More Books

I am still slogging through Innocents Abroad, but unfortunately I seem to have bottomed out in the Holy Land section.  Saint Paul was such a jerk!  So have thumbed my way through the Kindle selection and am comfortable ensconced in the Canon of Wodehouse.  Nothing like the bit of Jeeves to buck you up.

Book Review

I just finished Christopher Hitchens’s autobiography Hitch 22 and I am pretty disappointed.  Perhaps he was too committed to the journalistic essay to come up with the decent long form book?  But he did write several books during his life, so that is a weak excuse.  I think what struck me as the most problematic element was the damn sexism.  The first half of the book only mentions women with the formula of: name, wife of….  In the second half of the book he only writes of about four women without this formula.  And those typically get described in pretty lean terms about appearance.  In his defense, he does describe the appearances of two of his friends (Edward Said and Martin Amis) but dozens of other men in the book are left physically undescribed.  And the only woman with whom he outlines a sexual experience (having not described those with the two women who bore him children, one of whom remains unnamed [and ignoring the experience with the hooker that his claims was unconsummated]) he describes mainly with regard to her relationship as the sister of his male friend who is clearly the more important element in the story.  Oh, and she is dead at the time of publication.

I think, given his willingness to argue almost anything for the sake of argument, he would have been a very tiresome dinner guest.  The Marxism alone is just so dated.  Ugh.  Sorry Hitch, not your best effort.  And now you are dead too.

Ljubljana

Well the first challenge of this place is how to pronounce it.  Luckily I received the advice to say it like Freddie Ljungberg.  Since he is one of three footballers I can name (Beckham and Pele being the other two), he’s Swedish, and he played for the Seattle Sounders – I am all over this!

Ljubljana and the country of Slovenia in general are lovely, but I think I am going to have to come back in the spring or summertime to really appreciate them.   But I have managed to enjoy the basics: the Castle, the National Museum (excellent archaeology exhibit), the other castle, and the Postojna Caves. 

Busy downtown Ljubljana.

Looks defensible to me.

Missed the Karst in Greece.  Found it here.  Pretty limestone.

Today I can report that Slovenia has is all over Croatia in terms of national liquors.  Croatia has Slivovitz, a plum-based schnaps.  Slovenia has Kejzar – blueberry liquor.  So good!!  Hic hic hic.  I’m off to sleep now.  Love ya’ll….

Slovenia

Holy f**k the Slovenians overheat everything!!  Train and hostel are so hot I want to go stick my head in a snowbank.  It’s crazy.  I’m in the “must stay” place in Ljubljana – a former prison.  I’m not in one of the old cells.  I’m on the first floor so I must be administrative or something.  This place is hopping.  It basically runs a bar until midnight.  Supposedly it’s people staying here and their guests, but I don’t think they have so many beds as this.  Might just be an excuse for cheap beer and free football matches on tv.  

Split

The bus trip to Split was beautiful and long.  The Border guards in Bosnia Herzegovina were very stern, and the Croatians do not like them.  Split is yet another town with slippery stone and narrow passageways.  Which is particularly funny in the sheeting rain when you have to lower your umbrella and slllliiiiddddeeeee past people.

The center of Split is fascinating.  Imagine living in a palace/UNESCO site/archaeological site all at once.  Beautiful, but I imagine getting electricity and plumbing sorted must be a nightmare.  Diocletian’s Palace isn’t a museum, it’s just the town.  Though I did pay to go through the basements.  While I was down there (alone, again) the Ash Wednesday bells cut loose over my head and rang for 15 minutes.   

Andrew: do you remember when we met the loneliest Park Service employee ever, at Dinosaur National Monument?   His cousin works at the Split Museum of Archaeology.  He was so surprised to have a customer he offered to let me in for free (I paid anyway), urged me to take all the photos I wished, pointed out an unfinished exhibit I was allowed to see anyway, and when I asked about the 2pm closing time told me it was okay to stay until 8pm.  But he did not have a video to show me.  J  The museum isn’t huge, but it is a very comprehensive collection.  I appreciate that the nationalism of other places isn’t present here.  They admit that the Greeks got in first, then the Romans, and the Germanic Tribes migrated in when pressure from further east made the north uncomfortable.  It does explain the amount of Celtic imagery we’ve seen in Zagreb and Split.  It’s funny to see how the Roman elites sneered at the hicks and their customs.  The Croatians were early adopters of the worship of Priapus.  And despite Christianity, those sculptures are intact.  Ha!  

The Museum

Kitchen vessel, reused as urn for cremains.  Yes, I checked.  They're real.

The description says oil lamp in shape of gladiator.  I see maniacal beekeeper.  

Sarcophagus of a winemaker? 

Having said that about Christianity, I am surprised by the extent of outward religious devotion I’ve seen throughout Croatia.  I know it’s been Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday and all that, and of course I’ve been in a lot of churches.  But I was in Rome, people.  Plus a lot of other RC hot spots.  And they did not genuflect as much as these folks.  I had the idea that under Communism this had been wiped out, but apparently not.  I spoke with a Bosnian who felt she faced prejudice in Croatia for not being RC.   I can believe that.  I also spoke with an ag student who was happy with the level of religious expression.  That’s a bit contrary to most of the EU.  Interesting.