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It’s ALL about the Carp …

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24carp.html?ref=us
The good news is, these babies are HUGE and carp is actually pretty tasty. They eat a ton of it in Europe. You find it here too, even in the local shops. If it comes from clean water, it basically eats grass. They are very fatty, omega3. Yummy!

I made friends with Wanda recently. I think we are taking our relationship to the next level.

Trip to Croatia

Hi Friends and Family,

Lauren, Emily and Olivia came out to Ljubljana to visit me. Since my divorce about 8 years ag, I have not had all three of them with me for any significant amount of time. I realized how much I missed living with them. All of it, the laughs, the teasing, the quibbles, the herding, the timed showers.

We toured Ljubljana for a couple days, then took off on a 10 day journey. Lauren came in first, 2 days later Olivia and Emily. Before leaving Ljubljana we had several great meals.  This is a simple fish/seafood lunch Lauren and I bought from a guy in trailer (called the Fish House) in the green market. I never had the food there before, but I knew it was good because the line there everyday is HUGE. It was good. Smelt, squid, shrimp, tomatoes, beans and potatoes.

cheers!  Dobar Tek! I am getting pretty good with the Slovenian. As you can see, I haven’t missed a lot of meals.
So much good food ……………  and so little time to eat it all.

I made the girls eat horse burgers in Ljubljana. They eat a lot of horse here. They raise them for meat. The horses look like fat cows with skinny legs. I would whinny before bite of the burger. It drove Olivia nuts (we still know how to push each other’s buttons). She did not want to eat Mr. Ed, but she did. She had some stomach trouble later. The other three of us didn’t though  …. ?   Mr. Ed was over-spiced for my taste. I like to taste my horse. While in Ljubljana the girls climbed to the top of the tower o the castle that is on a hill overlooking the city.

I had no part of the Tower climbing. There they are, Olivia, Lauren and Emily. Watching them up there made my “little soldier” retract into my lower abdomen. (I have a fear of heights.)

From Ljubljana we took the night bus to Valjevo, a city in Serbia. My father was born in the village of Bujacic, which is just outside of Valjevo. 12 hours on the bus. Mr. Ed really wanted out of Olivia on the bus ride. We came close to a disaster, but it worked out ok.

In Valjevo I had dinner for whoever in the Stanisic clan wanted to show up. I have about 100 cousins and second cousins, most in Belgrade (Beograd). About 35 of the local Stanisics showed up. My father had 7 brothers and two sisters and they bred like cats. There was a lot of good food (again!) and drink, and they ALL smoke

the white stuff below is this delicious cheesy/fermented butter known as kajmak (kaymaak) which is basically a heart attack that you spread on a piece bread.

There was a lot of drinking. My little girls can’t keep up with the Old Man drink-wise, but they are good. Music provided by a local Gypsy Band.

Lots of circle dancing (Kolo dancing) that just weaved through the Pub. The giirls were getting loose after several bottles of wine. Here is Lauren and Olivia. I think there faces say it all!

and Emily too.

The great thing is, men are not expected to dance in Serbia. Its 95% women dancing, bouncing up and down and up and down and ……. Excellent!!!

This is my cousin Mirceta (translates as Soldier of Peace), singing to me

He kept telling me how wonderful he was feeling. When we left the following day, I could see he was crying when he turned away from us. He looks a lot like my father did.

After a late and hard night of partying, we left the next day for Beograd. We toured there (no photos ) then took a 14 hour night bus through Serbia and Bosnia to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Wow, what a place.

That is Emily, Olivia, Stepan (Lauren’s boyfriend who joined us in Dubrovnik, and Lauren)

We made a day trip to an island called Mljet. It is about a 1.5 hour speed boat ride away from Dubrovnik.

Lauren,

Olivia,

and Emily.

and Stepan getting his ass bruised bouncing on the deck of the front of the boat. This photo is about 20 hours before he turned red as a lobster. He was a lot of fun. A great guy who basically planned the whole trip for us after Serbia.

The island of Mljet is beautiful. We had a great seafood lunch. The chef pulled our mussels out of the sea. Fresh stuff. We biked around the island. LOTS of big hills. The islands off Croatia are the tops of submerged mountains. The islands (and coast) are very mountainous. The whole coast is stony/rocky. Not much sand. A LOT of sea urchins. The island had two inland lakes (salty water). Really pretty place.

From Dubrovnik we took a 4 hour bus to Split and caught a 90 minute Catamaran ride out to the island of Vis. This island was Tito’s secret military base, so it is very undeveloped. We stayed in the little town of Kamiza, in a beautiful Villa named Kamenica (Little Stone). The owners had this silly donkey cut-out on top of Lauren and Stepan’s room, that was peeing all the time.

Stepan and I took a motor scooter ride around the island and saw some great scenery

and we took a dip at a local scenic point. More sea urchins!!!!

and we went to the highest point on the island. Here is Stepan on the top of the island

After we came back to town we took the girls out for the same trip.

This is the main plaza at the town of Kamiza. Scenic for sure,

check out the flowers growing out of the limestone below,

narrow streets

Fresh fish and eel brought in every morning at 6 am

My favorite was the Scarpena (Scorpion Fish). Ugly, but yummy. Fat little things. Juicy on the grill.

We boated out to the Blue cave, beautiful. Its a cave on an island. The cave is open on one end to the sea, but the opening is submerged. The light that comes comes through  is bright blue, like the water,

and after the cave we spent the day on a secluded beach where we all got roasted.

This is a view from my room at our Villa. Check out the clouds rolling over the top of the mountain.

From Kamiza Lauren and Stepan left us, to tour through a part of Italy, and me, Emily and Olivia took a bus to Split. We spent the day at Split (girls shopped and I whined) then we took a night train to Zagreb and another train back to Ljubljana. Emily and Olivia then flew back to Chicago and left me alone again. I do miss my girls.

It was a great trip I will never forget.

See you all in about 5 weeks. No more traveling for me here, since I am now an illegal citizen in Slovenia and would not get back in over the border if I left.

I really love it here. People in Europe are civilized. No guns. Little to no crime. Great food and wine. Pretty women. Great public transportation. Green markets.

I do look forward to returning though. I miss my home and neighbors, friends, and extended family.

Yours, Mike

You can see more photos and videos at Lauren’s photo website,

http://picasaweb.google.com/LaurenStanisic/EasternEurope?authkey=Gv1sRgCP6hzKDH8tr4wAE#

Early part of Ljublana Spring

Hi Friends and Family,

Its early spring here, as I hope it is there too. In Ljubljana, Spring is a long season, really nice. It goes form sunny to rainy in a minute and back again. Now we have wild flowers, growing in the lawns. I really was impressed by the wild primroses. The grow everywhere, in lawns and in the cracks in the sidewalks. the laws are also covered with wild lillies of the valley and  crocuses. Its very pretty. Here are some photos.

the cigarette butt adds to the photo above, don’t you think?

I took those photos on my Saturday walk to the Market, which I LOVE. Great place. You see the look of anticipation on my face.

Beside the flowers, this place has some great graffiti, which is either cute, or has some kind of message. This one seems to be pro lesbian, I’m ok with that. As I have told most of you, if I were a women, I would definitely be a lesbian. I’m actually surprised that all women aren’t.

You Family Man” in the photo above. I don’t know who he is or what it is all about. I think it is a real person, or something, not sure. But he is everywhere.

Here is one of GW, aka Ombre

I like his “Little Soldier”, its cute

Family Man is back, but the writing below asks “And Presern?”. Preseren is their National Poet, the source of their spirit. Apparently he has a dark side if he is being compared to Family Man?

They like their circles here, you see these strange patterns everywhere??? I haven’t figured it out. Plan to ask.

and then they ask the question abut 9/11. You check the box.

and here is Preseren, in the center plaza,

and thats the market in the background. people carry their wicker baskets for their purchases

and this time of the year dandelion leaves are a popular salad. They serve it with bacon, bacon fat dressing and boiled potatoes.

and there is the Castle again, on the mountain top, overlooking the town centre.

The snow is gone and it is getting warmer every day. Hope you are all well. I am fine.

Yours, Mike

In Ljubljana, Slovenia

Hi Family and Friends,

I have not written in quite awhile. Here is whats new with me. I left London on Dec. 17. About 3 weeks before I left London, I was really not wanting to. But during the last week there, I was ready. I finally got tired of pushing through crowds of tourists etc. I had it.

From there I went to Serbia for 18 LONG days. Do not care for the place much. On my last day there, in this dumpy place under a bridge, I caught sight of a wild pheasant, in the middle of Belgrade. Go figure.

The city if FULL of packs of wild dogs. I asked my friend, “why are there so many dogs”. She said, “because we like dogs”. I asked her “why are they all wild”. Her response was, “We like them, we just don’t like them in our house”.

What?

Anyhow, on January 4th I landed in Ljubljana, Slovenia. A nice city of 300,000 in a country of 1 million. I really like it here. Its clean and very civilized. Below is my building. My apartment is half of the first floor, about 500 sq. ft.

My Kitchen, no oven . But it has a little dishwasher!

Looking into the kitchen from my bedroom.

The Institute I work at.

and the Main Building, where my good friend Jadran  Lenarcic is now the Director!

I took a walk to the Centre, to go to my favorite place, the open air market. You see we had snow too. If you look up you can see the Castle that overlooks the Centre.

I zoomed into it here.

Yes. lots of snow, and  nowhere to put it.

There are not big on vowels here. This is a restaurant named Grm

My colleague’s son’s name is Crt. On my way to the Centre, I pass the Roman Wall. Built by the Romans.

Getting closer to the Centre

Me.

Its a chin competition. I win, i got two.

Finally, the market. People are dressed up today, for a celebration on the day before the start of Lent.

I like the artichokes. In the States they do not sell the stems. hey are delicious.

Arrugola!!

Apples, 1euro per kilo, about 50 cents a pound.

and great apple juice

and my favorite, sauerkraut, out of wooden barrels. That sour (kislo) turnips (repa) on the left and cabbage (zelje) on the right

comes out of these barrels

They have these ool Mlekomat  (Milkomat) machines. Its a play on the word Bankomat, which means ATM here. For  a eros (about $1.39) you get a liter (quart) of unfiltered, unhomogenized milk, straight our of the cows teats. Really good. hat is an old lady that sells sauerkraut loading up on milk.

Great seafood. Monkfish

Flounder

s.

I remember this old lady from 10 years ago, sitting at the same corner. Shes sells bouquets of flowers. She sees me!

an old man street musician playing his acordian

Inside of my Church. Love it there.

and the cupola,

This is a great place to live. If I could get work here, I would live here. See you in July.
Yours, Mike

Christmas Greetings!

Hi Folks,
Its my last night in London and I wanted to send you all a unique Christmas Greeting, from one of my favorite Districts in London, Soho!!

Cheers, Mike

Baker Street and Halloween

Hi All,

I have not sent out a general email in quite a while. I figure most people do not want too many.

Once a week I travel to a a point where I need to change trains at “Baker Street”. I felt a charm there from the first. It s almost spooky down in that subway. Then I found out it is in fact the first subway line ever put in. 1863. Think about that. What a society! Of course it must have been very dificult to breath since the trains where steam driven and coal fired. Yikes! Her are photos of Baker Street. I love it there.

And tonight is Halloween (Halloweena in Italian). They are really taking to it here, bigtime. Its has little to with kids and alot to do with sex crazed young adults. on Saturday mornings I walk a couple mile to a butcher. Saw this on the way back, a long line. About 10 am.

Guess what store they are waiting to open.

Thats right, a costume shop.

Yous, Mike