Draggin’ it.

My hind end,  that is.   I thought I’d say “Back from Slovenia!”,  but really,  that’s kind of obvious. 

The whole objective of the excursion,  other than to see the cousin in Sava,  the aging Auntie in the home, and as an added bonus,  another cousin and her husband in Ljubljana,  was to make a visit to the Lawyer that Travelling Companion has been in contact with to sort out a piece of property that’s been in her family for a ever and ever amen.  It’s complicated,  and not really blog fodder,  but let’s just say the agenda in this case is to just make sure that the “helpful” neighbours know just where the property lines are.  As to any thoughts I might have about these “helpful” neighbours,  I’ll keep those to myself.

So,  that Lawyer visit was actually set for Monday afternoon at three,  which then meant making a bee-line for Vienna after the fact.  I think we staggered in the door here last night at around 8:30 or so.   Coming in to Vienna at that time in the evening usually (and hopefully) means the traffic is OK,  which was the case last night.   It also helps to know where the ongoing construction site(s) just might happen to be when choosing the final route when coming into the city,  since there are a few different choices,  and it’s best to choose wisely. 

I have to confess that I could indeed get on line over the weekend,  except it would have been by means of the cousin’s laptop in Sava,  and there was just no way I was able to get around the whacky keyboard layout.  I even tried to comment on a blog or two and just got totally bogged down.  I need to do that whole “touch typing” thing,  or my head will explode.  Even if I might make mistakes (so thankful for the backspace key) I’m at least doing them at a certain speed,  and not trying to figure out how to simply type the “@” symbol,  or trying to get around using ‘č’, every time I wanted to stick in an apostrophe.  There was other Tom Cockery involved,  but it no longer matters. 
I’ve “had fun” going on line in other places too.  Paris comes to mind.  Had to get the clerk at the desk to show me just how to get my email address typed in.  Talk about feeling like a retard.

It helps to take one’s own computer,  but in the case of the cousin’s place in Sava,  the password for the modem had been changed to a custom version,  but she couldn’t remember it.  Her machine just logs her in automatically.  No help to Ljuba,  who wanted to use the wifi to do the Google translate thing from time to time.  Had to use old fashioned dictionaries.

 

It turns out there was no train trip in to Ljubljana on the Saturday,  since a BBQ had been planned. 

Eating is a perfectly acceptable second choice.

No problems with that.

 

And no,  that’s not me at the BBQ.  That is Cousin’s nephew Iztok.   You may recall that we went to a funeral in July of last year?  That was his father,  or the cousin’s brother who passed away. 

Anyway,  I thought the BBQ was rather neat,  since it was an all stone affair,  in which you make a fire,  and when it’s finished burning and your coals are ready,  you start cooking.  In that photo above Iztok is cooking fish. 

Neither Travelling Companion nor I are really big fish eaters,  but this fish was fresh from the Adriatic (salt water fish)  and was quite good.  Don’t ask me the name of the fish.  It was something or other in Slovenian,  and I’m not even all that “up” on my names of fish in English.   It was a “white fish”.  That’s all I know.   (You know,  like Haddock or Halibut or one of those.  Not overly “fishy”.)

Since there was some discussion as to the method of cooking the asparagus,  I was pressed into taking over on that front.   I usually have a pan type of grate that I use on our BBQ here,  so doing them loose like that was a bit tricky.  I only managed to lose one.

If you’ve never had asparagus on the BBQ,  I do recommend it.  We’ve now tried both the white and the green,  and the essential ingredient is the olive oil that gets slathered on.   This time around I did sprinkle on just a dusting of sea salt as well.  They turn out crunchy and tasty.  Trust me.  

 

So when I say “BBQ”,  what that really means is that,  in typical Slovenian fashion,  we ate pretty much non-stop from some time after lunch until some time in the evening.  Basically a five or six hour meal. 

We had set up a couple tables (close to where things were getting cooked you’ll note)  and this picture was taken after we had cleaned most everything up,  since it was threatening to rain. 

The rain had just started at this point. 

 

I really didn’t get any “before” pictures,  since I guess I was eating.  Oh well.   It did look a little better with the table cloths however,  even with the empty plates.

If you’re wondering what’s up with the coffee?  We don’t drink “filter” coffee at the cousin’s place.  It’s coffee prepared in the Turkish style.  If you haven’t any hair on your chest,  you just might end up with some. 

If I could use a drag racing analogy,  it’s kind of like running an alcohol car,  and then switching to Nitro methane.   You know you’re drinking coffee.

 

I think that’s going to be just about it for today kids.  I have quite a few photos,  some of which are kind of touristy,  so I certainly don’t want to inundate you with those.   Perhaps I’ll sprinkle in a couple tomorrow.   Best not to put you to sleep.  I’ll save that for later,  shall I?

 

Keep your libations chilled.

 

Thanks for stopping by.