We arrived in Trieste, Italy, yesterday after an 8 1/2 hour train ride from Zagreb. The trip involved two train changes in small stations in Slovenia. This might seem onerous - and there were some tense moments.
We waited first in Jesenice, Slovenia, spending about an hour in a train station that appeared nearly entirely abandoned. When we caught the next train, we were not entirely certain that we had, in fact, boarded the right train.
The train took us on a slow & winding journey through the Slovenian alps. It was a local train, stopping at villages probably inhabited by about 50 people, a few pigs & a dozen chickens. Stark snow-clad mountains loomed over the tracks. Far below, deep blue rivers flowed. It was a slow & beautiful trip. (The picture included here is shot through a dirty train window.)
Probably the most tense minutes came after our arrival at 6:45 p.m.in the small border city of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Our next train left from the Italian side of this town - called Gorizia - at 7:54. As we rode toward Nova Gorica, we realized that we had not a single Euro in our pockets.
After several tense conversations in a mix of Italian, pidgin Slovenian & English, we learned that a bus stopped nearby - and the bus driver kindly agreed to drive us for free to the train station.
As we stepped off the bus, he called to us - "See you next month in America!"
We waited first in Jesenice, Slovenia, spending about an hour in a train station that appeared nearly entirely abandoned. When we caught the next train, we were not entirely certain that we had, in fact, boarded the right train.
The train took us on a slow & winding journey through the Slovenian alps. It was a local train, stopping at villages probably inhabited by about 50 people, a few pigs & a dozen chickens. Stark snow-clad mountains loomed over the tracks. Far below, deep blue rivers flowed. It was a slow & beautiful trip. (The picture included here is shot through a dirty train window.)
Probably the most tense minutes came after our arrival at 6:45 p.m.in the small border city of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Our next train left from the Italian side of this town - called Gorizia - at 7:54. As we rode toward Nova Gorica, we realized that we had not a single Euro in our pockets.
After several tense conversations in a mix of Italian, pidgin Slovenian & English, we learned that a bus stopped nearby - and the bus driver kindly agreed to drive us for free to the train station.
As we stepped off the bus, he called to us - "See you next month in America!"
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