Pula Amphitheatre - A Mix-up with Dates

We thought the 115 related to the time... 15 minutes past 1 PM. No... it related to the year... 115 years after the birth of Christ... so we were a little late. The 30,000 crowd had gone home... lions and Christians had been shipped onto the next centre of entertainment... the material providing shade cloth had been rolled up. The structure was still there... nearly 2,000 years after the scheduled date... the underground compartments for animals and Christians was still there... all 200 metres of it... the sense of excitement still lingered... just the size of the site provided excitement. The amphitheatre is one of the 6th largest ones remaining... we've mining a golden seam of Roman antiquity and we haven't even reached Italy.

No doubt, the Romans were exacting masters. However, there is enough evidence to show that Pula did well under them. Pula was conquered early in the era of the Roman Empire. It was settled by Romans who established a productive economy based on wine and olive oil growing. In fact, Rome grew dependent on Pula providing these goods and invested heavily in good roads and good defense for the town.

But Rome also brought the future. They brought engineering... we travelled on old Roman roads that went for 30 klms without a curve... we saw aqueducts bringing water from distant springs... and the multi story buildings were undoubtedly the marvel of the age. Romans brought in slaves... not an ethical position by today's standards... but was a basis for organising labour and allowing specialisation of skills... that would have been copied in other employment arrangements. If Pula and similar towns had remained isolated, it is difficult to imagine them developing as quickly.

Pula was given a Temple to Augustus... and this one building has been used in Pula for every important announcement or occasion for the last 3,000 years. Today, it was being used to house a glass art exhibition... perhaps not its finest hour... but it is still being put to practical use.

Our Balkans stage is drawing to an end... just 2 days remaining. If later stages can maintain the same level of interest, we will be well pleased.

Lion Meal one day - a Saint the Next

Those of you familiar with the history of Split will remember the famous Emperor, Diocletian, who started off loving the Christians... but when their vibes started to interfere with reading chicken entrails... he sorted the problem with a bit of ethnic cleansing... killed Christians in large numbers. When passing through Chalcedon he came across a young lass called Euthemia who turned out to be a little stubborn about her religious beliefs. Diocletian gave her the choice of renouncing Christianity... or being thrown to the lions. Just to make the choice a little easier, young Euthemia was tortured... put on the wheel. The lass chose to be lion meat in preference to changing her religion.

So, come the next big festival... big enough to warrant the entertainment of throwing Christians to lions, there was Euthemia at the front of the queue. The biggest lion quickly killed her... but didn't eat her body. The local Christians preserved her body. Diocletian didn't realise all the bother that would follow his cruel act. The Persians conquered the town in 602 and the body was transferred to Constantinople for safe keeping. Emperor Constantine (you recall, he converted to Christianity) was so taken by the young girl's saintliness that he constructed a huge lavish church to her memory in Constantinople. All went well for a couple of centuries... until the 'icon-slashers' took power in Constantinople. They wanted less worship of saints and more reading of scriptures.

This is where the spooky bit comes in. There are some documents recording that Euthemia's sarcophagus was destroyed... but others report seeing it rise like a phoenix in fire and float in the air towards the horizon. On July 13, 800 people of Rovinj saw the sarcophagus floating in the waves just off the beach. The men tried to pull the sarcophagus from the sea... up the hill... where they were going to build a cathedral in her memory. But the men couldn't move the big stone sarcophagus. One of the young lads of Rovinj heard Euthemia's voice asking him to move the sarcophagus. He went out and found two small calves... that is all he could find... went down to the beach... hooked up a couple of ropes and hauled the big stone sarcophagus up the long steep hill... all on his own. The people of Rovinj thought it was a miracle... they built the church to the St Euthemia that stands to this day. Euphemia's Day is celebrated on September 16 each year. Many visitors come to Rovinj to participate in the grandiose celebration with a rich program which takes place on the main square in Rovinj. Traditionally, on St. Euphemia's Day people eat mutton with sauerkraut... having tried that dish... there is not much celebration built into the menu.
Now, here is the point! Who performed the miracle? Euphemia... nice girl that she most certainly was... did not perform any miracles. She chose death over renouncing her religion... as have hundreds of thousands of people over the ages. The young boy did not perform any miracles. He heard voices... they have pills to treat such conditions today. No... the real miracle was performed by the two calves who hauled the heavy sarcophagus up the steep hill... where is the church commemorating their miraculous feat? Why aren't we feasting on St Calves ' Day. Just a thought.

Piran - A Town without Cars

We are spending our second day in Piran... it occupies part of the precious 45 klms coastline that Slovenia holds. It's a pretty coastal town... Venician origins... walled city... medieval streets narrow enough to share a cup of coffee with your neighbour without the bother of going downstairs and walking across the road. Initially, the narrow streets were a defence tactic to slow down invading armies... so you could drop stones or hot oil or other welcoming gifts on top of your new friends.

City authorities have opted for a car-free town... at least as far as tourists are concerned. You park your car at the city limits and walk your way in. Alternatively, they provide free shuttle bus services for the frail... like us. Sounds sensible... perhaps a touch idealistic. But the benefits are very clear. We found that many more young kids were playing on the streets unsupervised. Parents still had to worry about older kids speeding their push-bikes around blind corners and wiping out the toddlers. The feeling we had was that the kids felt that they owned the streets. There was less concern with stranger-danger. The openness and friendliness of young adults was a point of difference.

We were sheltering from the rain in a cafe when 20 schoolchildren aged 12-13 barged in... all shouting to each other as is the want of young teenagers. The cafe owner... fearing they would upset his customers... tried to hunt them away. The young kids cornered a group of geriatric cruise boat people... who were only too pleased to have the attention of local youths. Joye and I listened to the delightful conversation... the kids were respectful and interested to learn about life on a cruise ship. The kids explained with great enthusiasm who was related to whom... who was good at particular activities. The cafe owner was a character in his own right... he demanded the kids had to buy something if they intended to loiter on his premises. That demand gave rise to another round of excited conversation as they sorted out who would buy what to satisfy the minimum of the owner's demands.

How do you account for the charm, confidence great social skills of Piran's youth... it may be a long stretch of logic... but I put it down to a 'car free' town... where children grow up feeling that they own their community.

Lipica Horses - Slovenia's Pride

I know Oscar and Tilly will be interested in this story... Oscar went horse riding on his birthday... so even at 4 years old, he knows quite a lot about horses... and Tilly has a long standing interest in horses and hopes to get a job brushing down horses at the dressage school around the corner near her  home.

Those of you uninterested in history, skip this paragraph! We take up the history of the Lipizzaner breed in 800 AD. Yes, we'll skip the first 5.5 million years of horse history... its origins in North America... its evolving change of shape... particularly its teeth and feet... you will need to do your own research for those details. The immediate ancestors of the Lipizzaner breed can be traced to the 7th century when "Barb horses were brought into Spain by the Moors and crossed on native Spanish stock" ... in the 16th century, when the Habsburgs ruled both Spain and Austria, a powerful but agile horse was desired both for military uses and for use in the fashionable and rapidly growing riding schools for the nobility of central Europe... in 1562, the Habsburg Emperor Maximillian II brought the Spanish breed to Austria. In 1580, his brother, Archduke Charles II, established a Lipizzan stud at Lipizza (now Lipica where we saw them) located in modern-day Slovenia, from which the breed obtained its name. The Slovenians have been improving the breed ever since. Here endeth the history lesson.

Tilly and Oscar, the horses are not really white horses... they are brown horses... their skin is brown... at birth, their hair is brown. However, their hair turns grey. So, if Mummy starts finding some white hairs on her head, you can ask if she is related to a Lipizzaner horse.

Every military invader anywhere near Slovenia seemed to make tracks straight to the horse farm and took as many horses as they could. Napoleon Bonaparte was not averse to a bit of horse stealing... he found the farm... liked the look of the Lipizzaner and stole the lot... including the breeding records... and set up his stud in Austria. The horses stayed outside Slovenia until the end of WWII... when USA's General George Paton found a large mob of Lipizzaner in Croatia... and via Austria, repatriated the breed back to Lipica. The USA soldiers rode them, put them on trucks and trains... but managed to get enough breeding horses back onto the original farm to form a breeding group. The Slovenian government funded the establishment of the breeding farm and it has operated as a national park ever since.

We saw many horses tied up inside buildings staring at blank walls. We enquired if the horses objected to the lack of stimulation. We were told to watch horses in the wild. They move when they need more food or water... or are involved in breeding and leadership tussles. Otherwise, (we were told) they stand still. Feed them... let them lie down every few hours... let them roll around to scratch their backs... and they are as happy as a pig in mud. Do you have evidence to the contrary? It sounds strange to me.

Good breeding requires a tight meritocracy system. If you are a male and show lots of talent, you will be trained in dressage and allowed to compete in international competitions... perhaps the Olympic Games. If you win lots of medals in competitions, you will be allowed to be a stallion and sire folds... through artificial insemination only (Oscar, get Dad to explain what that means). If your dressage talents are a little lacking, you will be gelded and given a chance to be trained and compete in carriage events. If your talent still doesn't come up to standard, you will be gelded and hired out to pony club and participants. If you are a female, and come from a good breeding line... you do not have to show any talent... you have won the lottery of life... first prize. You will be put out to pasture and after your fourth birthday, you will be allowed to breed. If your foals look good... move gracefully... and your sons qualify for dressage training... you will be treated like royalty and allowed to breed for another decade. If you don't make the cut for the top class, you will be tested to see if you should be trained for carriage competitions... if you fail this test, you are confined to pony club work... an utter disgrace to the breed.

In the 1950's an Australian imported Lipizzaner horses onto a stud at Billinudgel. This stud has continued to satisfy registration requirements. Now, Australia has over 10% of the world's registered Lipizzaner horses.

Skocjanske James - Inspiration for The Hobbit

We have just done another cave... perhaps Joye was wanting to test her claustrophobia... to make sure there was no permanent damage from the blackouts at the Postojna Cave. Today's cave had recommendations from UNESCO and Sue... and that was good enough for us. As it turns out, the two caves were very different... delivering delight in entirely different ways. If you trace the water through its underground travels, its the same river that creates Postojna (upstream) and Skocjanske. Skocjanske doesn't have stalactites and stalagmites to rival Postojna... Skocjanske has been formed by a raging river... the caves are younger and subjected to more vigorous treatment. Where Skocjanske gets its excitement comes from the gigantic halls/cathedrals that have been carved from the limestone.

Have you seen the film 'The Hobbit'? Harry has. Those lucky enough to catch a viewing will recall a number of battle scenes occurring in caves. The goodies (the Hobbits) found themselves running around cliff walkways high in the walls of cave cathedrals... being chased by the baddies (those guys that used to ride wolves... I forget their name). Well, that's where we found ourselves today... 90 metres up the side of a cave cathedral with a raging torrent racing through the bottom of the cave. Just like in the film, we walked over a bridge way up in the cathedral... but for us, the rope holding the bridge didn't break with us on it. The cave lighting dramatised the setting... not that extra dramatisation was needed. We were not being chased by baddies... in fact we were moving very slowly... making sure each step was placed on the path. Our guide said that a section not yet opened to tourists had a cathedral with a height of 190 metres.. high enough to house St Peter's basilica. I wish all the grandchildren could have been with us today... the experience would have made film makers out of each of them.

Our walk covered 2.5 klms... but the river goes underground for some 35 klms. The river runs through Slovenia and provides good tourist income for the country. The river enters the sea in Italy... and they have no quarrel with the river's use. Its underground journey takes it through Croatia and a lot of the water comes from Croatian streams. Croatia gets relatively little benefit from the river... which makes the Croatians somewhat unhappy.

Climbing a 1,500 metres high pass to visit the Doctor

Today, we awoke to clear blue skies... headed to Julian Alps.. .. to see if we could get some good photos of the mountains in the clear conditions. The Julian range separates Slovenia and Italy. We supposed that the Julian in question must have been the all conquering Big Julie Caesar... that needs to be confirmed.

We stopped to read the information boards... and discovered that the best viewing base for the mountains was at the top of Vrsic Pass. We started our climb and near the top noticed that each hairpin bend had a number indicating the remaining hairpins before you reached the top. We noticed when there were 21 remaining... there are 50 in all. We were told that Vrsic Pass has a long history... people in the adjoining Slovenian valley would walk over the pass to see their doctor. The pass has an altitude of 1,600 metres... anyone with a serious medical condition was not going to make it. The doctors must have had an impressive success rate with their medical treatments... provided you didn't count the fatalities along the track.

A large part of the road over the pass was built by Russian prisoners-of-war during WWI. Apparently there were 10,000 employed on the job. An old wooden chapel sits along the side of the road as a memorial to the Russian soldiers who died on the job. They built wooden walls to provide some protection against avalanches... but not always successfully. One avalanche took out 300 of them in one go! Much use of the pass was made in WWII... but there was no benefit to the Russians.

Alpine countryside in spring is always a hive of activity... the growing season is so short. We talked to a cyclist... a crusty old 65 year old... who said he had photographed 16 different species of orchids in flower that day on the mountainside. We saw fields of yellow and blue and red... very special.

The 'Haves' and the 'Have Nots'

Today is our last day in Croatia... in the Balkans! What an enjoyable experience we have had. We will be surprised if the scenery in Europe is as good. Touring in springtime added freshness and colour to the countryside... kept the crowds in the museums down to a minimum... and gave us extra attention in cafes (more often than not, we were the only patrons). Everywhere we went the tourist industry was optimistic that this summer will bring a return to the big crowds of pre-GST days... throughout our whole month, the mantra was "The season starts in 8 days... we must hurry to get ready"... throughout the whole two months, the 8 day estimate remained static.

Value for money is so good in Balkan touring, you sometimes feel you are exploiting their current conditions. In some of the poorer countries, our restaurant bill was the equivalent of $15-20... for two meals and half-a-litre of wine... in places offering unique views and excellent food.

So let's look at the ethics... Australians have average income per household of about $4,000 per month... not bad by world standards... but far from the best... Switzerland's average is $5,600. So, we wealthy foreigners land in the Balkans and start spending our money in a manner that will deliver the locals an average income that is sometimes less than one-tenth of ours. Comparison of figures is difficult because some countries are not good at identifying income... or counting... or have political motives in mixing up the arithmetic. Taking Wikipedia as the source of truth (always a dangerous step) we get comparative figures of average monthly incomes as follows:

Albania 264 (average monthly income of 264, some one-fifteenth of Australia's average)

Macedonia 443

Bulgaria 414

Serbia 489

Romania 474

Bosnia and Herzegovina 558

Montenegro 618

Croatia 959

Greece 1250

Portugal 1164

Slovenia 1311

(It is interesting to note the bad press handed out to Greece for its inability to manage its national debt and balance its budget ... but on a comparison of average income, it is far from the worst. These figures reflect conditions prior to the GFC... so Greece may have a current position much worse than shown.)

So, we waltz in with our privileged Australian income, consume the food and services of the poorer host country... and leave a 10% tip. The income earner in the poor country is most appreciative... without your custom, he/she would be worse off. But in our own country, we would happily pay twice or thrice the amount charged by the poorer country. Ethically, are we exploiting the unfortunate circumstance of the poorer host country? What would Gandhi say about this situation... what would Mother Teresa have to say? These ethical issues are not new. Under the current rules of the game, we can do most good by following self-interest and holidaying in poor countries in larger and larger numbers... put the supply of such services under pressure... thereby leading to an increase in prices... thereby leading to a resolution of ethical issues... its a long bow to draw... this will not happen quickly. So, having pondered the issue, the call to action to resolve it is... plan your next holiday in a country with a low level of average income... when there, live like a king... double the size of your normal tip... speak quietly... complement them. OK, you do that already (I could have saved my breath).

Our next phase of our holiday is in Italy. Its average monthly income is $2368 (pre-GST). We'll find prices much higher than the Balkans... people are likely to be a little less appreciative of our custom... the queues in museums will be much longer... but the coffee and the bread will have more flavour. So much of Balkan history arises from the activities of the Roman empire... the Byzantine empire... and the Venician empire. So much of world values are based on Europe having been ruled by Romans in one form or another. It will be exciting to visit the seats of power that have shaped our world.