marymom and daddyjohn take on trieste and the trifecta.

playing tourguide is incredibly exhausting. my parents arrived in trieste last friday evening and left for venice this morning.  despite having a day off from work on tuesday, this week has crawled along slower than so many others.  it could be the fact that spring break is now only a week away and i am dying for its swift arrival, but it could also be that i have been entertaining 24/7 since last friday.  don't get me wrong, i loved having my parents here (i've said before how we love visitors) but man, i am tired.

my parents came to visit me in 2008 when i was living in siena and they still talk about what an amazing vacation they had, mostly in part to my impeccable planning for them.  before their arrival, i had concocted a detailed itinerary with times and locations for meeting as well as set them up with things to do on their own while i was in class.

this time around, however, i tried my hardest to have them plan their own itinerary.  weeks (months? maybe too soon?) in advance i began sending them emails including links of things to check out and suggestions of what they could do while they were in the area.  neither of them had been to this edge of western europe before so i knew it was necessary to include the "trifecta," as V has aptly named the combination of venice, slovenia, and croatia, into our plans for their time in trieste.

it can't stop with simply, "include the trifecta," though.  there are so many things in slovenia that i am only just discovering myself, venice can be done in a day or a week - what were their priorities? - and not even i had been to croatia yet! oh! and i have a full time job with AND am training for a half-marathon that will be run in a month... this visit would be slightly different from tuscany in 2008 when i was going to a class or two a day (i believe that i easily understand my exhaustion now).

so! as i mentioned, i did my best to shove them in the planning direction by providing suggestion upon suggestion for their visit.  however, two days before their arrival, i realized they had no plans and i caved by quickly concocting the following itinerary which we followed very closely during their stay.

friday: you arrive. i pick you up with no major problems (hopefully). we arrive back at your hotel/my apartment around 730/8. you all spend a brief amount of time getting settled and we go to my 2 favorite spots for drinks and dinner (delish burgers) 

saturday: spend the day lounging. the weather will be beautiful and warm -- we should go to barcola and through the city. wander for a bit, stop for drinks, repeat. 
- osmiza for dinner!

after getting on with our adventure a bit later than we had hoped, we made our way to the carso to find an osmiza.  i went to an osmiza during one of my first weekends here in the fall and immediately knew that my parents would love the experience.  

to find an osmiza, you must drive and drive into the carso until you see signs and the osmiza branches directing you where to go

we finally found one!

and ate loads. 

after osmiza #1, we resumed the hunt and went to a 2nd one with a totally different vibe.  at osmiza #2 we sat near a birthday party that involved guitar playing and boys pulling their pants down..... so, that was an experience. 

sunday: croatia. spend the day at some fabulous beachy/port city. drive up the coast. 
check, check, and check.  we headed straight to porec (got 3 passport stamps along the way), wandered around the town for a bit and then drove back north along the coast toward italy.

the coastal drive was incredible.  it reminded me of driving on the big island in hawaii -- the road was a bit away from the water but the way the surrounding land sloped, you could see down to the sparkling adriatic and it was just the most beautiful view. 

we stopped along the way at roadside stands and bought dried fruit and unidentifiable bean pods (that i later found out were carob and is used as a chocolate substitute?)

and then, i ate this incredible piatto di frutti di mare. the octopus hidden in the middle underneath all the shellfish was my favorite. 

monday: you all wander around trieste, walk along the water, visit the castle, etc. take the tram up or drive the car up to my school around lunchtime, come eat lunch with me at school and spend some time letting me show you off (as you desire) and then there are things you can do (beautiful overlooks, etc.) in opicina until school is out and then i usually have italian class at bar vatta (drinks near school) which could be fun for you all to come to! or we could just go down into town after school. 

-campanon for pizza dinner! 

after enduring an exciting morning on trieste trasporti in part due to my poor directions and in part due to the failure of the tram to be run regularly, my parents made it to opicina and school.  they hung out at lunch and recess, heard all about my students and met pretty much everyone i work with.  we rendezvoused a bar vatta per il mio lezione d'italiano.  

then! we drove down the hill and went to wander around the gardens at castello di miramare.  it was just before sunset and the weather was beautiful.  all the spring flowers had popped, making the gardens just breathtaking.  thus began the repeated phrase, "you live in such a beautiful city!"

it's true. i do live in a beautiful city. 

tuesday: my day off. SLOVENIA! we can do lake bled, possible lake bohinj, the predjama castle (google these things, if interested -- they're all awesome), and ljubljana. there are some delish thai/mexican/indian restaurants in ljubljana that we could patronize for dinner if you all were up for it. it stays light so late here now (730 at least) that we could wander until dark and then eat dinner and head back to trieste after dinner (ljubljana is about an hour away, so that's not even getting back that late)

i have done this slovenia day before so it was easily a success -- we made it to the predjama castle for a quick stop before heading past ljubljana to lake bled.

in bled, the sun was warm and the breeze was crisp, perfect for a stroll around the lake with the sneaky alps poking out underneath the light cloud cover.  

we had some lunch in bled and then went back south to ljubljana for the late afternoon and evening where we wandered the old town and marymom and i got some stranded tulips at the end of the farmer's market.

wednesday: you all wander, do whatever while i'm at work. pick me up at school? 

-pizza night at my apartment!

before pizza night could really get started, this happened. he took it like a champ (as you can see)

as you can see, we had so many of the bases covered (numerous bottles of wine, trieste-style deviled eggs, pimento cheese, and freshly rolled out pizza dough)

this bbq chicken pizza was incredible -- thanks for the bbq sauce, america!

being forced (hahaha yeah they had to twist my arm) to show my parents around the trifecta of my current home, gave me the opportunity to explore some myself -- sunday was my first time in croatia!  showing them where i live and what i do here really helped me to appreciate my life (the amazing weather didn't hurt, either).  

as much as i have complained about trieste and the bora and work and everything else i've complained about this year (when did i grow to be so negative?), i can fully recognize now that life is good, here. 

spring has sprung, the surrounding bella vistas are out of control and time is flying.  next week we enter the final quarter and have only 8 weeks of school to go.  spring break is around the corner and my departure date is very quickly approaching.  i'm just not ready to leave yet....


x!