many photos
in this SLIDESHOW
thumbnails below
went to pick up a cleaned lens -
the old photo repair guy i assumed that passed away is still alive -
i took his picture -
waning craftsmanship - fixing old camera in the new digital age of
replaceable circuit boards -
took the train to Trieste via Venice.
I could get a really good sandwich at the train station for 2.9 euros
and you can buy and drink a can of beer for 1.5 euros -
Trieste is a small sliver of coast in the north east of italy.
Trieste + the surrounding area was Austria-Hungary until 1918 - then
Italy took it.
after WW2 Italy just kept a small chunk and a big part of the province
went to Yugoslavia.
Now my uncle has a big house in a small village a few Kilometers from
Slovenia.
all the stores have signs in Italian and Slovenian -
It is a piece of europe at the crossroads of different cultures.
Slavs and Italians and Austrians and a large Jewish population.
my uncle took me on a local tour on his VW Golf -
in the afternoon I took his mountain bike and rode a few Km across the
border to Slovenia -
there is a farm with free range chickens and turkeys getting ready for
the Xmas slaughter.
here they still let them roam freely - eat freely.
Casinos are not legal in Italy [with a few exceptions]
so in slovenia first thing you see when you cross the brder is a casino.
my uncle had also showed me a so called "massage parlor" and he hinted
with a smile there is more than just plain massages going on there.
I ride to Lipica [Lipiza] where there is a horse farm -
a particular breed of small horses.
in the area there are a lot of signs remembering the partisans that died
in world war 2 -
the countryside is very rocky - a high plain that reminds me of
missouri's ozark mountains or ireland's connemara.
they can't really grow much produce -
and there are many craters -
just underground caves/rivers roofs that collapsed and trees started to
grow.
you cant really see it in photo but many are quite deep and steep.
--
my uncle tells me that traditionally the Slavs lived on the hills
and the italians on sea level.
in the evening he drives me down to the city -
some down hill streets are way steep - something like S Francisco =
it must be hell to ride those streets uphill with a bike,
I see the serbian orthodox cathedral - the greeek orthodox cathedral and
the largest synagogue I have ever seen - a lot more monumental than
anything in NYC.
there is the austrian style area - a perfect grid of streets with
pedestrian areas and beautiful 18th century buildings
there is the jewish quarter called ghetto [ghetto is an old venetian
language word that means the jewish area - without todays' connotation
of impoverished/inner city slum] with tiny small streets -
There is an old store that my uncle knows - that sells everything -
people find hard to believe that in New York there are stores just like
this.
when people here think of america - they think of modern//new /
technological.
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