I enjoy seeing live music every so often, in Slovenian? Not often enough. While doing a search for concerts near here, I found out that one of my favorite bands were playing in Zagreb, Croatia. Natasa couldn’t get off work, but I really needed a music fix, and especially from one of my favorite bands, THE RAVENONETTES. On my bike trip I played ALY, WALK WITH ME, nearly every morning. The lyrics of “Aly, Walk with me in Portland” reminded me of my home of Portland. Before I left, I wrote them on facebook and requested they play this song.
I took the bus to Zagreb, about an hour or so away. I went early in the morning so I could spend the day exploring Zagreb. First, the tourist office at the bus station in Zagreb, pointed to the English map and said nothing else, she had nothing to share about her city. She said the tram cost 6 kuna. So I boarded the tram and find out you need a pre-paid tram card to ride, that would have been some useful information I could have used. I got off the tram at a place that looked like a town square.
I only brought a day pack with me, but was still able to buy a 1/2 kilo of awesome dates and figs. I walked around and came across this pretty spectacular church.
If you’ve read this blog, you may know, I’m not a big fan of walking. I always prefer my bike, but walking does offer opportunities the bike does not. There are signs everywhere, pointing in every direction, to some museum or monument.
I use to have a handicrafts business for 10 years so of course I chose the Croatian Art and Craft Museum.
The furniture was really exquisite.
I made it to a small room on the third floor, all clocks. Of course I asked the person who was working alone up there, “what time is it”, I kinda flustered her. I had to explain the question was for fun, she laughed. Check photos for more museum art photos.
After walking around the museum for hours, it’s time for lunch. While walking (yes walking) to the museum I passed a must visit restaurant; I was talking with the coat check lady and told her where I was going for lunch, she that’s her favorite place in town.
I stayed and talked with the owner for awhile. He lived in California for 6 months and thought bringing mexican food to Croatia could work. He is about to open a second location and then start trying to serve breakfast. Breakfast around here is coffee, cigarettes and maybe a piece of bread. It might take awhile before Croatians realize how important breakfast really is. I met a Portuguese student who was there with her visiting mother and little brother, she said her friends brought her here when she first arrived for school. She also said her friends were going to see the Raveonettes too.
I was going to ride the tram to the concert, but the restaurant owner showed me how I could walk the park all the way to the show. So a walking I go……………………………….
i wanted to show up early for the Raveonettes show, hopefully I could catch the sound check.
The Raveonettes are from Denmark, they sing their songs in English, but during the sound check they were speaking Danish to the sound board guy.
I didn’t buy a T-shirt, because at my age I already have a t-shirt for nearly everyday of the year.
I was there early, so I was able to stand right next to the stage. There were 5 photographers swarming the front of the stage. I finally told one, that he had enough pictures and needed to move along so we could enjoy the show, it worked.
THIS IS THE GUITAR TECHNIQUE FOR “ALY, WALK WITH ME”
It was a “GREAT” show. So now I’m down by the river and far from the bus station. I was starting to walk to the bus station, then I asked some folks if they were going by the bus station. YES, holy shit was I lucky.
My bus was suppose to come by at 2am, so at 2 am I boarded the bus and thought, I better ask, wrong bus, that was close. My bus was over an hour late. But it worked out, when I arrived back in Ljubljana, the first morning bus back to Skofja Loka was only a 10 minute wait.
I GOT MY MUSIC FIX, I’M GOOD FOR A LITTLE WHILE
THANKS FOR READING
JEFF
NEXT? SKOFJA LOKA PART III
