Though the days are lovely and nights are lovelier still, I am starting to miss my bo almost too terribly. Everything makes perfect sense and is perfectly enjoyable, if you can come home in the evening and bother your yours with detailed reports of every little thing that impressed or amazed or educated you... And things you ate, claro.

Without him it's just lackluster.

To cool my morning, I offed to the massive Ethnographic museum, which, since the last time I was here over a decade ago, not only expanded but also built upon itself. The original concept included some very old ... I suppose they were monarchy army barracks, at least at some point, later a squat and party place, so of course when "the government" took the squat away, there were riots from old punkers and young lesbians... "We are not surrendering Metelkova!..." Right, anyway, now Metelkova is no longer the place to get stoned on cheap weed, but a vast yard of exhibitions, surrounded by large modern buildings, full of our (and certain corresponding foreign) heritage.

Because I haven't been to such a large museum in so long, I was a little bit out of shape. By curiosity, I read every tiny label and absolutely every board, and those were really many. I will post pickies once I get home, as I took plenty, pretending to be a tourist and not really knowing whether or not taking pickies is allowed. Nobody said anything, so ... First I found a lady amidst looms and she told me how she fell in love with this dying industry and now sits in her nice little corner of the museum, making shawls and the like ... We talked about where she gets the looms from or who repairs them, the wool and so on.. That is a prime example of living history. Then there is (I was told to get up the top floor first and spiral down, but I got lost twice, so my memory is all over the place.) a really good exhibition about doors - featuring some actual doors. Many many pictures and door parts and meanings elaborated upon, a sense of safety, possession, might, privacy, etc... But mostly a lot of doors. From very large, old, castle gates long out of service to very new, cold, flat, modern entrances that make you think those people live in a vault.

Another temporary exhibition is about the people here and abroad - everyone who ever left for whatever reason, going to faraway places and what they found there, experienced there, learned there, improved or ruined there, what they sent home and who they were if they ever returned. Also, there is a small expo of instruments made of natural materials, such as reeds, bones and possum.

The uppermost floor is the set cut-through Slovenians as a nation, from ancient times, when first folk settled here, to gradual mastering of farming and fishing, then crafts and market and so on and so on. It was nothing I wouldn't know or see before, but I am simply really fond of this and always feel like the past is slipping away, behind the corner, just a little too quickly. One of my favorite historic figures is the 'dry wares merchant' - a guy who walked village to village, selling sieves or small rakes, and also gossip, news and messages. This corresponds deeply with my ButtonsalesGirl, and it is likely that I was one of such men in the previous life.

The third floor was quite hot and I was really getting tired. Friend called me if I want to have lunch, which I ran to. Well, there was a fancy ladies dress exhibition just at the bottom of the museum, but those were just very pretty dresses with no real meaning to it other than glamour, so I didn't really examine each and every one with equal curiosity.

The lunch was awesome. Always eat things you would otherwise never eat at home, when you're "abroad"! I ordered the cheapest lunch deal out of three, still a bit costly but so worth it, a vegetarian ordeal, and it was ridiculously good. There was a long fried red pepper (only thing I didn't eat and now I actually regret it), filled with four light cheeses and pinjola and pistachio nuts. Then there were crusty small potato slices, a spoonful of paste made of black olives (first time I actually really enjoyed olives, ever), some pumpkin oil sprinkled over all and some green leaves, rukola, I think. And the soup was a cold watermelon with peppers soup. Good gods, that shit was awesome!!!

Other than that, I mostly live off expensive ice cream. I went home after lunch and napped or read and returned to town in the evening to meet with Maja and Ema. The second ice-cream I tried was called Utopia, quite justly so. Then we offed for some fries and beer, weather a storm that didn't really bother coming. Lastly Maja and I, after circling the town in all its majesty, had Vigo ice-cream, cheesecake in my case, creamy, but simply beyond reproach. Then we sat on the Prešern monument, which gets really hot during the day, so our bums were really warm, watching people play in a spot in the middle of the square that "has its own climate", meaning it rain s there all the time and you can get yourself refreshed...

A great, great day.

But lonely. 

*First half of the museum pickies

In Lj

After the longest time, I am literally vacating in the capitol, doing things I wouldn't normally do (like drinking Radler or strolling around the busy streets until midnight.... Or washing my knickers in a sink 0.o )

This apartment is white and very cool, which can be misleading, because after I set out to explore at 18:00 I regretted it immediately. It's hot. Freaking  hot. Like Alabama in August hot. You can see why very few people are out during the day - this old smughole has a very Mediterranean  feel to it, very siesta-y. So then, later, after the sun sets, everyone comes out to play. Not in a Sin City sense, but in a Paris or Madrid sense, with lines of people in front of expensive ice-cream stands and chatter in every earthly language (possibly even some Klingon or Middle earth). Oh my Gods, the ice-cream in this place!... The mango! The lime with green tea! The rice with raspberry! ... Gods on a stick! I could build a shrine to it out of crispy cones! Understandably the ten bucks back home are not the same as ten bucks out here, where you will go through your travel expenses lot in two day just for beer and ice-cream, but it is soooo worth it!

During the day I am not doing anything much at all. As said, to an extend I am building a concept of Three Zombie journalists, but that is slow going, as I am lazy and distracted. The apartment has four windows, which you must open and close consistently, airing the place, but also not letting the sun in. Once you get the system right, it is a sublime den of leisure. I have just some little nightmares due to sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, but other than that, I sleep like the dead. About four hours by night and three in the afternoon. The cutest part is this place is so tidy, anything I bring out of my bags instantly disrupts the chic.

I'm taking a shitload of pictures with the phone, in love with the fact Instagram makes them look good all the time - dunno if I mentioned this before.. Am saving not only the camera this way, but also camera space. And G, even though he won't admit it out loud, follows me on Instagram :P I do have the 'data passport' on my shoplist, if for now I can only take about a 1000 pickies on the current cards and that is very little for a 10 day vacation for someone like me. There is no need in worrying that someday the cards will die, because they will and all the pickies on them will be lost, but that is possible for any card, new or old, so let's fuss over that once we must.

I had a plan to walk over the bog lands, though it's too hot and there was some talk of a sort of sitter joining me, and I would take city easy snapshots of her, but that seems postponed, so for now, the wide lens not really doing it for me, I will go out tonight and use the prime and see how well I can shoot long exposures from my hands, making it look good, even if moved...

I love you, my beautiful husband, who art faaaar away :D I write G letters from the front every day, with a fountain pen and ink and retro stationary. The postman must think he has a cooky mistress :D But he's just at home, taking care of our Chinese cabbage. I'll explain. Right now I remembered I should water the plants.