Slovenia: The Karst

No, its not a mirage, its Piran. 

Our adventure to the southern part of Slovenia began where the previous post left off, taking mind-boggling hair pin turns across the western Slovenia mountains from Bled down to the Karst, which contains one of the famous wine regions of Slovenia, which is gaining popularity on a global scale. In fact I walked into an Italian wine bar on Portobello Road last weekend that featured many Slovenian wines.

After a friggin 5 hour drive we finally made it to our destination of Tomaj, a small wine producing village in the Karst. Our hosts were the Skerlj's, who were recently featured in a slow-food article in the NYTimes. It was definitely the first time we stayed at a working farm, where the cows and pigs were literally right under us! However, the nice smell of freshly pressed grapes and apple juice cut down the smell; but hey, we're on a farm!! You can see they make the most of their space to grow grapes!

After getting a brief tour of the wine making room, we headed out to the Skocjan Caves, a UNESCO heritage site. The caves are without question unlike any other caves we have ever seen. The most impressive feature would be the amazing stalactites and stalagmites if it wasn't for the 350 foot cave that has a crossing bridge over a river that runs through the cave, which I think is what makes it so unique. If you don't click this picture to get a view you will not fully appreciate it!! It is amazing the vast size of the cave; I have never seen anything like it! It is a must see when visiting the area.

When we returned to the farm, we felt guilty as the family was still working so hard to finish their normal duties, let alone make dinner for us! So we offered to help. Linsey recently said the way to cure a phobia is exposure. Boy when I saw that MASSIVE basket of fresh mushrooms brought out for cleaning, I knew Linsey was right; I couldn't say no after offering to help!!! There were the craziest mushrooms I have ever seen. Green ones, red ones, ones that looked like they had jellyfish tentacles....is this a new Dr. Seuss book?

Yes, those are all mushrooms that have just been hand cleaned by yours truly. And you can only imagine what we had for dinner that night!!! I am proud to tell my mother I didn't leave a single mushroom on the plate! Those that know me would be utterly shocked!

Of course dinner was good despite the secret ingredient, what also made it good was all the wine we got to wash it down with. Also, dinner is only a tenner added onto your bill, so its a great deal!

The next morning we were up early to make the trip to Piran, actually, it was to pick grapes but the Isador decided to leave them on the vines for a couple more days, so we made it to the coast to see our long lost friend, the Adriatic!

Piran is one of the two Venetian towns well-steeped in history that we would visit the next three days. The town as you can tell is perched on a peninsula and jam-packed with old buildings from the 15th-16th centuries, when the town flourished as a venetian trading post. There is a marvelous square that you can see below.  On one side of the old town the wall goes down about 60 feet from the church straight into the sea.

At the top of the town, there are old ramparts that provide for an excellent view of the city. There is a machine you are supposed to pay €1 for, but when I went to get change from a bar next door, he advised me to just push the gate, which I did without the €1. I guess the honor system is in place. Erin and I got lost in the maze of tiny "streets" that probably couldn't even fit a cart during Venetian times! There was a path around most of the old town as well which provided sweeping views of the sea. It was so tempting to jump in but we unfortunately forgot our suits! We also had a nice lunch at a seaside restaurant and had baked Octopus for the first time (as opposed to grilled) and it was quite tender and delicious!

After we got home from Piran, Erin and I walked around the local vineyards and to the nearby town, stopping at the local for a pint of Union, Ljubljana's beer. The walk was beautiful and all the vineyards leaves were remarkable colors!

When we returned to the farm we checked out their own vineyards, looked at the barrel room, and played some cards before having dinner. Again, the leaves are fantastic!

Another item to note, the Rough Guide recommended a village called Goce as a failproof place to taste Slovenian wine. 100% false; not only was there not a single place to taste wine, the place was a ghost town! The Skerlj's later mentioned that it is probably due to the smell when producing wine (which we love - see last paragraph), it really didn't make sense for a town where there is supposed to be over 60 wine houses to have not a single one open to visitors. I guess if you want to see these spots, don't visit in early October!

The experience at the farm was terrific, gave us a true appreciation for the work that farming families put in to make great products, whether its sugar beets like Erin's grandparents, or one of the 50+ things the Skerlj family makes. Literally, everything on the table (except for the wheat to make the flour, I think) was from the farm, which was really cool as you definitely know the source of your food!

Despite being a cool experience, I don't think we would do it again, we often felt like we were in the way and the food itself, while fresh and tasty, could've been a lot better. I would recommend they have a full time chef during the high season as their ingredients could without question produce a Michelin star quality meal on a daily basis!

Back to Croatia we go!!!....