Archive for February 2003

Back to Trieste

Feb 09, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Back to Trieste

In the morning I headed back to Trieste. I got a train to Opcina, and as we sped through the Slovenian countryside, the grey skies were gradually breaking up. The change in climate between the mountains and the coast was striking, and as we descended there was less and less snow on the [...]

Ljubljana

Feb 08, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Ljubljana

We got to Ljubljana at four. Srečko pointed me in the right direction to walk into town, and then headed off for the radio studios.
The streets were virtually empty and the city felt like a ghost town. Apparently the citizens of Ljubljana tend to head en masse for the ski slopes each weekend [...]

Train to Ljubljana

Feb 08, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Train to Ljubljana

In the afternoon I got a train to Ljubljana. I shared a compartment with a friendly Croat called Srečko, who was a journalist on his way to do an interview in Ljubljana. He said his German was better than his English, but my German wasn’t up to a conversation so we spoke in [...]

Upper town

Feb 08, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Upper town

I walked up to the upper town. The Prislin Tower sits on a hill overlooking the city, and I walked up to it, only to find that it was closed. But even from the bottom there were good views over the city. The skyline was a mix of grand old Austro-Hungarian and [...]

Zagreb

Feb 08, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Zagreb

It was a tiring journey. I had a compartment all to myself, but sleep was limited as we crossed two international borders. We spent a few hours in Slovenia, and I looked out at Ljubljana to see it covered with snow. Then before daybreak we entered Croatia, and at 5.04am we pulled [...]

Trieste

Feb 07, 2003 in Balkans 2003

Trieste

A week ago I’d missed out on a trip to Sardinia, when a couple of inches of snow had caused transport chaos and my flight had been so badly delayed that it just wasn’t worth going. So I was happy this week that the snow had long since melted, and when I bunked off [...]