Tale of Two Bureks
November 6, 2018.
The band hired a van to get from Vienna to Ljubljana - a surprisingly comfy ride considering it was 8 of us plus the driver crammed in there. It was a four hour drive, mostly via windy mountain highways. Lots of fall-ish colors and gray skies. Everybody, still somewhat jet-lagged, nodded in and out of sleep. We emerged on the outskirts of town around 3pm.
We arrived at Hotel Lev at 3:15pm and checked in one by one. I got a really big double room for some reason. I quickly settled in then turned right back around to get a snack and a take a brief walk around this area. Having learned from previous trips to the region, the very first thing I did was look up where to get me some goddamn burek. I found a spot a couple blocks away using Google maps.
While highly rated the place was hard to find as it was simply a tiny to-go window by a bus station. For two euros I got a huge slice of meat burek and I must say it was wonderfully delicious and satisfying. I munched like a pig as I randomly walked down streets following my instincts pulling me to the older part of town. I trod on these very cobblestone walkways hugging this very canal six years ago on a different tour. It started to rain a little, and my phone was low on battery, so I returned to the hotel. En route I bought a mineral water from a street vendor in order to spend down the zillion small euro coins jangling around in my pocket the last couple of days.
Back to the room around 4:30pm. I checked the internet. People in the US were all waking up and starting to vote and freak out about the mid-term election. Though very far away from that noise I was still concerned, of course. I voted by mail already, so I did all I could do, but still.. hard not to be anxious and angry about the last few years coming to this head, ya know?
Headed down for the 5:40pm meet in lobby. Here we go! Another show! Our driver was back with the same van, and he carted us to the venue: Cankarjev Dom. A nice sit-down venue not too far away. The room we were playing in had a small, wide stage but the staff somehow fit a grand piano, a rhodes and two midi controllers all for me. I had an easy setup, getting all dialed in and programmed. Everything was pretty smooth except they seemed to forget to backline cymbals for Kenny, but some were procured quickly.
Gregor was the local production guy/handler for the club, and Bogdan was the promoter. Both very friendly/helpful. The sound crew was great as well. We took our sweet time getting gear/sounds in order as we're the only band performing tonight, and as such we would play everything we know - including Asron as an encore!
We wrapped up soundcheck around 7:30pm and hit the backstage area where there was some salads and whatnot to pick at. The crowd filed into their seats. Downbeat was at 8:10pm. We got the signal and Bogdan began giving a speech. The rest of the band was going to emerge from behind the stage but given how landlocked my keyboards were I was ordered to approach from the front of the stage. Gregor guided me and gave me the cue. Awkward - like I looked like a rando trying to crash the stage. Anyway we rocked a really long set.
All evening Gergor was apologizing in advance for having to rush us out of there as soon as possible as this town is small and shuts down by 9pm, maybe 10pm. So we had to hurry and get to the one restaurant where he hoped to take us for our post-show dinner. We did pack up real quick, but it was still a while before everybody was in one spot and we left in a fleet of taxis back to the hotel. There we threw our gear into the back room by the front desk and hustled over to the restaurant Figovec.
The staff gave Gregor a hard time about showing up with this large group just as they were closing but they eventually let us stay. Since the kitchen was almost shut down there was just one meat choice and one veggie choice. The meat option was a veal steak with potatoes all cooked in a pot. Perfect. We ordered and it was good. A couple guys also got salads to start. After those arrived a couple others asked for salads as well because they looked so good, and the waiter sarcastically said "no you can't have them." But then he smiled and brought those out as well. Two more bandmates (who weren't paying attention) then asked for salads, too. Once again the waiter said "no you can't have them." But this time he was serious - though it was impossible at first to tell if he was being sarcastic again. After an uncomfortable pause he said he asked already if anybody needed anything else and now it's too late. So then it was even more awkward.
Anyway, fun meal, food, wine, chat. I felt bad shutting this place down but whatever we ate fast and paid the huge bill and got outta there. I was keen to walk back and get to bed as I hit my hard limit with people. I like everybody, but I have a threshold and must cease all human contact so I could recharge the social batteries. Finally said goodnight to all once back at the front of the hotel and I scampered up to my room.
I should have gone to sleep right away but I tried to write in my journal. I was far behind in my daily entries but I couldn't focus. Then the demons in me decided I should eat the rest of a Ritter Sport chocolate bar I obtained earlier in the trip. And now my poor guts had to digest that and the meal. Also the election results were starting to come in. No big news yet, but no horror stories either. Eventually I did go to sleep around 1am.
And then I woke with a start around 3am. Had to pee, super thirsty. The wine and beer (which I pounded after the set) and the chocolate were not a great cocktail for my metabolism. Then I fucked up even more by checking the results again and it was actually looking bad for the democrats taking the house. As exit polls trickled in the 90% odds of success were suddenly down to 50%. What the fucking hell? Ugh, stress. I couldn't sleep due to all the above, and then having to get up and pee every 30 minutes while checking results which did get better and better and the odds were back to 90% by the time I forced myself to go back to sleep like at 5:30am or so. Then I had a lucid dream about Ljubljana flooding.
I woke around 7:30am. Once again checked election results and it's looking fairly certain Democrats have the house but blew it in the Senate. Fair enough. It was better than having nothing. I was slightly less worried for the world.. for the moment.
I've travelled to so many places I consider myself an expert at solving the daily foreign hotel shower puzzles. How do you turn it on? How do you select the shower nozzle instead of the bath? How do you get hot water? Usually I'm pretty quick but this particular plumbing fixture stumped me. I got stuck taking a bath. However as I got out I uncovered the secret toggle mechanism and thus enjoyed a quick post-bath shower blast as well. Yay! Super clean!
I went down to lobby for free breakfast at 8am. Good stuff. I had two small helpings of meat and veggies of various kinds, and then a couple mini pancakes and bacon. I sat alone the whole time, as nobody else from my posse was awake yet. Fine. Back to the room I texted with Jenya for a bit then suited up for another hike around town in the fog and between the drips of rain.
I aimed to finally walk up to that castle up on the peak above the center of town - something I've failed to do yesterday and during a previous visit. This quest brought me back to the old town main square - and to the same outdoor market with clothes and foods which I encountered here six years ago. I found the path that zigged up the hill. Fairly easy shlep and I emerged behind the castle. To be quite honest it looked more majestic from below. Also there was a portapotty right there and a dude emptying it out into his septic truck via long hose and pump. Yuck. I circled the castle and then back down to that market.
I think my breakfast wasn't enough protein as I felt a craving for another meat burek as I neared the hotel. I went to that same place and happily purchased burek #2 and ate it slowly on my walk home. Once again: Satisfying! But my stomach was like, "c'mon, dude."
Up in my room the lack of sleep couple with increased meat intake totally clouded my brain. I tried to be productive but I couldn't think straight, so I set my alarm for 45 minutes and took a quick nap. Man I fell right out to sleep. When the alarm went off it took me a while to remember where the fuck I was and what I was doing with my life. Shook that off and packed all my shit.
Met everyone downstairs to go to the market as a group. There was a recommendation for the fish at that market served up by some mobile vendors so everybody went to partake. I still had major burek belly so I stuck with bubbly water. Plus I hate seafood. We sat around a few tables and were overthinking our flight plans - we got screwed around at the Sarajevo airport earlier in the tour, so we wanted to have a more coherent plan when dealing with all our music gear.
The same driver as yesterday arrived at the hotel and we made it to the airport by 3pm. Turns out carrying all our instruments onto the plane was a non issue. Yay. We had plenty of time to kill browsing duty free and I got a pretzel to settle my gut then just sat in the corner by a random gate charging my phone as others shopped or hung in the lounge. Boarding was super quick. For a second I though I had nobody next to me but then a big guy came on board last minute and claimed that seat. Oh well. And there we were, 26 hours since we got into town, already heading toward Amsterdam, soaring into the sky as the sun set over Slovenia.