Lost in transit

I come from Ljubljana with a banjo on my knee

I have to hurry up and post this pointless travel bit before Michael M., who lives there, writes something here and makes it obsolete. I went to Slovenia a few weeks ago on business and it was like time-travel.

Specifically, it was like travelling back in time about ten years, because everyone in Ljubljana was skating around on inline skates, rather than those little silver scooter things people use here in Austria. That was the first big difference I noticed.

Well, actually the fact that there were no highway police or radar boxes on the freeway (which is in brand-spanking-new condition) and everyone drives between 150 and 200 km/h was the first thing I noticed. Luckily I was driving a Mercedes with diplomatic plates so I was able to keep up with them.

I also noticed all the toll booths. We don't have any highway toll booths here in the eastern part of Austria where I live. In Slovenia, though, you hit about six of them in the, what, half hour or hour it takes to get to Ljubljana, which reminded me a lot of a little Venice or Amsterdam, with all those spiffy clean old buildings, and the canal and stuff.

Also at the toll booths, I noticed another difference - I was suddenly transported back in time several years to the pre-Euro era in Europe, where the Maserati behind you in line waits impatiently for you to do the math in your head (how many decimal places again?) and decide whether to ask if they take Euros (they do, but how many?) or just hold out a handful of Slovenian bills and tell them to take what they need.

The hotel we stayed at in Ljubljana, though, was totally up-to-date, both in terms of design and amenities (mini bar, three adult pay channels on the TV) and price.

The people I met all impressed me with how friendly they generally were, how well they spoke English and/or German (the waiter at a restaurant explained the Slovenian menu in proper English-accented English). The people seemed to be a bit more conservatively-dressed than in Austria, especially the young women, who although they have discovered the pointy shoes I see here in Vienna have not yet gone for the bare midriffs, glitter and complicated hair dye-jobs. Rather, many of them had long, straight monotone hair, flared jeans and t-shirts, like my wife when I met here in Austria here 24 years ago, so that was another time trip.

Then we drove to Portoroz, on the coast, and the landscape changed in less than an hour -- actually in just a couple minutes when we crested the hills -- to a sort of hilly Central European mountainous look to a very mediterranean scrubby tree beach-type look. Again, the buildings were spotless and the seafood was very good. Our waiter was an old guy who smoked Marlboros and was charming in English, German and several other languages, as far as I could tell.

I don't know how the wine was, since I was driving and didn't think I could afford even a single glass at 200 kmh.

Wait, I remember exactly when this was - a week before the end of April, because preparations were underway to join the EU on 1 May. They had all these blue EU flags hanging in a park in Ljubljana. There is much discussion in Europe over how great a drag the new members will be on the EU economy, but from what I saw in Slovenia, it didn't look as if it would take long for them to catch up.

Anyway. Toll booths. Time travel. Good seafood.

Posted by Mig at May 10, 2004 08:49 AM