Trieste (triste - ma dai, felice), Slovenia, Walter...

So last weekend I went to Trieste to meet Walter and his family. I left on Thursday (1st of November) because the last night took place a Halloween party at the Madrid Nights, near Fiera. The club was awful at the first place to the be if you weren't drunk and so I was not... ended up leaving very early which was very good for the next day. So the next day I woke up early and directed myself to the railwaystation walking at around 12:30. The train was suppose to leave at 13:30 for Mestre (Venice, like Pasila for the actual Venice Santa Lucia station) and from Mestre to Trieste. I'm very tired so I end up sleeping a whole lot of the trip.

At some point the train stops in the middle of nowhere and uniform men walk along the tracks so people start asking from the windows what is happening. A friend of Walter's is also a traindriver so when I talked about this he knew about it. Someone had intensionally put a big big rock on the track to break the train and so it did. So after an hour of waiting while they were trying everything to take the passagers 500 metres to the next station and then another hour or more in the bus. In the end I was 2,5 hours late and so tired.

There's a big minority of slovenes in the area, so the signs are bilingual.

That evening was about there then. I went to sleep in the huge room which they had prepared for me. I had my own bathroom, huge bed, computer which I could use for calling home. Being alone somewhere was just what I needed anyway. Somewhere else than in Padova.

The house itself was huge to begin with. Big yard where they grow their own lemons, tomatoes and a lot of herbs. 3 floors and in the basement huge dining room :) Really idyllic italian, though the parents are slovene and the children have been raised to be slovene too even though officially they are italian. You can tell that, I would say. Anyway, within the exchangies there's been a lot of discussion lately about the bad sides of italians and Italy. Also Walter's sister, Elisabettina, told me that being slovene is not so easy and fun in North Italy, but in the South they are really friendly and interested about it. But I'll talk more about that later.

My room.

In the evening, I missed someone. I missed many people.. just because I got a room for my thoughts only.



Walter had planned a lot for the weekend so we started on with a day in Trieste. First we drove to the University where I met one of his schoolmates and saw the depressing building.


Afterwards we went to walk around the city, Piazza della Borsa (bors square, pörssi-aukio) and Piazza dell'unita italia, which is probably the most beautiful piazza I've seen so far. It's really big and one side being the ocean. Wow! During this weekend I also realized how much I've missed the sea. It is so calming and so beautiful. Sure Padova is near to the coast and I've gone to Venezia twice now but that sea is not the kind of pure sea. It's a lagoon anyway. Someone had said that Trieste has it all: the sea, the sky, the mountains, the forests. I fell in love with that city and it's also completely different from what I've seen so far. A fresh breeze.





And mmm.. the ice cream. I ate two icecreams during the day also cioccolata con peperoncino (chocolate with chili). Yam!

For lunch we ate in a very famous place and people were actually lining outside it for bread and some meat inside. They have a speciality called Porcina, which is boiled pork inside a bread. Good!

We also went to this incredible castle called Miramare and afterwards walked along the coast back to the citycenter. The sun was setting on the background of all the fishermen. The never-ending sea. Mi piace troppo!







And another thing I really loved is the food. Walter's mom is a great cook and I also got to taste some Triestinian goods, a special soup, candies and dessert. To be honest I didn't so much fancy the Triestinian style which reminds a lot of russian food, but I loved everything else she made. Especially insalata caprese which she gave me to take home too when I was leaving!

In the evening Walter had his football practice so I went to a shop opening of Bettina's boyfriend's working place. It was nice and funny to see how italians do it. In Finland, as far as I know, there's no special things arranged if a new shop is opened. This was such a family event too and there was a kind of a party for it. Pizza, meatballs, nuggets, red wine, white wine, beer... chips. Everything! People were laughing and chatting. The shop was beautiful too... for sailing clothes and stuff for the sea side.

Later I still met Walter's family more. In the same yardway, there lives his cousin and her boyfriend, his uncle and ant. Nice people :) Their family friends came for dinner also and it was so heart-melting (is that only a translation straight from finnish?) to see how the old couple left holding hands and teasing each other like they've just met. That is rare and so lovely :)In the evening I also talked for a while with dad on skype. I ended up crying things to him and he kept telling me wise things, though my situation is not nearly as bad as his. But it helped. I don't talk so ofter with dad, but usually when I do.. it makes me feel really good afterwards.

The next day we went to Slovenia. This was a surprise to me when I arrived in the first place and Walter told me that he had planned to take me there. I got really excited and to be honest, it was more than only worth it. Slovenia is dead gorgeous in the colourful autumn time. I sat in the car with the camera in my hands trying to get the colours in the pictures. Didn't get into it so much until Ljubljana, but before that was the caves of Postojnske. There I also took more than 100 pictures of... umm... rocks, looking like the Empire State Buildings. The guys I was with are all slovene, so we took the tour in slovene and someone always translated for me :P

From left to right, Walter, Gabriel (Bettina's boyfriend), Andrei, Bettina and I.

Ljubljana again... I have no bad word to say about that place. It is just plain beautiful. It's like a small, sympathic city with a warm and calm character. I absolutely loved it. It's small so to see a lot you don't need a lot of time.

SO SO GOOD! Mushroom soup inside a bread, slovene spesiality.

In the evening after a refreshing shower and some food, Walter and I went to meet some of his friends. All of them were guys, which was good for me :P We went to a place which is very famous in the Trieste region to go out. There's old and young. The deal is that you go to countryside, where is a plain room with many tables. You take one, you get a glass for everyone, red wine, white wine and water. Bread and some slices of meat. Right from the very first moment they sing traditional songs which... a foreigner just can't learn in one night, but believe they sound like drinking songs we got in Finland too! The place was great, I had so much fun just sitting and watching people. Drinking. Which brings me to the subject of whiskey. I've taken a whiskey twice here now and the people... especially boys, look at me so strange. In the end they underline it with scandinavian strength :P








The guy who plays concertina, Cristian, studies in Venezia for architecture. I got his number from Walter and probably I'm meeting him later on too :) After everyone left home, Walter and I still went for a ride. He took me to a hill where there is no lights and you can see Trieste's lights. It's bea-u-tiful. I talked about things happening with me and he talked about a girl :) It was a really nice evening all together.

Walter's family with their dog, Top.

I got three invitation to go there again, Walter's birthday in two weeks, when my family comes here and for New Year's eve :) I absolutely loved the whole weekend.. and I'm so lucky to find people who are so open and let me come to their home like that.