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Slovenia #7: Wrapping Up The Trip

Our hotel for the last two nights of the Mountain Travel trip was Hisa Franko. It's near the town of Kobarid and isn't really known as a hotel - in fact it only has a few rooms. It's fame is for its restaurant. It is frequently listed on lists of the best restaurants in the world. The chef, Ana Ros, was featured in an episode of Chef's Table, a popular series on Netflix (at least others in the group told me the show is quite popular - I'm not much of a tv guy so I'd never heard of it). It's a small place and is actually hard to get into. They don't accept groups anymore, and we only got in because our trip leader, Roman, has known the people at Hisa Franko for many years and was going there long before it was famous. It's actually a major drawing point for the Mountain Travel trip to Slovenia, although Sandy and I didn't know that when we signed up for it. Some of the people in our group, especially the folks from New York City, were very excited about going there. Katherine and Flo had been talking about it for the entire trip. But hey, we're from Boise, not Manhatten, so we were oblivious.

I have to confess that I wasn't too excited about it. I don't care much for fancy restaurants, fancy food or fancy dress. I will admit that I'm a picky eater so I figured there would be a lot of stuff that I wouldn't like. I decided that the simplest thing would be for me to just skip the fancy dinner. Unfortunately Sandy didn't like that idea for some reason and she flat out ordered me to go. I wasn't very happy about it but I'm a good soldier so I did what I was told.

It wasn't an ordinary dinner. Instead it was a "tasting", eleven courses, all of which were different but all quite small. Unfortunately it was worse than I had ever imagined it would be. Every time that they brought a new course it would be something that I wanted nothing to do with. If it was just marginal I would have been a good sport and forced it down but it wasn't even close. I just couldn't eat any of that stuff.

Of course since everyone else at our table was raving about the food it was quickly noticed that I didn't like anything. I offered my share to others so nothing went to waste. We did quickly fall into a pattern though. Each new course would turn out to be something that I didn't like and everyone would have a good chuckle. I decided that it was like hiking in the rain. There wasn't anything that I could do so I just put my head down and kept going. It wouldn't last forever. But eleven courses take a long time when you are on the receiving end of every joke. Finally dinner was over, although it did seem like it had lasted about a hundred years.

My tough night wasn't over yet. The beds in our room were unusual. The mattress sat on a wooden platform that was a good six inches wider than the mattress on every side and was about a foot off the ground. Of course I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. (Here is where I should insert a joke about how when you are old, pulling an all nighter is going all night without getting up to use to the bathrooom.) When I came back to bed stumbling in my half asleep state, I slammed my shin on the stupid bed platform. I had hurt my leg a couple of days before on a chair leg at Stora Posta. Of course I hit the exact same spot and this time was a doozy. I think it actually brought tears to my eyes. Several weeks later, as I write this, my leg is still pretty sore. I guess it builds character. Oh well. That's what I get for being a total klutz.

Fortunately the next day it was back to easy stuff like climbing a mountain. The plan was to hike to the top of Monte Matajeur, at 5,387 feet it was the highest point on a long ridge that was the border between Slovenia and Italy. There was a high overcast and the forecast was uncertain, but Roman thought that we should go for it. The starting point was on the other side of the ridge so we actually drove a short distance into Italy to start our hike. It was our third country on the trip.

We parked at the end of the road where there was a small observatory as well as a mountain hut. The latter was important because it meant that after the long car ride we could take a bathroom break before hitting the trail.

It wasn't very far to the summit but the plan was to do a loop hike, so we didn't start straight up. We traversed on the level for a while, easy walking but eventually we had to turn uphill and begin to climb. Sandy and I took our time, staying at the back of the group. That was pretty much my spot on every hike. I was definitely not the fastest hiker on the trip.

Roman usually led the way while Jan went last so I usually spent a lot of time talking to him while we hiked. It turned out that we had a lot of common interests. We both play a lot of computer games and surprisingly enough, neither of us like First Person Shooters. I play turn-based strategy games while Jan plays more adventure games but he did really like Hearts of Iron IV, a WWII strategy game. I've played HoI III so we talked about the game a lot.

Jan also reads a lot and really likes science fiction, which is one of my favorite genres. He was currently reading one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a favorite of mine, so we talked about which books we liked best. In the course of our hikes we had talked about some of our other favorite science fictions novels that we had read, like The Hithchkers's Guide to the Galaxy.

There was a mountain hut at the point that we reached the crest of the ridge. Unfortunately it was closed so I didn't get a Diet Coke break. We could see the highest point wasn't far so we kept on going. At the top there was a chapel and a monument to a WWI battle that was fought here.

Erwin Rommel, well known in WWII as the Desert Fox, led an attack that captured the entire ridge from the Italians. With only a single battalion the Germans took 9,000 Italian prisoners while suffering only thirty six casualties. It was probably the most successful attack of Rommel's career. This was an early test of the infiltration tactics and Stosstruppen that the Germans employed for their major offensive in 1918 on the Western Front.

After spending time on the summit enjoying the view, we headed down the direct way. We had the mountain to ourselves on the way up but on the way down we passed quite a few hikers. There was even a (very obnoxious) drone flying overhead. It was easy walking most of the way except for one or two slippery spots, muddy after the rain of the past few days. There wasn't any rain while we were hiking though, or for the rest of the day.

After the hike we had drinks and snacks at the mountain hut. I had fun looking around because they had quite a few astronomical photos on the wall that were taken at the observatory next door. I was proud of myself because I was able to identify all but one of them without even reading the captions.

Next we went to an open air WWI museum. It was only a few miles down the ridge but we had to drive all the way back down to the valley and then back up to reach it. The Soca Valley (also known as the Isonzo Valley) was a major front in WWI, where Italy and Austria fought from 1915 to 1917. There were twelve major battles fought during that time and the two sides suffered half a million casualties. It's hard to get your mind around what it was like then.

In modern times, a handful of casualties makes the news. Back then, tens of thousands of casualties in a single day of battle were routine. Even though I am a student of history, I can't get my mind around it. Josef Stalin stated it harshly "A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.".

We had about an hour to explore the restored fortifications. It was hard to get a sense of what it was like during the war. The hillsides were all forested and the area was very pretty. The pictures that we saw later of the valley from WWI showed a devastated landscape where virtually nothing lived. I remembered stories that I heard from my grandfather, who fought in WWI in the German army when he was just a teenager. In our times of relative peace, it was beyond my comprehension.

We had a late lunch in Kobarid. Then we had time to do one more short hike. We crossed the Soca River and hiked along the Kozjak River to Kozjak Falls. By now you might be thinking that we had done a lot of river hikes and seen a lot of waterfalls and that they all might be starting to be the same. But each one was unique and amazing and I enjoyed every one of them.

That night we ate at the Hisa Polonka, a restaurant in Kobarid that was owned by the same couple who ran Hisa Franko. This was a popular rather than a gourmet restaurant and best of all I could order what I wanted. It was good but not great, but it was a big improvement over the night before.

Then it was the last day of our trip. Roman had arranged for us to get a tour at the WWI museum in Kobarid with a guide showing us the exhibits and telling us the stories behind them. Although it was over two hours long it was fascinating and the time flew by. The experience at the museum was very powerful. We often get caught up in all the problems of the day. We don't realize how the world was for other generations and how good we actually have it. The tour though the museum was defintely sobering.

Of course Jan and I talked about history books that we had read on WWI. He suggested one that he had just finished "Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes To War" by Max Hastings. It's definitely on my list to read soon (hint - Christmas is coming). I also spotted two books in the museum bookstore that were specifically on the Isonzo battles. One was Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign and the other was The White War. I'd like to get and read one or both of those.

After the tour we stopped at an open-air cafe on the main square in Kobarid. It was a beautiful sunny day, quiet and peaceful sitting out and enjoying the scenery. It was a reminder of how lucky we are compared to recent generations. Then it was time to head back. We split into two groups. One van was heading for the airport, for folks who were flying out later that day. The other van drove back to Hotel Lev in Ljubljana, for those who were staying longer. We got back to the hotel in the early afternoon and said goodbye to our friends with whom we had shared all the adventures of the past week.

We had the rest of the day free in Ljubljana and it was a beautiful afternoon. We spent the time shopping, picking up souvenirs that would be good gifts for family and friends. We did get something for ourselves at a crystal shop, which featured Rogarska, which makes beautiful Slovenian crystal, and bought a really cool bowl (for a good price).

Yes, I also bought a Ljubljana tshirt, not so much because I really liked the tshirt but because I wanted my friends at home to say "how the hell do you say that?".

After we finished our shopping we had a pizza by the river and just enjoyed watching all the people passing by. The highlight was when a big group of Hare Krishnas went past, singing, dancing, playing drums and handing out flowers.

The next day it was time to go home. We had to get up really early to head to the airport. The flights were long but uneventful. I read lots of books. Then we were home and our adventure was over. All that was left was writing it up for the Dog Blog. It had been a great trip. Slovenia was a great country. The people were very friendly. Our group on the trip had been great. The mountains had been spectacular and we did many wonderful hikes. We have lots of good memories of our trip to Slovenia.