: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
We also visited the remains of a Roman amphitheater nearby. Dating from the first to second century of the Christian era, it was unearthed in 1938. There are still occasional concerts held at the site.
The unfortunate thing about our excursion to Trieste was that it was too brief. Perhaps, some day we will return.
I will probably get back to post about Slovenia later today, but right now, all I can think about is the horrible juxtaposition of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. So many dead. So many wounded. So many times we in the United States turn on our televisions to have them filled with police officers behind crime tape and press conferences with politicians and police chiefs updating the death toll and the condition of the wounded and what we know about the perpetrator.
Each new iteration feels like a surreal retelling of the same story. Different details. Same shock, grief, and bewilderment.
People ask, “How could it happen here?” It can happen anywhere in the United States. A school. A church. A store. A nightclub. A workplace. A movie theater. Any day. Any time.
It happened a few miles away from my home in April, 2009.
Many of us have made pleas for stricter gun laws, which sometimes works at the state level. Many of us have advocated for better mental health care, which sometimes works at the state level. But state borders are easily crossed, so we need action at the federal level.
Increasingly, though, the perpetrators appear not to be suffering from mental illness. Instead, they are shooting at people as an expression of hatred, because of race or religion or national origin or sexual orientation or some other difference that, in their viewpoint, sets “us” against “them.”
It is hateful rhetoric turned into hate-fueled action.
I don’t know if that brand of rhetoric stops, it will lead to fewer deaths and injuries, but it is well-worth trying, especially if it is replaced by respectful conversation where people of differing viewpoints actually listen to one another.
It may sound like a pipe dream, but it is possible. There are already people in both the public and private sphere who model this behavior.
It’s something we can all do, in addition to the oft-requested thoughts and prayers.
Today, I am renewing my commitment to respectful dialogue. Will you?
Our first excursion away from Ljubljana was to Bled, which is northwest of Ljubljana and close to the border with Austria. Bled is famous for its beautiful lake, which has an island with a church and belltower.
As you can see in the foreground of the photo above, one common way to visit the island is by pletna boat, powered by a single (very adept) oarsman. This is a job that tends to be passed down within families; our rower had a brother working on the lake, both following prior generations of their family.
One must climb 99 steps to reach the church.
The current form of the church dates from the the 17th century but there has been a Christian church at the site since the 12th century. In earlier times, it is believed that a temple to a Slavic goddess stood at the site. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, but is sometimes called, for obvious reasons, Our Lady of the Lake. Here is the main altar in the Baroque style; on the side walls are fresco remnants of the prior Gothic-style church, which was damaged in an earthquake. 
After spending some time in the church, we climbed the belltower.
B took this interesting shot as we ascended the stairs, showing the weights that make the clock work.
We were in the tower at noon. Unlike many clocktowers which would just ring the hour, these bells rang for several minutes. It was a bit loud, being that close to the bells, but it was interesting to watch the mechanism work.
After our time on the island and the return to shore by pletna, we took our buses up to Bled Castle. And I do mean up! Here is what Bled Castle looked like from our boat.
And here is what Lake Bled looked like from the castle.
The castle paths were quite steep, but we were rewarded with a fancy lunch at the restaurant. It was the first time I have had trout caviar; probably the first time I have had caviar at all.
And because it never hurts to end a post with dessert…
One of the nice features of the Smith College Alumnae Chorus’s tour of Slovenia was that we stayed for the whole week in Ljubljana in the City Hotel, just on the edge of the (mostly) pedestrian-only Old City. It was nice to be able to settle into our hotel rooms and walk to rehearsals, meals, shops, etc. in the Old City, only using our buses when we ventured further afield for sight-seeing or singing.
Because I needed to be in rehearsal, B had the chance to do more exploring than I did. I happily delegated picture-taking to him and want to share a few photos of places he/we visited.
One of the really nice features of our hotel rooms were that they had large murals of black and white photographs of Ljubljana by Slovenian photographer Žiga Koritnik. Here is the one in our room: 
While walking around the city, B found the exact location and took this photo, with the river walls in the foreground and the castle on the hill above:
While I did get to go to the castle on the hill by funicular,
B walked up several times, enabling him to get some shots of the city and the Alps beyond:
And a close-up of the castle clocktower, flying the flags of Slovenia and Ljubljana:
The Ljubljanica River flows through the heart of the Old City:
where it is crossed by many bridges, including the Triple Bridges:
One of the most famous of the bridges is the Dragon Bridge, guarded by this fellow:
with the help of some griffins:
Every day in the Old City, there are farmers and artisans selling their wares from shaded booths:
And sometimes, just the walkway itself is interesting:
A joke from our Slovenian tour guide: Melania likes that Donald was elected president because now people call her First Lady instead of “third wife.”
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I have done a couple of posts on Slovenia here and here, but am hoping to do a series of posts on different things that we did and saw there. I thought I’d start on the reason we travelled to Slovenia.
I am a member of the Smith College Alumnae Chorus. We sing at occasional events on campus in Northampton, Massachusetts, and every other year or so, go on an international tour. This year, we spent a week in Slovenia. We sang the Haydn Missa in Angustiis, also known as the Lord Nelson Mass, and the Duruflé Requiem, in conjunction with orchestra, tenors, and basses from Slovenia. We did have a few tenors and basses of our own along, mostly spouses of alumnae, but, as a women’s college, the vast majority of our chorus is sopranos and altos.
We performed two concerts under the direction of our conductor Jonathan Hirsh on our last two evenings in Slovenia. Our Friday night performance was at the cathedral in Koper.
On Saturday night, we performed at Saint James’ Church in Ljubljana. To our surprise, a representative from the United States Embassy came to greet us and the performance was recorded by the Slovenian public broadcasting service.
To the delight of the audience, Maestro Hirsh addressed them in Slovene before each concert. He told them a bit about our chorus’s mission to collaborate with local musicians when we toured and a bit about each piece. Both were written in times of strife and uncertainty. The Haydn, which was the first half of the concert, ends with a forceful plea for peace. The Duruflé, however, is much more meditative and ends very quietly with the “In Paradisum” as the soul enters into paradise. Mr. Hirsh asked the audience to take a few moments to reflect before applauding.
Those moments of silence, after the last chord had finished reverberating in those magnificent spaces, were incredibly moving, illustrating the power of music to reach across language, social differences, and time to touch hearts and minds.
As you can see from my One-Liner Wednesday post this week, B and I have recently returned from Slovenia. We stayed for the week in the capital, Ljubljana, and went on sightseeing excursions from its central location.
One thing that impressed us about Ljubljana is how clean it is. There was almost no litter. I did see someone who I assumed was a municipal employee picking up a stray piece of paper with one of those sticks with a claw on the end – but only once in the many hours we were out and about in the Old City, which is mostly pedestrian and busy with residents and tourists, visiting the sites, shops, and open air markets.
Slovenia rightly prides itself on its environmental stewardship. As part of their green credentials, along the streets are small dumpsters for glass, paper, plastics, organic waste, and things that don’t fit in any of those categories. People are very diligent about dealing with trash, which goes a long way in keeping the streets clean.
Some of the people in our group were surprised to see some graffiti here and there. B and I were not surprised to see some in a city of 300,000. Graffiti is a combination of artistic expression and social commentary. I don’t think of it as being dirty.
Maybe this weekend, I will get some time to start organizing photos and writing some posts about details of our trip…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “clean/dirty.” Join us! find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/07/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-27-19/
SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/
Taken by my spouse B in the “Old City” of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I was singing with the Smith College Alumnae Chorus in Ljubljana and Koper; blog posts will be trickling in over the coming days.
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Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com
When we bring ABC to Wegman’s (our biggest grocery store), there are two things she wants to see.
One is the cow in the dairy section. It’s not real, of course, but does move. ABC says, “Mooooo. Cow! Mooooo.”
The other is a toy train on an elevated track over the bulk food section. ABC says, “Choo, choo. Train. Choo, choo.” Fortunately, she says this very quietly, not at train volume.
Would it be too silly to say we go to the store to get something to chew?
(There is a third thing at Wegman’s that ABC looks for when we go to the Asian foods section. There is a red and gold paper dragon over the aisle. ABC does not know how to make a dragon sound.)
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “chew/choo.” Join us! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/07/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-6-19/
Joanne Corey 