Gorizia

As the majority of our group went sledding in the Alps last weekend, three of us headed off to explore the little town of Gorizia.  Joy, Alla, and I had decided that the winter cold and snow was not quite our cup of tea, nor was waking up at the crack of dawn and waltzing down to the train station at 6:45am.  Instead of the aforementioned hideousness, the three of us slept in till 8:45 and ate breakfast leisurely, got ready to leave and walked the forty minutes to the train station to make the 11:27.  We ordered our tickets by ourselves (yay!) and even got on the correct train!!  The ride there was about an hour and we all chatted and got to know each other better because we dorm in separate rooms and therefore don’t get to hang out as much.  Joy and I talked about how her older sister and Andrew Wilber had each gone to Gorizia at one point and how cool it was to go where we had seen them in their pictures – we were totally psyched! 

Once we got off of the train, we just walked straight because Garrett had told us that every single group that had gone to Gorizia before had gotten lost on their way back and we were determined NOT to do so!  As we walked, we enjoyed the scenery and bazillions of teesy shops along the sides of the streets.  By this point, we’ve pretty much gotten used to everyone staring at us and there comes a point where you just stare back because nobody really bothers you here unless you lock eyes for an extended period of time or grin like an idiot.  (Don’t worry, I haven’t done those things; I’ve just seen it happen)  We stopped at a gelateria to take a picture because it was the same shop that Joy’s sister had been to

We walked by a bunch of shops and wandered in and out of them, contemplating buying things but then deciding that it would be better to purchase on the way back so that we wouldn’t have to carry them.  After Alla telling us she had to use the bathroom, we went to find a café in which to park ourselves for a little bit.  There was this adorable little place that we found and our waitress was the cutest!  She made me my first latte macchiato, per Andrew’s suggestion, and I actually enjoyed it!!  At first I wasn’t wild about it but then I got halfway through it and it was quite yummy.

 

After warming up, we asked for directions to Slovenia and our waitress explained it to us in Italian as we pretended to understand; we picked up words here and there and then she found a map for us to use and it ended up making more sense than we thought it would, so we left to explore Slovenia.  On our way, we found a fountain in a park where we stopped to eat lunch.

After several stops at street corners to find ourselves on the map, we couldn’t find the right street names and decided to just head in what we thought was the general direction of Slovenia.  Along the way, we asked a lady who didn’t speak English but pointed for us to go straight.  Then we happened upon an adorable old lady with a cute little puppy and I asked her if she spoke English.  She said no, but then Joy said, “Slovenia?”, and she responded with hand gestures and the Italian word for “straight”.  (Dritto)  She said, “Driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitto, driiiiiiitto, driiiiiito – Italia e SLOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEnia.”  She was the best part of the trip and we all agreed that if we hadn’t had any fun but met her, our day would have been perfect anyway!!!  Following her directions, we ended up on the border of Italia and Slovenia and took some pictures.

 

After that, we decided to head back towards the train station to try and catch the early train so that we could meet our group and get picked up by the van instead of having to walk home on tired feet at night.  On our way back, we all stopped in at our little café and told our waitress that we made it to Slovenia and she smiled and was very happy as we thanked her.  Alla and I stopped by a few stores on the way back and picked up the things we had looked at earlier and then we booked it to the train station with a half hour to spare.  We made it home and thankfully the van picked us up; it was one of my favorite weekends thus far.