Up at 8 and headed into town to buy some supplies for breakfast. Hitched and got a ride with some Germans but as I got into their car my leather money pouch snapped. I was told by tourist information where I could get the pouch sewn up. Smashed glasses, ripped Munich bag, lost watch and a melted shoe. I am falling apart! The shoemaker did a great repair job on the pouch. The town is impressive and its Alpine architecture is certainly different than the rest of Yugoslavia. It is a clean town and Slovenia is more affluent than the other republics in Yugoslavia. I took a two-kilometre marked trail back to the campsite and I am glad I did. No one was on the path and most of it was along a river and a very clean river with water so clear you could see big fat trout. Returned home for an early lunch of eggs. Yugoslav eggs have a dark orange yolk and taste excellent unlike the tasteless Canadian eggs. I decided to take a 4 kms walk to a nearby village. Had eggs, bread, cheese, cherry juice and plums for dinner after my brief plunge into the lake. After 10 minutes in this mountain stream fed lake I was numb as can be. I played some harp in my tent and nearby I heard some live music coming from the hotel. The band was pathetic and I asked if I could play with them and they said yes at 11. I saw the Germans that gave me a lift in the morning and they asked me to join them. The were enjoying lots of wine.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 8August1974: Ljubljana and Bohinj, Yugoslavia: Clean Buses and a Dip in the Lake Surrounded by the Julian Alps
After a late night woke up at 13:00! I made a massive farewell meal of 6 eggs, bread, cheese, cherry juice and an apple. Paid my bill and off on the bus to the bus terminal. Twenty minutes later on the bus to Bohinj. The buses in Slovenia are modern and they don’t stink like all the other buses in Yugoslavia. They are clean and have big windows. We stopped at Bled before reaching Bohinj. I found some camping near Lake Bohinj and set up tent. There is a hotel nearby with a dock so after picking up some groceries had a dip in the chilly alpine water. What a beautiful town with its quaint Alpine architecture surrounded by the snow-clad Julian Alps. The lake was as clear as a mirror and still. I feel like I am back in Vermont on Lake Champlain. Dinner was a can of peas, bread and cheese and a Deit which is flavoured sparkling water. I went to a nearby restaurant for a beer and to work on my final itinerary. If all goes well I will be leaving for home from Germany on August 22.
(Photo Turizm Bohinj)
Andrij the Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog” : Chapter 19: Anastassia Yalanskaya Memorial Dog Shelter
On the way home to Toronto Bob told Reggie and I a very sad story about a 26-year-old lady in the Ukraine called Anastassia Yalanskaya who was killed by the Russian invaders when she was delivering dog food to a rescue centre . A sweet innocent girl helping us dogs dislocated by these filthy bastard murderers. The Russians slaughter all Ukrainians both human and animals. It made Reggie and I so angry we growled and had I been able to speak I would have asked Bob to take me home to the Ukraine to avenge the honour of this brave girl but I know I have an important job here in Canada.
Bob said that he had purchased a large abandoned factory in Toronto which he was converting to a pet shelter for abandoned and orphaned Ukrainian pets. Thousands of pets have died and some 70,000 are requiring homes. Bob will name the shelter the Yalanskaya Memorial Dog Shelter to house 2,300 Ukrainian pets until they can be adopted. I will be a big fundraiser for this centre and what an honour! The day after we arrive back in Toronto there will be three talk shows I will appear on. The Grand Ayatollah of Iran, President Biden and the Pope have given generous personal donations. I have been asked to make appearances in the United States to promote the funding of similar centres. The need this terrible blitzkrieg has created is endless.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 6August1974: Ljubljana, Yugoslavia: So Different Slovenia!
Slovenia is a part of Yugoslavia and it so different from the other republics. It has more in common culturally with its neighbour to the North Austria than for example it has with Serbia or Croatia. The attitudes are more progressive. The political climate seems less repressive. The food is good. The architecture is daring. The rain woke me up pattering on the windowsill. By the time I headed out to do some shopping the rain had ceased. I bought a small propane tank for my mini burner so scrambled eggs, fruit juice, bread, cheese, cake and grapes for breakfast. Had a nap and then into Ljubljana for a 5-hour look-see. Off the main street Titova Cesta you get a better sense of the city. The old part of town reminds me of Salzburg in Austria. A cobbler repaired my sandals so out I tossed my melted shoes. I walked up to the castle but they wouldn’t let me in the castle with my press card. There are some very expensive boutiques in the old town. The Ljubljana River runs through the city making it sort of an Alpine Venice. The water is actually clean. I discovered an ultra modern supermarket more stunning in design than you would see in Canada. Marble floors with floor lighting. Returned home for fried eggs, cherry juice, bread, cheese and some Moccas. I asked the guy at reception about a discotheque called Stopteka and to get there I had to walk through Tivoli Park which was an amusement park. Using my press card which was good enough to get me a backstage pass to a Grateful Dead concert in Vancouver I entered the discotheque which just opened. I had a couple of drinks with the owner. The music was excellent for a change. The owner said 50% of the guests were students. Ljubljana is a big student town. The club is dead until 9 at which time it fills up. Ten guys to a girl and they all have waist high pants and shirts open to their navels. I danced with some girl from London and was back to my room a 02:00 to see someone sleeping in the other bed.
RKS Wine: Colchester Ridge Estate Winery (CREW): 2019 Gewürztraminer
Years ago when I started writing about wine I was a champion for the wines of Lake Erie North Shore in Ontario. If you are not producing wines in Niagara in Ontario the state monopoly Liquor Control Board of Ontario gives you a cold shoulder. Yes call it fighting for the underdog. One of the consistently good wineries in LENS was CREW. Initially a rustic small player over the years it has ramped up its image and presence to the point you can regularly see a smattering of its wines in the LCBO. It has been a decade or so since my last visit and a change in back-office administration has meant restricted access for me to their samples.
I am a great fan of Gewürztraminer and too little of it is produced in Ontario. Of late the best Canadian Gewurtz is coming out of Meyer Family Vineyards and Mayhem Wines in the Okanagan, British Columbia. Vineland Estates in Niagara does a good job with it.
How does CREW do with a VQA LENS Gewurtz? LENS has a different terroir than Niagara. Lake Erie North Shore wines are produced close to Lake Erie which is shallower and warmer than Lake Ontario. The higher humidity creates a greater risk of rot and fungus than Niagara where pests are a bigger problem.
The CREW 2019 Gewurtz has a laid-back aroma and given Gewurtz’s tendency for big floral and apricotty/peachy bouquets this no classic Gewurtz. Yes you have honey, peach, apricots and tangerine but subdued and shy. Gewurtz’s fun is often in its bouquet but no riot on the nose here. On the palate no burst of peach and apricot. More of an undertow of peach jam, guava and perhaps a bit too obvious of sweetness. In a “classic” Gewurtz the sweetness is so well integrated in the fruit. Here it stands as if alone in the corner. I get the sense the Gewurtz here is not a matter of terroir but the guiding hand of winemaker Ryan Oldridge.
(Colchester Ridge Estate Winery 2019 Gewürztraminer, VQA Lake Erie North Shore, Colchester Ridge Estate Winery, Harrow Ontario, $18.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 25317, 750 Ml, 12.8%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 85/100).
RKS Film: “The Yellow Wallpaper”: A Painful Look at the Descent into Madness
The PR material provided with the film stated this was an adaptation of Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “well- known and controversial gothic feminist horror story “. I see very little feminism in the film unless of course I strain to fabricate it. What I see is a woman named Jane (Alexandra Loreth) who is dangerously mentally unbalanced slowly descending into the sheer hell of severe mental illness. The horror here is not a melange of cinematic effects designed to frighten you. The horror is that of mental illness which degrades Jane into the point she is an animal crawling on the floor and peeling off the yellow wallpaper in her room like a person with obsessive compulsive disorder picking at a scab or cutting themselves.
The acting is stiff but skillfully to create the altered state of reality for Jane. Her physician husband John (Joe Mullins) is no sexist ranter but his aloofness is almost theatrical which is how Jane perceives him. In terms of traditional well acted characters it is Jeanne O’Connor as lady servant Jennie who is closest to the reality that Jane is experiencing. Clara Hart as the lead servant is stiff and totally insincere quite like a spy playing a deceptive role. I see either bad acting throughout or very clever casting and I’ll vote for the latter.
Do you have sympathy for Jane? Perhaps you do but watch the opening scene of the movie for an example of her vicious brutality which repeats itself with “the attack on the mice”. She is both a danger to herself and others which is a universally accepted phrase requiring commitment. Having represented incarcerated “mentally ill” clients I know the mantra well.
I see the film was financed in part by crowdfunding. The cinematography, costuming and sets are above crowdfunding. It really creates the impression of a big budget movie and what a shame it has been relegated to the festival and VOD market. While it is painfully slow it certainly measures a descent into madness superbly.
Loreth is at times childlike, dangerous and obsessive and manages all these different roles perfectly. Mullins as the frustrated husband is impeccably aloof.
Loreth and Kevin Pontuti wrote the film and it was directed by Pontuti.
You can catch the trailer for the film here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgws4d1_APY
The disturbing descent into madness has had a festival run and will be released on VOD on March 29th.
RKS Film Rating 88/100.
P.S. I guarantee a few minutes into the film you will shout “God no!” and there will be spine tingling shivers throughout not through special effects but clever writing and acting.
“Travels to a Different Time ” : 4August1974: Plitvice, Yugoslavia: Spectacular National Park
Up at 8 for an edible breakfast. I headed off to Plitvice National Park across the road. A pair of hitchhikers had given me their entrance ticket yesterday so I entered for free. The park was spectacular full of waterfalls of all sizes and beautiful turquoise pools. I walked around the paths for 4 hours and came home to the campground for a swim where I met some Brits complaining to no end about life in England. They all were terribly pasty white and not particularly good looking. I ate around 7 and as I was finishing two Canadian girls set up their tent next to mine. It was the same tent as mine.
5August1974: Gruelling Travel Day to Ljubljana
Up early for an ambitious destination of Ljubljana. It was already hot as can be at 07:30. I snagged my first ride in only 15 minutes from a Yugoslav believe it or not. We took the highway to Zagreb and it was a real two-lane highway so we were in Zagreb jiffy quick. I had an hour walk to get to the next road in the blazing sun. My Munich bag finally hit the dust. Melting shoe and now a busted bag requiring me to jam up my already crowded knapsack. I got a lift to the road to Ljubljana. But I needed to walk some distance to get a spot and the sun was ferocious. A two hour wait for a lift that took me a mere 20 kms. I had to walk up a big hill to a gas station which was a good place to catch a lift which turned out to be a lift to Ljubljana. There was so much traffic heading south mostly Germans who love Yugoslavia. I could not remember where the youth hostel I stayed at last year was so had to go to a tourist agency to find its location but it was not the same one I had bunked at last year. But at $2 it was the same price. I went to eat at a Maxi-Market a brand-new shopping complex and very modern like something out of Star Trek. I ate an excellent meal for $1. I walked around a bit and retuned back to the hostel for a shower.
“Andrij the Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog ” :Chapter 18: A Quick Dinner with President Biden
We touch down at Dulles in Washington and race into a waiting presidential motorcade and are taken to the White House. Joe and Bob have a bourbon and exchange pleasantries. First Lady Dr. Jill takes us for a walk on the White House lawn and doesn’t raise a fuss when we pee on some garden plants. We have a nice walk and Washington is so warm! We have a dinner of upstate New York free run chicken. Ours is chopped up with brown rice and chunks of yams. I have never eaten a yam before. They are sweet! Reggie says they taste like sweet potatoes.
Bob and Joe discuss the Iranian deal and Joe’s face lightens up. He says he must shake a few trees up but thinks the United States can agree. He chortles that Putin’s knees are being cut off. He asks if Bob can act as a go between a favour he would appreciate. Bob agrees. Iran will ramp up oil production for Europe and the United States and all sanctions will be lifted against Iran which will promise to never to develop nuclear weapons.
He pulls me aside and thanks me and Reggie from the bottom of all American’s hearts. We exchange hugs and it is back to our jet and Toronto. I am not sure what all this oil production will do for the Ukraine but if President Biden says it will cut off Tsar Putin’s legs it must be good. We are all invited to an Easter Roast at Camp David.
“Travels to a Different Time”: Poetry on the Road
“Turkey on the Roast” (NCR)
In the oven it slowly sizzles
She bastes it with loving care
Until soon a quaint aroma fills the air
Then in go the potatoes
She contentedly sits watching it brown
Talking to it a chilling voice
Urges it on for her two special guests
she laughs gaily, “Soon the guests will be here”
Turkey is on the roast
The hours drift by
finally it is done
But the guests have not yet arrived
Carefully she carves it up nibbling on a drumstick to quell her hunger
Then a delicious gravy is prepared with the succulent juices
She dejectedy starts on her lovely meal
Potatoes are fine and the turkey is great
but the guests are late
halfway through her meal
the doorbell makes a solemn peal
“Ah yes. It must be the O’Neal’s”
Mrs. O’Neal asks, “Has Timmy been good? Have you been cooking? “
“Yes Ma’am” the babysitter says
Up the stairs the parents come
Mrs. O’Neal screams discovering Timmy’s remains
The babysitter smiles and says, “Turkey is on the roast. Care for some? “
(A true story)
“Travels to a Different Time ” : 3August1974: Parts Unknown Yugoslavia: Downcast and Sitting by a Pile of Stale Bread Crusts
My mind being occupied by thoughts of you know who I woke up on a beach with André and Jean. We walked to a nearby store for some food for breakfast. After a quick breakfast on the bike up to Karlovac where I said good-bye to André and Jean. I walked to a tourist office and found a bus was heading up towards Plitvice in a half an hour. There is national park there with many waterfalls they said so I killed some time by having a bottle of Radenska mineral water in a café. I finally hopped on a bus with a pile of stale breadcrusts looming over me. I was feeling rather stale myself so I was in good company. I made it as far as Gospic and after half an hour on the way to Plitvice. It was full of peasants and soon we hit a dirt rough road that reassembled our innards. Yugoslavs always seem to be eating and they have lots of food to eat on buses. The bus stopped outside Plitvice. I was told the youth hostel was closed but 3 kms down the road there was a campground. By the time I arrived at the campground I was drenched in sweat. There was even a pool! So after a swim went to campground store and bought some food. After some grapes joined some Jesus people who were playing guitar and I pulled out my harp. The way I am feeling I need a bit of salvation. Exhausted by the heat and emotionally beaten up I crawled into bed at 11.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 