Happy pigs make good ham

Yesterday a presentation with the visiting American exchange students for Principe - the largest producer of ham in San Daniele. Its like the Parma ham of Friuli Venezia Giulia - and those of us that are working on the project are loking forward to tasting the produce on Friday.
We had a great briefing from the company, and were able to ask lots of questions, then tasted their cooked ham - Praga - which was delicious - especially with a glass of the local white wine. We also learnt that happy pigs make good ham - presumably as long as they don't know their destiny!
The pig in the ads looked pretty chuffed with himself, even though he was wearing a daft crash helmet. So presumably the ham is good...

Chirp?

Vlasta sent me the link to a blog about Slovenia, on which the author says he isn't proficient in Slovene - partly as it is such a complicated language.
One thing is for sure - the Slovene language is a little light on vowels - the name for Trieste for example is Trst - the same word with all the vowels removed!
As we crossed the border last night, Vlasta unwound the window and greeted the immigration officer...
"Chirp," at which I started laughing.
It turns out what she was really saying was "Cir" (pronounced cherr), short for dober vecer, meaning Good Evening.
When we went into buy borek later, I greeted the baker with a friendy "chirp".

International Cinema

Slovenia again!
This time to see a movie - Breaking and Entering by Anthony Minghella with Jude Law and Juliet Binoche. (I recommend it!)
The bonus of going across the border to see a film is that we can watch it in English - a real treat for me. Its been about 8 months since I saw an English language film on the big screen.
The cinema in Koper is tiny, small but perfectly formed, and we sat in the front row with an unobstructed view so that we could stretch our legs.
Koper - or Capodistria in Italian - is lovely - the old town reminiscent once again of the Venetian conquests, with the lion appearing on the buildings in the main square.
Vlasta asked me to guess the name of the square - I didn't manage to come up with the answer - Tito Square!
We were a bit short of time, so grabbed Slovenian snack food for dinner - Borek - a kind of cheese-filled cornish pasty - very good, but I don't want to know the calorie count!
The border crossing seems more lax every time I go. Now the immigration officers don't even open my passport and we barely slow down as we drive through. I have been tempted on the rare occasions that I don't have my passport on me to take a small notebook and see if that works....

Lynching in Lokev?

If ever life takes you to Lokev, don't upset the locals......

Another outing - this time for work

Thursday morning we were at school early - heading for Fantoni and Snaidero - two companies about an hour and a half from here - office furniture and kitchens respectively. The visits were interesting - there are huge differences between Italian family run businesses and the multinationals that I am used to working with - and its fascinating for me to see the operations and hear from the management.
We did some virtual shopping - picking the items we would buy when we had the money / space. The red desk at Fantoni only had slightly fewer fans than the Euro 60 thousand kitchen in Snaidero (now we only need to virtually buy the house to go with it!)
The light in the show rooms was beautiful - so no more words but here are some pics of the group - and the factory....

Dinner Party

Wednesday was long, with an exam in the afternoon. I am now puzzling whether orange is a lucky colour in Italy as this might be why ale, oli and massimilliano all wore orange jumpers!
The exam meant that there was only 30 mins for lunch - in my case a terrible "toast" from the bar. A toast is basically a toasted sarnie - in this case white bread, cooked ham and processed cheese - not exactly appetising! The atmosphere was a bit flat in the afternoon, so it was great when Luca suggested dinner at his house.
After some confusion jumping on and off buses, losing Luca, and almost his bag too, we arrived in Via Foscolo. Dinner was toasts - much, much better than the school version - quality bread and processed cheese, and Massimo was running quite an efficient production line. Vlasta cooked enough pasta with tomato sauce to feel a small army, and my main task was opening the wine - tough job, but someone has to do it!
We found out an hour and a bit into the dinner that Prodi had resigned after losing a vote in Parliament - which sparked a good political debate, and caused the relocation of the radio into the kitchen so we could try to hear an update, amongst finding naff songs to sing along to.
Chris arrived later on, by trusty Vespa, and then Percy bearing an ice cream desert with Fruits of the Forest which we ate with teaspoons from the carton.
Then coffee - and another debate about the merits of Illy vs Lavazza Oro. (We prefer Illy - and not just for the packaging!) before walking home - significantly chirpier than when we arrived!

Can we say market research?

Hakan, whenever he asks a question in class, starts by saying "Can we say..." (Lovro and Luca both say "Just one question", and apparantly I say "I just wanted to say...")
But Can We Say has become a bit of a catchphrase for us all, in all occasions. We were on MSN while working on Tuesday and Chris mentioned to me that he was going to be in my neck of the woods that evening. We ended up in a San Daniele ham bar testing the product that I will be doing a project on next week.
Can we say market research? Maybe not - i don't think I'll get very far if I try to expense the bill!

A surprise for the New Year!

The Year of the Golden Pig is supposed to be a prosperous and successful one, and especially for tigers!
For me it has started really well - and today I received a lovely surprise - a card from the class to wish me all the best for the new year - with a happy pig on the front. And a keyring with a dog that vibrates when you pull its tail!
Beats Lai See any day...

Eating in Slovenia

Sunday night, Monday lunchtime - Slovenia.
Popping over the border for lunch or for dinner is something that I still can't get my head around. Sunday night we went off to Machnic, for ljubljanska and fried cheese washed down with beer.
Monday I had a meeting at school with the ham team for next week's project, then we went off for some lunch in Slovenia (again). This time we just had ham, cheese, bread and olives at an old place over the border near Lipica - the place was named as one of the best traditional restaurants in Slovenia - in 1984! It was a great meal, and a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a sunny Monday.
I am now travelling with my passport to and from school, just in case the need arises to dash over the border!

Back to Barcola

Sunday morning the baby Bora from the night before had calmed down and the sky was azure blue, the sun shining again. So I went out to Barcola for a run. I am not sure if it everyone else was making the most of the good weather, or whether they are also trying to find out if they are mad enough to do the half marathon in May, but there were a load of runners pounding the pavements, dodging the dog walkers, families and OAPs in head to toe fur.
The weather remains amazing for North Italy in February – I was so warm when I was running that I took my jumper off - and the slight chill made me run faster!

Osmizza in the City

During our city stroll (in search of the Karaoke bar – which we think we have located, near to the kickboxing gym ) we walked in the direction of Piazza Hortis. On the way Chris said he would show Percy and I the osmizza in the city. We wandered down the alley to what I have always thought was a house of ill repute (dark-ish alley, lots of old men outside) which actually turned out to be the osmizza in question.
Instead of the menu in the display box outside, this place has a year planner, with 30 dates circled in red to indicate when the osmizza is open. I plan to try it out in the not- too-distant future….

Carnevale - Adesso A Trieste

We realized that the reach of the carnevale had touched Trieste too when we saw a woman dressed in a cow outfit pushing her baby in a pushchair down the street near Piazza Borsa. We went for a stroll around the city and doubled back to the Piazza Unita on our way home. By this time, the festivities were in full swing! There were mums, dads and kids alike dressed as animals and pirates, princesses and superheroes and streamers and confetti galore.
One thing about the costumes – they certainly confound Trieste’s thriving dog population!

Pork for the Year of the Pig

Kung Hei Fat Choy to everyone! I hope that the Golden Pig year brings the happiness and prosperity it is said to!
The celebrations for the start of the Year of the Pig did not amount to much in Trieste, but Chris, Percy and I did go for a pork fest in downtown Trieste on Saturday afternoon. Da Pepe was packed to the door, and we ate our plate of mixed pork (on a pig-shaped plate) standing up. Washed down by a small Dreher beer, it wasn’t really the healthy Saturday lunch I had hoped for, but good nonetheless. The intriguing swirl of mayo in the pic is a Russian Salad – essentially cold mash potato with frozen veg, and an enormous dollop of salad cream. It seems way too unhealthy to bear the title salad!
After lunch we went for a coffee at the bar near the No 11 bus terminal. This place has a huge range of coffees from around the world, including Ethiopa, Puerto Rico and Nepal (Royal Everest coffee). We opted for a Tartufato – coffee with cocoa powder and foamed milk in a shot glass.
The coffee shop is great, not only for the range of goods available, but also for the advice that is given with each coffee. In our case yesterday it was mix well, no sugar. Previously I have been told in no uncertain terms that this coffee is only to be drunk with white sugar, that with brown, and that you must of course clean your palette with a glass of water first.
These are all tips that I hope to draw on on February 28th when we are going (finally!) for a company visit to Illy Caffe – one of Trieste’s most famous brand names. During our visit to the company we will take part in a coffee connoisseurs course – for which we will receive a certificate, and no doubt will ruin us even more for futre trips to Austria. Next time I might have to do like Marina and take my coffee machine with me!

Osmizza

Friday morning the sky was blue and the sun shining like a spring day. We had advanced finance this morning, and then this afternoon we went to an osmizza near basovizza, close to slovenia. An osmizza is a particular kind of restaurant/agriturismo found in this region. Osmizze roughly means 8 in Slovene - the name hails from the tradition that these places used to be only open 8 days in a year. The tradition comes from the excess production of farmyards and vineyards - allowing the proprietors to sell their extra produce in an unlicensed restaurant tp public that are in the know. One of the ways that you find Osmizze is through the guide book to seasonal osmizze - the other is to look out for frascas - the wreaths of flowers and leaves that are arranged to point the way from the road to the premises - culminating in a red-painted wooden arrow to the door of the place. You can normally get beer, wine and salumi - assorted slices of meat.
We tried one place near Longera, where we used to play volleyball and where Lovro and Kristina live, but it had unfortunately closed on the Monday before. (The osmizze tend to be seasonal - they can now open for a maximum of 30 days a year - my kind of business!)
The pic shows the meal - basically Rifosco - the local red wine - with slices of cooked ham with horseradish, sausages, raw ham, cheese and bread - delicious! It was lovely to sit and soak up the winter sunshine - if a bit chilly!
Giulia's boyfriend Roby arrived on his motorbike to join us. He works as a train guard for Trenitalia, the rail service, and has the week off in order to enjoy Halloween - so he took me for a spin - with thanks to Nicoletta from whom I borrowed the helmet an gloves. It was great fun - if a little fast!

Ultima Karaoke

Wednesday night was Valentines night - and the last of the karaoke sessions (for now) at Mandracchio. We gathered colleagues from the other courses here - Masters in Risk Management and a few people from the International Masters in Tourism and Leisure Management for a sing song. The DJ managed to axe almost all of the English language songs we had requested, so once again we gave a rousing rendition of No Woman No Cry before moving onto Vasco Rossi, and other Italian greats. This involves all of the non-Italians trying to sing along reading the words on the screen without knowing the tempo or tune - always interesting.
I was lucky enough to receive a rose from a passing guy. He looked as though he had mugged one of the flower vendors and bought up his entire stock, in order ot hand them out at random. The flower made it home though and is now languishing in an empty wine bottle that s serving as a vase in my apartment.
It was a fun way to spend Valentines, although another late night, meaning we were all a bit late for economics on Thursday morning.

Wine for the vendor

Monday night Massimo and I went for a drink after a bad day. After we went outside with our wine from Giovanni, the local cheap bar and restaurant, a street vendor came over. Instead of trying to flog us string bracelets, key rings or portable desk lamps, this time the vendor was thirsty. Max and he negotiated for the quantity of wine in the glass we gave him, which he downed in one shot then went back to selling. It is the first time that I have seen this - but I presume it made the prices more flexible for the customers later on!

Venezia Carnevale

An early start on Sunday to get to Venice for the Carnevale. We shared the train with a cow, a pig, 2 or 3 dogs and many other animals. I am not sure what to say about the carnival - the costumes were beautiful, the crowds enormous and we were lucky enough to find a coffee shop where we could get a sarnie for E3 - almost unheard of in my experience in Venice!
The best way to explain the carnival is with the pics - I have hundreds and will try to put on a web album and then link back here. Here is just a taster so you can see the people and the costumes...

Six Nations Saturday

Saturday morning I was at school, working with my new group - The Typhoons - on the Ideal Standard (kitchens and bathrooms) case that we have today.
Saturday afternoon though the work stopped - England were playing Italy in the Six Nations. Having searched my fully comprehensive Trieste database (I asked Chris!) for a pub to watch the rugby on a big screen on Saturday afternoon I drew a blank, so the rugby was on at my house. Not exactly a big screen - more a huddle round the telly sitting on the floor. It was not a fantastic game, and I smiled at the sight of Brian Ashton's face - the new England rugby coach used to coach me rugby when I was at Kings Bruton - and I could see that he was not delighted with the team's performance. I was happy though - the best team won and I had a great time trying to demist the rules of rugby for my non-rugby watching friends.
After the England Italy game, we watched Wales Scotland then - Jenga once more. It turned into quite a party, but huge thanks to Marina who helped me to clean up as we went, it wasn't too horrendous afterwards.

Friday Night, Jenga Night

So after a long week, we were not sure what to do on Friday. We were all late at school working on projects, and had to come in on Saturday too, so we wanted a quiet night.
Massimo offered to host dinner at his house, and we persuaded Dani to come and repeat his pasta from Christmas (although in the end Max cooked as we were hungry). But we had quite a crowd - Percy, Vlasta, Luca, Dani and me all availing of Max's hospitality. Luca went home on the way to pick up the Jenga that Vlasta and I bought him for his birthday in October, and that we have never played. Friday was the night.
We grabbed some provisions at Pam - the great supermarket near the station - and headed back to write forfeits for the game. You can judge the severity of the forfeits from the concentration on our faces as we played. It was a memorable night, and I think may have started a Jenga mini craze....

Long week

Last week seemed interminable.
The low point was Wednesday, 4 hours of advanced economics, 4 hours of advanced finance - a killer. The good news is that this is the last segment of finance, so once we are through this, we are done in terms of finance - unless you pick it as an option. (I won't)
Thursday and Friday were more interesting - emerging markets management with a professor from Hungary who is half Afghani and half Italian and worked in Tokyo and lived in London. He has a real world view and it was interesting to hear his thoughts.
Things are picking up though. If we can get through this current period, which is a little dull, we will start to see more companies and do more interesting things. This includes visits to wine companies for testing the product (clearly required as part of the business evaluation) and a coffee connoisseurs course at Illy Caffe - also business motivated! We also have a trip to Bled, Slovenia, and another to Munich on the horizon. Will be worth the wait I hope!

Carnevale is coming, get out the confetti

When I first noticed that there was more confetti around than usual, I thought it might be that this was a popular season for weddings - like summer in England or October November in India and Hong Kong. But given the amount of confetti currently on the ground in Trieste there would have to be a bride on every corner, as you might be able to see from the photo of Piazza Unita on Sunday.
Then in the square I saw a lion in his pushchair. And a princess chasing a balloon. And I realised that the dusting of confetti was to do with the run up to Carnevale.

I will have to stock up before the weekend in Venice and Muggia.

Finally... a run on the Napoleonic Trail

I have tried to run the Napoleonic trail from the Opicina tram many times. And have been thwarted by the weather every time. So the sunshine and unseasonably warm weather on Sunday morning encouraged me to give it another shot. So armed with my iPod and a bottle of water I once again got on the tram from Piazza Oberdan and we struggled up the hill towards Opicina. They are working on the line at the moment, so the tram only does half of its normal journey. But there is a courtesy bus to get you the rest of the way.
In Italy there is not always a huge amount of information for tourists. There are tourist boards with free information, but not always signs and very regimented instructions. But if you are headed this way and are in doubt its pretty easy to spot the start of the trail. Get off the tram or bus when it empties out - almost eveyone on the tram is heading for the trail and not for Opicina itself. If you are in doubt there is also an obelisk to mark the beginning of the trail.
My perseverence paid off. The trail is lovely - a little like Bowen Road in Hong Kong - a great surface to run on and very flat. The views are beautiful, you look down initially on Trieste nestled into the bay, then on the Miramare Castle as you get towards Prosecco.


In Hong Kong when you are out walking on a Sunday you often see familes out walking. There were people of all ages (and hundreds of dogs!) walking the trail on Sunday. But one thing that was new to me was the number of people rock climbing at the end of the trail. There were 5 or 6 people with ropes and cliips scaling the cliffs, with the rest of the gear in the roof racks of their cars parked nearby. Those that weren't climbing, walking or running were watching the others - it was great to see a young girl climbing almost to the top and everyone egging her on from the ground.
Enjoying the sunshine and the exercise I ran back to the Opicina end of the trail, then down to Roiano and back along to Pam supermarket for some shopping before going home. It was a great run, but I paid the price on Monday when getting out of bed was a bit of a challenge with my legs aching!

Minature Muggia

I heard that Muggia was lovely – like a mini Piran (seaside resort in Slovenia – see post from October). So having a Saturday morning to myself I jumped on the bus and went to see for myself.
It certainly is small, but very pretty. There were lots of fishermen, fixing nets and wandering about in wellies. I walked along the promenade, where the ladders attached to the wall behind the benches, combined with a complete lack of people made it look like a modern art installation.
After a seafood lunch, great but expensive, I went for a coffee in the piazza. To give an idea of how small a place this is, while sitting outside soaking up the winter sun I saw a woman dashing across the piazza (now deserted) for a coffee with the foils from her highlights still in her hair – bleach and all!
We will be going back to Muggia in a couple of weeks for their carneval, resplendent in costumes, so expect to see another post in due course!

Karaoke Italian-style

Karaoke strikes me as one of the most Asian activities I know. So the thought of karaoke Italian-style in the nightclub in Trieste seemed too good to miss. Oli, who we know can sing from his 30th birthday in Lignano on our first days of the course, and Walter, budding rock star and master of the air guitar (he has a real guitar too he tells us, but no-one has seen it yet!) were both keen. So Wednesday night we went down to Mandracchio prepared to join in the festivities.
There are many differences from Karaoke as I know it. No small private room, no tambourines and no self-controlled sound system – the karaoke in Mandracchio was a screen on the edge of the dancefloor with songs controlled from the DJ booth. Most of which were Italian. And one microphone.
Vlasta and I bravely started the singing, belting out Cindy Lauper's Time After Time (a karaoke classic that brings back memories of Karaoke in Japan and Korea for me - an international favourite!)

Following on in the footsteps of the ladies was a rousing rendition of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry (Oli, featuring everyone else) or Guns and Roses Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Walter, likewise backed up by the rest of us!) We even gamefully joined in with the Italian songs – despite the fact that most of us didn’t know them!
It was a pleasure for all of us when the DJ started playing real music, and we spent some time dancing before heading home. School came round early on Thursday morning!

Sunny Sunday

Skiing on Saturday was excellent. But at about Euros 85 for the day, really a bit much for the student budget to repeat for a second day.
So there was a group of 14 of us who were at a loose end on Sunday morning, but determined to make the most of the glorious weather.
After a bit of research, we decided to take the cable car up to the mid point, then to meet the skiers when they came there for lunch. Following which the idea was to go for a walk, head up to the top of the mountain, and later to get the gondola down again.
Instead of which we went to the half way point. And sat in the sunshine. Where we sampled the rum tea, made snow angels, and generally chilled out.
Then lunch (goulash soup and chunky bread with a cold beer – yum! And much better than the meal the night before!) followed by some more beer and lots of laughs.
At about 350pm – 10 minutes before the lifts closed – there was a half hearted suggestion that maybe we should think about heading back down the mountain. But then the skiers came back in, the music was turned up, and an impromptu party ensued.
As time marched on it became clear that there were 2 ways to get down the hill without skis. Either walk (slow) or risk life and limb on a black bin liner (fast). Needless to say there is now a very amusing video doing the rounds of MIB’s finest hurtling down a World Cup ski run on black plastic.
The journey back to Trieste was long, but significantly quieter than the rest of the trip had been – the excesses of MIB on the Snow taking their toll. A really fantastic weekend.

Nevica (aka snow)

The key ingredient for cocktails in room 102 of our resort in Bad. Perhaps thanks to inspiration from the Baileys ad (you want ice, you got ice) we decided that we needed cold cocktails. And given that we were surrounded by snow….
Flavio mixed the strangest combination (vodka, Bacardi, coke, orange, water…. And nevica) which Marina tells me tasted better than it looked – not hard! But everyone indulged in the Nevica cocktail range.
Except perhaps Tuvshin from Mongolia. His tipple of choice is vodka, straight up and without the contamination of Nevica – but later videos show him consuming a fair amount of water to wash the vodka down with. So who knows, maybe next time Tuvshin will be on the nevica too. Maybe we will start a trend in Mongolia on his return!

Saturday on the Snow

In finest skiing tradition, the late night on Friday didn’t stop us getting up early on Saturday – especially as it afforded us our first view of the lake, and the sun rising over the mountains. The layers of ski clothes went on, and Vlasta and I stomped off to breakfast through the snow. Austrian breakfasts are good – ham, salami and cheese to go with the good bread, and lots of muesli and yummy jam. The coffee however was hideous, and made me think that the Italian experience has ruined me for life on the coffee front. I was a coffee snob before, and now, ridiculous – the Austrian coffee was undrinkable!
Hiring skis and boots took forever – literally an hour or more – but finally finally we were headed onto the slopes. Luca was leading the way and Marina, Dani and I following behind as fast as we could.
We had a fantastic few hours skiing in the good weather, before the wind got up and the snow started to swirl. Having trudged with skis off down a road and back again in almost no visibility (with a brief pause for Marina and I to make snow angels – much to the bemusement of the lads) Luca suggested that we head into a ski hut for tea and to wait for the weather to pass.

A hut loomed in the mist, and we dumped the skis and staggered in. And what a fantastic place – wood paneling all around and a big fire in the middle with views of the slopes (well, views of the storm at the time). Marina and I snagged a table upstairs, and the guys went off in search of the local beverage of choice – jagerthe. This is regular tea, with a generous shot of Stroh rum and a slice of orange – fantastically warming and – it turned out later – great for skiing confidence! We were also treated to 2 large cakes – one chocolate and one with red berries – soon to be burned off on the slopes.
A few more hours skiing until the wind and then the hour closed the lifts, and then we went to the spa. I had been a little perturbed pre-skiing to learn that the sauna in Bad Kleinkirchheim is naked – and mixed! The thought of sitting around with classmates and other schoolfriends in the buff, and then going back to school on Monday, seemed more than a little odd. Luckily however, we limited our relaxation activities to the swimming pool (warm, and clothed in swimsuits)! Swimming in a hot mineral bath after a day on the slopes is a fantastic idea, and recommended to any skier. (In hindsight though, challenging first Vlasta, then Dani to races across the pool after a day’s skiing was a little ambitious, I was dead by the end!) Luca deserves a special mention for taking up the challenge to jump out of the open air pool and lie in the snow, and Marina and Elis deserve a bigger mention for joining me in following suit! The water in the pool felt even more warm and welcoming after lying on the ice!
In the evening we went to a restaurant in Bad Kleinkircheim, where we ate some kind of soup with a sweet cake to co with it (strange, but not unpleasant) and boiled beef with scrambled wet bread with horseradish (strange, and unpleasant!) and a very eggy pancake thing with apple sauce which was just way too eggy for my liking. There was a very funny moment when halfway through the speeches the stuffed chicken that had been featuring in many of our pics of the night caught fire in the candle!
Following dinner, the night was rounded off by dancing in the local bar to a live band of 2 Austrians on the guitar and keyboards singing soft rock. Despite the terrible music, we all danced until it was time to get back on the bus!

Friday night at the Austrian disco

Friday night’s schedule indicated that we would be visiting the local disco near the hotel. It was a bit of a shock when we arrived in an empty bar with a darts board and a few Austrian locals quietly drinking. The biggest feature on the walls was pictures of JFK – a strange and unexpected shrine in the middle of the Austrian mountains!

Needless to say that it didn’t take long for the group of 40 of us to take the place over. Soon the Scissor Sisters was playing (I suspect someone tipped off the DJ – a busy guy who also doubled as the barman!) and we turned it into Mandracchio mark 2. Lots of dancing, lots of pictures and lots of laughter (I STILL can’t play darts!) before we had to get back on the bus to return to the hotel.
Luckily Chris has been to Bad before, and knew the drill, so we returned to one of the rooms for an impromptu party before finally getting to bed at about 3.