Lake Bohinj, Slovenia lovely national park!

So as I’ve been to Slovenia before, I wanted to get out of the city in the summer and get to one of the lakes. I’ve been to Lake Bled before for two quick day trips, and I realize how its so popular and thus very crowded, so I opted with the help of some friends to goto Lake Bohinj area instead. What a great decision that was.

It is a 2hr bus ride to Bohinj, which is located inside of the Triglav National Park(the only one in Slovenia), the bus from Ljubljana runs every hour and costs 9 Euros. You also pass thru Lake Bled town, so if you sit on the right side of the bus, you can get nice views of the church in the middle of the lake. There is a town Ribcev Laz at the beginning of the lake that has some hotels, restaurants, mini market, free Wi-Fi you know all the basics you need for your trip. I stayed at the very nice Hostel pod Voglom about a 20 minute(1.5km) walk from the town, and there is a bus you can take that drops you off in front of the hostel, but the walk is very nice as long as the weather is good. The Hostel itself has a floor of Dorm bed rooms, these are 4 beds to a room and I can’t recommend as the bathroom situation is not good, one stall, one shower per FLOOR of about 12-15 rooms. But they have a second building across the parking lot that has some single rooms connected with a shared bathroom to another single room, this was the way to go and how I stayed and basically enjoyed my own space.

You are right on the lake, you can walk the length of the lake as it’s an 12km trail, 4km on the side with the road, and then 8km on the opposite side that doesn’t have a car road so you get up and around in the nature a bit more. It’s a nice walk as I did the entire “south” side of the lake that has the driving road and a “sidewalk” that is separated from cars, as people do bike…

What to do here?, well just unwind, relax and enjoy the scenery, there are some small beaches on the lake, its rocky but the water is cold, crisp, fresh and clean. Lovely to take a dip in the water for sure. Also in the summer the ski resort Vogel, is a great trip. Take the cable car lift up 1500meters in about 4 minutes, and from there many chair lifts or hikes for gorgeous views of the Julian Alps, its also possible to hike the entire way from the lake area, but that was not in my plans..

Overall the area was not crowded, there is much more to see and do in the national park, but you really need a car as there is limited public transportation and even with a car, many of the trips due to lack of roads take 2 hours only to go a few km. I wanted to see the Soca River area, and Waterfalls but the weather was basically a wash out with rain 2 of the 3 days I was there, so weather permitting there is plenty to do. Lovely Slovenia, if I ever get my hiking skills together I will be back with proper boots and gear and take on some of the hour long hikes!!

Day 2 Ljubljana, Slovenia - City of Dragons!

Day 2 of my trip brings me back to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I visited this gem during my 2006 backpacking trip, I only stayed one night but the city made enough of an impression of me that I vowed to return and I did so for 3 days in 2010. This visit in 2017 was just a short visit as a stopping off point before going to explore to Triglav National Park. There are many reasons I love Ljubljana, one of which is that it is fairly empty most of the time, in a country of only 2 million people, I’ve seen that anywhere from 250 thousand to half a million live here, for someone who spends most of my days in the 8 million people plus tourist always crowded NYC this is a blessing. Despite the small size, they know how to have fun here in Ljubljana with many outdoor cafes and bars mostly packed around the old town on the river, which is closed off to cars. In fact many of the streets in the old town are closed off to cars, making this a great bicycling and walking city, its small enough to get around to most places in less than 30 minutes.

I arrived here by bus from Trieste, there are companies such as Hello and FlixBux that offer fares from 8 Euros for the short 2 hour ride, you can buy the tickets online and have the PDF sent to your phone, very easy and comfortable bus with air conditioning and wifi that works (sometimes), its always a worry where to get the bus in Trieste the Hello bus was late, and without any signs or representation, you had to keep your eyes out for it and you got on where it parked with the rest of the busses.

Tivoli Park is a lovely large park with nature hiking, artwork, performance space, cafes, childrens play areas located a short walk from the center of town. On a warm day it’s a great place for a picnic, with some views of the whole city. A worthy destination during your trip there.

On past trips I visited the majestic Castle which sits overlooking the river, on my one full day here this trip I spent some time walking around the huge Tivoli Park which is situated right in the city and is a lovely green space. I was lucky enough to randomly run into matches of the European Beach Volleyball tournament which was being played in one of the main squares just a short distance from the river walking area. As night falls onto the city, its time to walk around and find some music and a good bar, but before we do so, we have to respect the Dragon.. Yes Game of Thrones fans, while much of the show is filmed in Croatia, Iceland and other places, it would be right at home here. The city has a small obsession with Dragons, from the famous Dragon Bridge spanning the river, to logos used on craft beers and merchandise. So the mythical creatures live here for sure.

Walking around I happened upon the finals of the European Beach Volleyball championship which was being played on a court in one of the main squares. It was a fun atmosphere with a full crowd, DJ, announcer between points to get the crowd hyped up.

As for bars, you have your choices, but one I really enjoyed this time was Malakona, which is located downstairs, so you might miss it if you aren’t looking for it, but once you go downstairs you have a chance to sit and drink right on the railing of the river, just below the pedestrian traffic above you, it’s a really nice get away from the sometime hustle and bustle on the main drag. They also make their own microbrew Beer, which was tasty and a welcome relief from the city that seems to be dominated by the two large beer makers Lasko and Union beer, which are everywhere. Another nice find was the Begov, which is made in Austria but totally from Slovenian founders, I guess some tax issues or paperwork was the reason for the move, but the cans are awesome with again their dragon themed design.

Beers are well priced with a large 500ml draft going for between 2 and 3 Euros of the local choices, and cans of microbrew all under 4 Euros. So if you are ever in the area stop in Ljubljana stay a few ways and I’m sure you will enjoy it

2017 European Backpacking Month begins now! First stop Trieste, Italy

So here we go starting off on the 2017 European backpacking adventure. Its scheduled for one month, with stops in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and France. It sounds like much, but many of these stops are one day/night only. So my first stop was in Italy, a country I realize I’ve been to six times now. I flew into Milan Malpensa airport from NYC. For those looking for a good entry point to Europe, check out flights to Milan, from NYC I know that many airlines including Emirates, Alitaia, American, Delta, United all fly there making it a reasonable option. I used my frequent flyer miles on Delta (35,000 one way) to book my ticket on Alitalia airlines, the flight was great on a modern Airbus 330, with seatback TVs and good movies (I watched Get Out, highly recommended, good job Peele), and had surprisingly good food for an airline(order the Pasta, I mean you are going to Italy). Milan is also a train hub, with fast routes south to Rome (3hrs), north to Geneva (4hrs) and many more places.

After a 4hr train ride from Milan I arrived in Trieste, this is a city tight on the fat east of Italy, near the border of Slovenia. I have been to many cities for just one night, most have lefts a good impression on me so much so that I have vowed to return (Ljubljana, Luxembourg City), well add Trieste to my list of places I will eventually return to.

Why did I enjoy it so much, well I met up with a great friend from my Prince concert fan days, the legendary Toto!! He has been called up to Dance on stage more times than I can remember, so he showed me around the city. How to describe Trieste? Well all the charm of an Italian city with open plazzas, outdoor cafes on streets blocked off to cars, liberal drinking policy… here sure you can take your glass from a bar, walk around outside even to another bar, just be a good citizen and return the glass to your original bar, no one will complain or stop you. The food as always in Italy is exquisite and also amazingly cheap, I had a lovely fish dinner that was local to this area for only 10 Euros at Eataly, well the Eataly in NYC that wont get you’re a salad probably, the wine is 3-4 Euros a glass, with draft beer being the same price. I will say like some other places in Italy the draft choices are not local, mostly imported Germany, even Belgian, but in bottles there are local choices

It’s a great walking city from the main train station to the outdoor plazas is no more than a 15 minute walk, the Train and Bus stations are right next to each other. The Bus station is a bit confusing for sure, as inside there are a few basically local busses, but the long distance busses to places like Vienna, Ljubljana you catch those against the wall where many busses are parked, there are no signs for what bus company so you have to be on the lookout. It was a bit nervous with a bunch of other traveling trying the bus company Hello, that advertised 9 Euros to Ljubljana, a great deal considering other companies were charging twice or three times that. But it was nerve racking as the bus was late, and no signs or updates even calling the number on the company website, it was all good in the end as the bus showed up 30 minutes late. So now I’m headed to stop two, the lovely as always Ljubljana, but Trieste you won me over and I will return one day!!

My first experience at Paisley Park at a Prince concert...

So this is the review that i originally wrote some 22 years ago to post on probably Alt.Music.Prince or the Prince Mailing List way before the internet know what bloggers and social media were. This concert was February 12th (well really 13th early am), 1994 and it was my first time in Paisley Park. I know as the one year anniversary of Prince's death comes up, many people are going back there to "celebrate", for me the only Paisley Park is one in which Prince is in the building, so i will pass. But everyone deals with their grief in their own way.

I saw about 80 Prince concert performances during his lifetime, and from looking at my reviews that i found on old floppy disks (yeah remember those) about 25 of these were held at Paisley Park, so it was a special place for me. So here with all spelling errors is my review from the all-star celebrity concert that Prince hosted at Paisley Park in February 12, 1994 during NBA All-Star Weekend

Well since no one else on the list who was present at the Beautiful Experience, this past Saturday, Feb 12th, at Paisley Park has yet talked about it, i guess i will offer my details of the event.

We were let in at midnite, and Paisley Park was open to us, in the rooms various things were set up. Rooms i remember were, an Eric Leeds concert room, that was smoke filled in the sytle of a jazz club. Eric had like a keyboard player, a drummer, and i think a bassist. Prince appeared in this room, before he played his concert, and his guitar was brought up to the stage, but Prince never played. This jazz room was popular through the night with appearances in the crowd, by Mayte, Magic Johnson, Danny Manning, Prince Levi, Tommy B, and a few others.

Another room was set up as a portable NPG store, they had a few things, including the single for the Most Beautiful Girl in the World. They had the limited edition gift card(cd and tape), and the 2 tracks single(cd and tape) I managed to get my CD single for free by talking to the right people, but they were selling them for like $3-$12 for the various formats. I didnt see the 5-6 remix one, advertised on the NEW-FUNK line. The CD single has a 4:07 version of Most Beautiful Girl in the World, and a house beat remix of 3:57 of Beautiful. Theses Cd's were suppose to be in the regular NPG store on Valentines Day, no word if they made it.

Another room was Studio B, which was open to the public. Interesting to see poetry on the walls, and coffee was being served in there. There was the interactive room, that had a wall for "10,000 Autographs" meaning the fans who showed up, also pictures and artwork, complete with editor color/reduction notes, were on the walls. A MAC computer has the CD-ROM interactive playing. The only song i heard in the 2 minute demo was Interactive, and pictures of older videos, being wrapped about the symbol was happening on the screen. The date "Coming the Summer" was given on the computer screen.

There was a "back room" where a large projection screen showed 3 Chains of Gold, and the Undertaker during the night.

There were also a few assorted rooms, that i really cant remember, but one was a peep show, with little holes cut in the wall, for us to watch 3 people, well undress each other, this wall drew a large crowd of the basketball players in the crowd, in fact 1 possible California Rookie of the Year candidate, a recent student of the school where this list originates from(hope ya can figure out who), was very impressed at this voyeurism.

In the big sound stage, was the stage, where Prince would later play. Between the stage, and the audio/video control center, it took up half of the room. on the sides of the room were stages, where every 30 minutes or so, Mayte and her posse would come out and do some dances.

Well enough on the whole atmosphere, but you get the idea, they wanted people to mingle, and not stand at the front of the stage for 3 hours to get the best "seats" in the house. Anyway enough of that on to the details

Prince came out at about 3:15 am, there was a DJ playing Rap/R&B all nite and before prince came out, the DJ was playing some nice instrumental rap tracks, and we could hear the familar sound of a guitar playing over it. Prince did a very good job of funkin it up to the rap music. We knew this was the sign the concert was about to start. Others can give you details on his clothing, but i do know he had underwear on that on the waist band had his name( O+-> ) on it. I guess someone has been running around the Park stealing undies, so he wants everyone to know, who's draws those were!

Prince came on, and played Interactive, Days of Wild, and Now. Then a break during which, the 7 most beautiful girls in the world were brought out and the video was played. After that Prince came back and played, The Ride I Believe in U, did the band intros, asked Tevin to come up, but he didnt so Prince did Shhhh!!!(this was the moment of the show for me), as during the "Whats my name?" line, Prince got a good laugh. After Shhhh, prince took the bass, drums, and keys and jammed for a while. Then he invited a guy to play guitar from the audience up. The guy complained about the sound of the guitar he was playing(not Prince's new symbol one) and prince procced to take it, play it, and give it back, saying "just checking to see if it was working" Prince was at the piano when the guitar guy came over to ask him something, me being 5 feet from the piano, think i overheard, change the key to a B. Prince got a laugh outta this guy tellin him how to play.. Anyway, Prince told the band to stop on the 1 for a guitar solo, and the guy was up there, doing nothing, looking like a fool.

Then Prince asked for a piano player, and some guy got up and was very good. he got into it, playing with 1 hand and doing a gett off like screech into the mic. Prince also got a laugh outta this.

Prince asked for a singer, but no one came forward. Then he continued the concert with What I'd Say(ray charles) and a final Jam. I think i have written enough for now, but overall, this was a damn great time, and prince was as relaxed as i have heard or seen him ever. If you want any other details, send me email and i will try to write to list about it.