Slovenia-Croatia Day 2: Toofani night

23 May 2019

 

Mishti peeked out of the window in the morning and pointed to a lake outside. I stood beside her and said to Sneha who was sleeping upstairs in the loft of our room: "There is a bleeding lake outside. Is it Bled?" It was the pretty sight of Lake Bled indeed. Sneha was sound asleep and couldn't care less for my bleeding joke. We swapped Day 2 of our itinerary with Day 1 because the weather was sunny and glorious today and is mixed tomorrow. There were some notes in our apartment about about the two hikes that were in store for us today:  The hike to Slemenova Spica is incredible. Starting from Slovenia's highest mountain pass - Vrsic - to Slemenova Spica is one of the classic short trails. With quite a small amount of effort, you can feel the presence of high walls and incredible views. The view just before you reach the top of this grassy peak is one of the most photographed shots in Slovenia. 2-3 hours. 350m elevation. 5km. Difficulty level - 2 out of 5.  The Path of the Pagan Girl is a short trail around the Vrsic pass area and is all about the story of the pagan girl. She was a fate deity, cursed by her sisters and forever turned to stone. Follow the path, surrounded by high mountain peaks, and look upon her face. Maybe she will foretell your future. 2.5km, 1 to 1.5 hours. 77m elevation. Difficulty level - 1 out of 5.         I asked Kunal if the timings shown above are two way or one way. He said there is only one way to find out. This would become a repetitive refrain during this trip. We left late after eating breakfast that Kanu had brought from London (getting her cook to make some items). It was a combination of batata vadas, poha and cake and we devoured it. I took the reins with the 9-seater in the morning. There were no hiccups, but there was no shortage of taunts. Not even from Shalini who was not even in our car. Well, well. The road to success was never going to be smooth. All right, there might have been one hiccup, if it can be called that. As we went to the coffee shop, the gears stopped working. I was unable to change the gears except by switching off the car (and moving to first gear). Later on, when Gaurav tried it after our coffee, it worked. Kunal commented that “the car had rejected me.”    We stopped at a coffee shop on the way towards Vrsic pass. Kabir announced that Shalini is pregnant and we were all pleased for them - it was a celebratory moment.  After a leisurely start, we started trekking at 1 pm but it was hard work for Mishti and me from there. The first trek (which would turn out to be the only trek for the day) was hard and took us much longer due to the deep snow. There was hardly anyone else in the route, so we had the whole mountain to ourselves. Kabir said the trick to go downhill in snow is to take big bold steps with your heels down first. I was in good humour at the start but my jokes steadily fizzled away as my heartrate increased. I came up with a few one-liners though.          -          When after a steep uphill climb we saw the surface ahead bent lower, I said “It is all     downhill from here.” When Kanu asked "figuratively?" I said I hope only literally. -          On having a bit of a wobble “Gravity is a bitch.” -          I have an unfair advantage. I can’t see what lies ahead. (Referring to my eye injury) -          Announcing to the others “Gaurav hit Sneha on the head with a clump of snow. She has now started talking sense.” -          First rule of trekking. Follow your heart. Or at least your heel. -          The first 3 hours of the trek are the hardest. -          After I slipped and fell, "do as I say not as I do." -          When I had to pause for breath “I am not stopping. I am conserving my energy.” -          When we were returning but not really close to the finish line “I can see daylight!”         Sneha was initially walking behind Ananya and telling her “take your time, take your time” with such urgency as if she were counting down that it seemed like “hurry up, hurry up.” Ashwani is already the butt of our jokes as he brings up girls and dating in many casual conversations. He said he was expecting fireworks at night and wanted to experience the nightlife of Slovenia. Instead, Kunal told him ‘raat ko Black Queen khelna hai.’ I tried lifting Ashwani’s spirits by telling him it was a metaphor, but he knows Kunal and the Khares well enough to know that the deck was stacked against him. After a couple of hours, Mishti and I decided to pause and head back while the others trudged along. Mishti’s boot got stuck in the snow at one point and she removed her leg out of it. Neither of us were able to remove the shoe initially as it had been buried in thick snow. She then had an idea of shaking it and pulling it out at an angle so it does not confront the mighty snow head-on. This worked and we were on our way again. From what I have seen today, I already feel that Slovenia is very pretty. Extremely green and beautiful. It reminded me of Switzerland. Apparently Slovenia is famous for food tourism. As vegetarians (most of us) with a strong preference for Indian type foods, our options are usually restricted in this department. But, with Kanu’s sweet tooth and sweeping research, nothing is going to stop us from sinking our teeth into the Bled cream cake. Elsewhere in Westminster it was a dramatic day as PM Theresa May announced her resignation and she was tearful in her farewell speech. The Brexit fiasco is alas her only legacy right now but perhaps history may judge her more kindly. Who knows? It got cooler in the evening and I was itching to remove my shoes which were soaked with snow and water. I did this immediately on getting back to the car (around 5 pm) and felt eased. At the end of the trek I was left with 3 certainties:             1. The double knot technique for tying laces that Sneha showed me in the morning actually works.             2. Carrying a jacket is always a good idea when you are in the mountains, even if it is sunny when you step out.             3. The hike timings displayed above were definitely one-way and not return.         Everyone was too tired to do another trek, so we skipped the path of the pagan girl. Only Ashwani, who could take things literally, might have been disappointed. On the drive back, after 5 pm, as the GPS asked us to go through Kranjska Gora, we all heard it as ‘France ka gora’ (the white man of France) and it gave rise to many juvenile jokes. We have four singletons in this group (Ashwani, Anshuman, Kunal and Sneha) and they were being taken to task to varying degrees. We went to the supermarket to buy some groceries, and then walked to a pizzeria. Kanu ordered a regular pizza and changed pretty much all the ingredients. Kunal ordered the customised make-your-own pizza which was a separate option. Did Kanu’s method save us money? Was it a life hack or double the cost? We never checked. Ashwani showed us a trick that was impressive. He could make a circular motion with his hand while holding a glass full of water, without letting the water spill. I told Kunal, imitating a Gujrati accent, “tay-lented chhokro che.” During dinner Ashwani remarked “aaj raat kuch toofani karte hain” (let us do something stormy tonight), which was amusing because he sounded really keen. He must have felt the gaze of Sergeant Buzzkill staring at him from all directions, because even he, with his one-track mind, tried to change the subject.  Kanu asked me “tera koi cousin nahin hai?” to try and set up Ashwani with someone. I said “Cousin vousin to hai lekin dushman nahin hai koi.” During the drive back after pizzas for dinner, we were listening to 90's songs per Kunal's request. Like urvashi urvashi and mukaala muqaabla. Kunal explained how the Urvashi song captured cultural elements of our generation that no one else would follow today. Like the line “Chitrahaar me bijli ud gayi, take it easy policy”. That was a good one. When we got out of the car Ashwani told Anshuman "I do not know how to take this forward". I was intrigued as they seemed to be heavy words. I got closer to find out that he was referring to the car seat that would allow them to exit the vehicle from the seat at the back. When we entered the apartment, we were thinking of what to do with the wet shoes. Sneha asked “Will the shoes dry if we leave them in the balcony?” Someone said: There is only one way to find out. We didn't find out that way though as Gaurav came up with the smart idea of leaving them in the sauna to dry which worked faster. Kabir and Shalini came to our apartment at night from their hotel. I was upstairs, reading, and they called me down on Whatsapp. I asked "on a scale of 1 to 10, what is the energy level in the room?" Kunal was being made to watch a dubbed Telugu movie 'Lucky the Racer' by Ashwani (which has outrageous overacting and characters like Kill Bill Pandey who says “my name is pandey. Kill bill pandey” or “I am so jhakaas, so dont do bakvaas.”) and within seconds the Whatsapp message buzzed from Kunal "-3." The stage was set (as in, things could only improve from there) and I went down. At night we played Black Queen. I do not normally play cards as I feel it is a colossal waste of time (other than poker which I enjoy as I consider it partly a game of skill) and consider it to be frivolous activity, but I made an exception today for a short while. [In general, I have almost never been happy to allocate much time to frivolities e.g. I did not use to watch cartoon on TV when I was young.] We played for an hour and it was good fun. We played Black Queen and the trash talk was brilliant. After an early lead, I said that we have now separated the wheat from the chaff. When Shalini and Ashwani won a game early on after partnering with me, I claimed that they were hopping on to the gravy train. This became quite the catchword for the rest of the session. Later, my ranking started going into freefall. I said "they don't call me comeback kid for nothing" to which Sneha retorted "they don't call you comeback kid, period." Shalini chipped in saying she feels the others pull my leg quite often and how do I cope. I said I have been getting respite since Ashwani joined the group! Shalini won the game and we narrowly averted disaster. Ashwani had earlier thrown down the gauntlet by saying if he won tonight, we would have to watch the movie 'Ram Gopal Verma ki aag' with him. It was note exactly a 'toofani' night, and we (all but Ashwani) thanked our lucky stars for it!