Tour of Duty - Grad & Kuzma, Slovenia

Day 2 of our Tour of Duty: Slovenia.
Dobra DAN!

We were on our way to the center of the universe. Our guide was checking every map he could find to point out where we were.



It didn't matter that I had a GPS with the latest maps that could tell me where I was on the planet within 10 meters.

Today we visited a castle in Grad. Doesn't look like the ones on Discovery Channel or in Braveheart or any of those King Arthur movies. But this was Slovenia.



This is what we visited.
It's like a museum, with some exhibits of how things were way back. A lot of the artifacts have been stolen, but I think the plan is that it be renovated to be a hotel.






There were school kids touring the place. But I think they were caught off guard by the brown asian dude and the kid with the funny eyes. So they were a little distracted.

I was hurting from too much sun and swimming from the day before. I don't think the beer helped either.


See that jug on the left. That's what they use drink beer in. It's a Slovenian pint. Which reminds me.
Guess what? Surprise, surprise were on schedule to visit another church in Grad and right beside it is a pub, so we stopped there and had a beer and sandwich too. Can't be going off the plan you know.


Here's the church. Apparently this is where Tresa's dad when to church as a kid. Walked there No shoes. And it was Uphill both ways.

The little pub where we stopped for coffee and a beer was just beside it.




This is it. The center of the universe. It was so impressive Tresa had to break out a new diaper and wipes - for all of us.

On the GPS I marked this point of interest in it's own category - "Kranjec".

Basically it's the intersection of three roads.
One way goes to Austria, the other goes to Hungary, and the last goes toward Murska Sobota.

I was ready to pass out. I had taken some advil in the morning and needed another I was so overwhelmed. The 30 deg C temps was great, but it was a painful day. If I wasn't suffering from heatstroke I'd have had another beer. Instead I had water and had tried to eat as much of the Slovenian lunch for two, that would have fed a family of 5 back in Toronto.

In any case it was great to see this place and go back to where Tresa's dad was born and grew up. It was cool.

This is his older brother. Notice the family resemblance?
The Kranjec genetic sequence for the nose and sternbrau is pretty strong.


Through all the fatigue and it ended up being a pretty good day. We even got to shop today. Tresa's dad had me punch in the coordinates to the Mura factory outlet.
I'd never heard of Mura before so I didn't know whether it was good or not. But they produce Hugo Boss suits. I checked the Boss suit I have and it has a 'Made in Slovenia' tag.
So...I tried on one really nice silk suit, the jacket fit fine, but the pants were a little too tight, I couldn't even sit down. I think when I tried, I split a seam. Anyways I put that one back. The size number is a little different than what we have in North America. So I found the right size but in a different style.

Tresa was Euro-styling me. The only suit I was only ever allowed to wear after we got married was my Hugo Boss suit that we got for our wedding. Now I have a second one I'm allowed to wear. Woo hoo!

As soon as we got back to the hotel I hit the sack. I was beat.

Click me for more center of the universe photos