The Js are Silent

By Rory

When you live in a country the size of Slovenia, “going abroad” to another country is about as easy as it was to leave Alameda County when we lived in Oakland. In the last few weeks, we’ve made two trips to neighboring countries, neither of which involved more than a few hours of travel time (and no airplanes). Because we went to countries that are part of the “Schengen” zone, border crossings were easy. When there was a crossing guard, they just waved us through.

Istria, Croatia

A few months ago, I caught wind that the band “The Smile” would be playing in an ancient Colosseum in Pula. Serious rock nerds will know that members of Queen were in a band called “Smile” before they formed Queen, but The Smile is made up of two members of Radiohead (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood) as well as drummer Tom Skinner. Skinner is known for his own jazz group. I couldn’t pass that one up, and bought tickets when they went on sale early this year.

The Adriatic sea from Kamenjak

Our first stop was Kamenjak National Park, which is just a few kilometers south of Pula. This is a rugged bit of coastline, grassland, and scrubby brush that is a big spot for beach-going, snorkeling, hiking, ATV-ing, etc. After driving a dusty, potholed road we hiked a bit to a nice place for a picnic and getting our feet wet.

After a bit of hanging out in Kamenjak, we went to our apartment located in the center of Pula. Pula is at the Southern tip of the Istrian Peninsula, which is in the northwest of Croatia. At one point Istria was part of Italy, but in 1954 as part of an agreement the territory went to Yugoslavia. Signs in Istria are in both Italian and Croatian, and the language we heard people speaking sounded like “Cro-talian”–Slavic words, but spoken with an Italian cadence. It’s an interesting region, and a good example of how cultures blend over time as you can feel both the Slavic and Italian influences co-existing effortlessly.

Temple of Augustus, located right outside our Pula apartment.

We did a fair amount of walking around in Pula. Pula was once ruled by the Romans, and remnants of the old empire are everywhere and often well-preserved. This is especially the case with the Colosseum, which is one of several of these in the former empire that one can still visit (the most famous one being in Rome). As in Rome, this was the locale of many “fights to the death” between men, and between men and animals.

The Pula Colosseum

Pula Colosseum

Now the Colosseum is used for big concerts–it seats about 10,000 people. In fact, this was originally where The Smile were supposed to play, but alas, they’re not big enough to fill it up, so they were sent to a smaller, outdoor arena set among some other ruins. This particular set up is for Avril Lavigne, who was playing a couple of nights later.

A few other photos taken around Pula….

Another artifact of more recent history (meaning just over 100 years ago–it’s all relative) is the “Zerostrasse,” which is a network of tunnels under the city. These were built to protect the citizens of Pula from bombings during WWI, as well as storing weapons and food for the war effort. Besides being an interesting site on its own, it now serves also as a museum to the streetcars that used to get Pulans around town. I always find it sad to learn that there was one a nice public transit system that was dismantled to make room for cars. It’s too common of a site.

As for The Smile, they did not disappoint, and neither did the venue. They pretty much sounded like their amazing recordings, and Mr. Yorke even seemed to be having a good time. Kind of like Radiohead, but different.

The Smile

Our third day in Pula we took a ferry to the Brioni Islands, which are a short ride away. These are also known as “Tito Islands” as this was where the former Yugoslav dictator spent about half the year. He set it up as his own personal resort, a place where he would entertain foreign dignitaries and celebrities. Everyone from Jawaharlal Nehru to Sophia Loren spent time on the Bironis cavorting with Tito. For entertainment, Tito set up his own little zoo (because when a foreign leader gifts you with an animal, you need a place to put it, right?) There are also beaches, hotels, villas, a chapel, a golf course…it’s easy to see why Tito spent half the year there. A few photos….

Brioni has a museum with many taxidermed former pets of Tito’s.

The “Dance of Death” mosaic in the chapel.

Art installation we ran across–beautiful lace work.

Our last day on Istria we drove to a remote coastline on the eastern side of the peninsula, where we went on a short hike that followed the beautiful coastline. We ran across a rusted out sunken ship. Just another day in Istria.

Alpine cycling along the D-2

The following weekend we went abroad again–hitting three sovereign nations in one day! We took an early morning train about 90 minutes north to Villach, Austria. There we changed trains to get on a regional train that took us to Tarvisio, Italy. Tarvisio is an ideal launching spot for cycling and hiking, and it seems a lot of other people had the same idea we did. The train had a big car dedicated to just storing bikes, and just about everyone was dressed for outdoor activities.

From Tarvisio, we rode back about 40 km to the Slovene town of Jesenice, where we caught a train home. The trail we followed is called Alpe-Adria in Italy, and just the D-2 in Slovenia. For a cyclist, it’s a “died and gone to heaven” sort of ride. It’s almost entirely a paved bike path, and only slight grades, no major climbs. It meanders its way though one of the most spectacular alpine valleys in Europe. Or in the world for that matter. Photos to follow….