Hello Everyone,
We got back last week from our trip to the mainland.
We flew into Slovenia and headed northward to the small town of Bled. We had a great pension, found it and headed for dinner. Fantastic Italian influenced food!! (Cheesy, bacon gnocci and a fantastic tuna steak) …and cheap beer and wine.
After a casual breakfast at the pension we made our way to the town where we could access Triglav National Park and the high trails. A long bus wait (which we filled with coffee/fruit/pint stop) later and short bus journey, we were ready to hit the trail for what we thought would be about a 3 hour hike into a hut.
Our welcoming party at the pension.
Bled Castle
At the trailhead, the heavens opened up and we slogged on in a crazy thunder and lightning storm. We continued to hike and hike and (again) I found out that we had missed a junction. A lot of slagging from Kelly ensued. We were fine to continue on our trail to get to the hut but encountered thigh deep snow on the trail! Boooo. So. Soaking wet and facing a few more hours (or more) slogging through the snow we decided to about face and head back to town with thoughts of dry clothes and warm food in our minds.
With a nice hotel found and snow at higher elevations we decided to look around for some action. And action we found!!!
Venice was going great… until the most embarrassing dinning experience ever.
Kelly and I found a quaint canal lined with really nice restaurants to sit down for a glass of wine and some fantastic Italian cuisine. We managed to get a table on a fairly busy patio that seemed popular with the local Venetians. The place was quite trendy with and as it appeared to attract the young socialites of Venice. Things were going fine and dandy, chatting with our dinning neighbours when I heard a “bump, bump, bump, sploosh” and Kelly’s face going white. I thought to myself “please be her cell phone” but nope it was our little camera. As the place was busy it made for a huge scene with people pointing, looking, and describing what happened to their friends (hand motions and sound effects transcend language barriers). Since we were both shaken and bummed out (both for the camera and the memory card) it essentially killed our conversation with our neighbours. After about 20 minutes of trying to cheer each other up, Kelly looked over her shoulder and spotted it in the canal! It was about 4 feet deep, as it had landed just on the edge of last step.
Trying to figure out a way to retrieve it without going waist deep in the Venice canal with a patio full of onlookers, I ran down the canal, hopped onto a vacant boat, stole and oar and tried to get the camera up to a manageable level to wade in. (While this is happening our food comes which we will address shortly). Within a couple steps from the top, one of the helping locals, took off his sandals and waded down to grab it, to a great cheer from the building crowd.
With our soggy camera back we could get down to the business of our wine and food. But when I sat back down, placed in front of me was a heaping plate of bright red, raw beef pilled on top of a few leaves of rocket. “Oh, yeah! That’s what Carpaccio is…shit.” What was I going to do with this giant plate of cow? (first thought was another accidental drop into the canal) Kelly slyly suggested putting it into my napkin. Even though she was probably kidding and I didn’t pick up on it, I waited for what seemed like an opportune time and, in a flash, filled my napkin with whatever I could shovel off my plate in an instant. Cool as a cucumber, man of the world, haute dinning professional, I felt like I had gotten away with it.
But….
A few minutes later (a new, larger group was now beside us) a woman leaned over and asked for the benefit of her group how our food was. She said it with a glimmer in her eye and had directed the question right at me. Both of us burst out laughing, as we both knew she had busted me and my feeble attempt at subtlety. She proceeded to tell the rest of her table what I’d done and their astonishment and laughter ensued. They at least made me feel a little bit better when they told me to pass the remaining Carpaccio over, and they gladly finished it off.
We paid the bill and ran. Fast.
Purse sellers heading for a midnight meeting.
Boat bottoms
Got to Milan on Wednesday night with lots of time for Kelly to prepare for her seminar on Thursday. The neighborhood around our hotel had 2 great trattorias so we had nice options dinning near the hotel.
While Kelly was at her seminar on Thursday I took the train up to Lecco, a town near the Swiss border in the Italian Lake District. The weather was hot (30+) and it made for a really sweaty trail run/scramble but nice to feel some real heat. Plus a dip in the Lake Como makes the train ride back to Milan a little more bearable (for both myself and the other passengers).
Milano!
Back in Milan for the weekend, I was left to my own devices while Kelly presented at the conference on Saturday (which was a great success even though the conference was much larger than she had anticipated) and attended talks on Sunday. I’d spend my mornings running and taking photos and usually find a quiet spot in Milan’s main park to listen to music, read my book and relax. There was a community festival in the park so there was live music, demonstrations, and food vendors plus lots of space to spread out and enjoy the sunshine.
As another dinner option we found a great neighborhood in south Milan near their canals. There were tons of restaurant options and the food was unbelievable. We even managed to avoid dropping anything in the canals and enjoy some fantastic dinners.
