3/10/2008

Over the last two days, the weather changed. Because of this, I stayed in Bled and decided to discover a little more of the town itself. I went down for breakfast and afterwards, called in on Frank and Margaret, who were also staying at the Pension Mayer. I arranged to meet up with them at the Panorama hotel, on the lakefront.

On my way to the Panorama, I walked down to where the Pletna boats were and got talking to the guys who take the boats out to the island. I asked them if they do the trips on days like today, when the weather was bad. They told me that it’s mostly the motorised boats that go over to the island but that they themselves have to be there, in case the weather picks up.

I met up with Frank and Margaret and they were just finishing their sandwiches and about to have cake, so I sat down with them. The Panorama have a huge amount of pastries and cakes. They were spread out in rows, in refrigerated cabinets all along one wall. Both Frank and Margaret have been coming to Bled for about thirty years, so they know a lot of the locals. They were talking to a good few of them this afternoon. We went to a local bar called the Asko for a couple of hours, while sheets of rain just poured down outside. Frank and Margaret are lovely people. Frank is 79 and Margaret is 73. At about 5.30/6pm we headed back to the pension.

I had heard that there was a small concert on in the church and I wanted to go see it. There were supposed to be two choirs singing, one from Bled and one from Germany. So I had to get my skates on and have dinner early, to get up there in time. I had dinner with two New Zealand girls, Michelle and Zoe. Michelle was traveling for four and a half months and Zoe was just on holiday for a few weeks. I had to hurry because I wanted to get to see the concert. So I asked for the bill and left. It wasn’t raining on my way up there.

I got there just at 8pm, when they started singing. The acoustics were great. Both choirs sang but I preferred the Bled choir because their singing was tighter, if you know what I mean. What added to the acoustics was the sound of the thunder outside and every now and again as well, the flashes of lightning could be seen through the window. The storm had just started. The concert lasted about half an hour and when we went outside, it was bucketing down with rain, wild it was. Lovely! I love storms. If I had a balcony in my apartment in Amsterdam, (which I don’t, unfortunately) I would sit out for hours watching a storm, listening to the crash of thunder, waiting for the crack of lightning and seeing the rain hopping off the pavements. I got talking to the driver of the German group. They were from Stuttgart, singing that evening and on Sunday morning at Mass at 10am. They were heading to Bohinj tomorrow, for the day.

I headed back by the lake and it was like a tempest! The water was splashing up onto the pavements. I looked back from time to time and it was gorgeous, the view. You could see the church on the island lit up in the distance, to the right, the castle on the hillside was illuminated too and the Church which I had just come from, stood there, lit up in all it’s glory, against the background of the hill.There were actually waves crashing on the shore of the lake and a lone swan over by one of the trees. I was wondering what it was doing on the grass on its own.

I got back to the pension and had to change into sandals and jeans, as my shoes were soaking and my legs were wet from the knees down, from the rain. I had a lovely, warming hot chocolate and rum at the bar. Dietmar, the owner, gave me a leaflet with prices for buses to the Postojna Caves. Dietmar said that tomorrow would be the best day to go, as the weather was only supposed to be slightly better tomorrow and from Sunday to Wednesday, the weather was supposed to pick up. Getting that kind of information was very valuable, as you’ll see later.