Postojna and Ljubljana, Slovenia: May 27-28, 2018 - The Final Concert

We crossed the border back into Slovenia sometime that afternoon, this time having to depart the bus and show our passports one by one to the guard before being allowed to pass through.

Originally, our concert in Postojna had been scheduled for 6:00 PM, but somewhere in the couple of days prior, someone realized that was impossible, and changed it to 8:00, which even then we only barely made work.  This also meant cancelling the trip into the vaunted cave system nearby, touted to us as the second largest cave system in the world - the first largest, coincidentally, being the one just a few hours south of Louisville back home.

Here is the square where the bus dropped us off:

We met with the woman that had arranged our concert that evening and followed her on foot to the church, just a block or two up the hill:

We took as absolutely much time as we could possibly squeeze to rehearse in the church, then scurried away so that the 7:00 PM mass could take place.  Then, at 8:00, we returned, dressed in concert black, to sing once more:

And thus it was that my time singing with this fine choral ensemble came to an end.  As tired as I was - as we all were - I was very much glad to have one last full-length concert to go out on, as opposed to the 10-minute set that won us the Grand Prix in Zadar.

After the concert, we went to a pizza place for dinner, accompanied by Andrej Makor, a Slovenian composer who had written one of the works in our repertoire, and who had just finished a piece commissioned from him by Dr. Hatteberg.  Now, I'm not sure if this was done to wow Makor, or more for the benefit of the people in the group who wouldn't be a part of the version of Cardinal that would, presumably, premiere the work the following fall, but midway through our dinner Dr. Hatteberg handed out copies of the brand new choral work and had us sightread it for him, right then and there.  Whether it was meant to wow Makor or not, it did, causing him to remark in amazement that he's never seen a choir read a new piece right off the page like that.  I think we made a good impression.

After another hour or so on the bus, we finally arrived in Ljubljana, a place I'd been wanting to see for several years, ever since my Austria trip back in 2013, the first time I'd heard of Slovenia at all.  The downside to finally visiting this capital city was that we were only there for one night and morning, which allowed for precious little time to actually see the city at all.

For this stop, the choir split in two for the night, with half in a hotel and half at a hostel, which was presumably cheaper, but was also terrible.  A lot of little annoyances, like no towels provided, plus bigger ones like the rat seen in one person's room, made for a frustrating stay.  

The following morning was really the only time we had to see any of the city, after a short journey on foot to the hotel for breakfast - the hostel, of course, didn't provide any, so we'd paid extra (as a group) to accommodate the hostel half for breakfast at the hotel.  After breakfast, I walked around for about an hour on my own:

Ljubljana is situated on a river, which made for some scenic touring:

There were some statues:

The latter of which is the dragon supposedly slain by Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts fame, who according to legend founded the Slovenian capital.

Diverting away from the water, I happened upon this silent church:

and sat inside for a few minutes, until it became time to head back to the hostel, acquire my luggage, and board the bus toward our final stop.

Maribor and Koper, Slovenia: May 21-22, 2018 - Mountains and Coast

In the afternoon, we crossed the Slovenian border to a town called Maribor, which I suspect is a hub of skiing and other mountains sports in the winter.  In late May, though, it was much quieter - with one exception:

Crazy, rickety mountain coaster!  This view was right outside our hotel, which I'm assuming is a ski resort:

Hi friends!

While I think many people's intentions were to unpack and get some dinner first, when we realized the mountain ride closed at 7:00, and it was currently 6:30, we rushed out to make sure we had a turn.  On the ski lift up, we got a spectacular view of the town:

At the top, we loaded up into the scooty little cars and descended one by one:

They may look rickety, but let me just say: that is absolutely the case.  They do have a seatbelt, and one single godforsaken lever that allows for both going and stopping, but other than that, the only possible safety precaution you can utilize is called "hold onto your butts".  I wanted to just drop the lever and fly down, but on the first couple of turns it really felt like I might be ejected from the car, so I employed the brakes just a tad.

Almost everyone in the group took part, including...

...who was just about the fastest one of us all.

After all that thrill and excitement, it was time to eat.  With the bus drivers off for the night and no real public transportation in this sleepy mountain town, it was on us to trek down from the resort to see what there was to see.  Not far down, we found an Italian restaurant, which was good enough for a group of us who chose to eat there with a few bottles of wine for the table.  And another after, found at a convenience store.  That night was spent on the balcony of the room, in dialogue with other pockets of Cardinals on their own balconies, hanging out of their windows, or in the patio area down below.

The next morning we were on the bus again, to finish our trek to the true destination of this leg of the journey, Koper.  Koper is where we had a concert scheduled, but the drive would have been too long of a haul for one day, so we'd split it in half with the stop in Maribor.  Koper is one of the few towns on the Slovenian coast, which, if you look at a map, is just a tiny little wedge jammed in between the coasts of Italy and Croatia, who really seem to have taken far more than their fair share.  So all that to say, being on the Slovenian coast is a rare thing indeed.

But the reason we had a concert in Koper is because of Ambrož Čopi, a Slovenian composer and conductor who had either commissioned or premiered a number of works by Slovenian composers that we were doing on our tour.  Dr. Hatteberg had gotten in touch with him and the two of them had arranged a joint concert together while we were in Europe.

We had only a partial check-in upon our arrival in Koper, as not all the rooms were ready.  We put our stuff down and made our way to a pub for lunch, which was for some reason extremely cheap.

Upon returning to the hotel, we sorted ourselves out into our actual rooms, then went as a group to the church for a sound check.  

As well as to meet Ambrož himself.  He didn't stay long, which was good actually - we needed to rehearse a surprise we had for him.  One of the grad students had found one of his pieces and we had quickly learned it in order to perform it as an encore at this concert.  The look of realization that spread over his face later that night as we jumped into it was worth the work - that and, it's a pretty nice piece.

After the rehearsal, we had a bit of time to eat and walk around the town.  First, we took a look around the square where the church resided:

Then the streets of Koper

Then the seaside at last:

We walked out onto the pier to get a better look at the surrounding city:

The view gave us a Naples-esque vibe.  Didn't know there was something like that in Slovenia.

We continued exploring:

Before heading back into town to find food.  The Slovenians had planned a dinner for us after the concert, but we all decided to get something small beforehand to tide us over.  We found this place:

With a bizarre menu:

It was pizza, by the way.  And it was delicious.

Then, the concert.  Ambrož's choir went first, then us:

Then we joined together to sing one of the Slovenian pieces in our rep, which they also knew, and of course, the surprise piece for Ambrož.  It was also a surprise for them.  They may or may not have been sight reading.  ANYWAY...

We then journeyed to the afterparty where they served us, you guessed it, pizza.  And also wine!  It's like they know us.  While that setup may sound like the makings of a raucous evening, it ended relatively early, and we all returned to the hotel in preparation for an early busride the next morning to our next destination, where the meat of the trip was to take place.