Friends and Pust are this week's topics..

These are our friends Erik and Marjeta. Marjeta is Henry's host at Jozef Stefan Institute. They invited us for dinner at their home on Mlad Trg(Square) where Nancy's two favorite streets,  Rimska and Presernova,  begin.  She likes them because they are interesting and quaint.

Erik is a physicist who is now working on patent rights between Slovenia and other countries.  Marjeta is also a physicist. She specializes in bio-physics. She and Henry are currently investigating antioxidant plant juices and asthma in horses..

Marjeta and Erik  prepared a Mediterranean meal. Our salad was octopus with a tangy dressing. Here Erik is instructing us how to open the sea bass to obtain the meat  and how to lift the spine up and out  for the meat on the other side. The fish was accompanied by  kale  and potatoes.

Who has eaten rhubarb pie?  This was our first time.  It was a great choice to follow our seafood dinner. It had a light tangy flavor.  The entire meal was wonderful.

Nancy was toasting Marjeta and Erik.

This was Feb16. We were in Ptuj, NE of Ljubljana. Ptuj, the oldest town in Slovenia, was  a Roman military outpost on the Drava River. . We found these two young boys dressed as "Korants". They are spirits that come in Feb to scare away winter and usher in spring. The official name for this period is "Pust". It lasts for two weeks, ending on Shrove  Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

These boys posed for Henry on the Friday night before the big parade on Sat.  They were practicing their jumping up and down to ring the cow bells around their waist. Officially in Ptuj, the "Kurentovanje Festival 2001" would begin on Saturday Feb 17th.

After we saw the children ,we decided to eat at Bistro Amadeus in the old town of Ptuj. Henry was presented with beef ,potatoes and mixed vegetables. We had wine from the Ptuj region.

Nan's meal was escalloped turkey with fruit and curried rice. A very tasty meal that was. nicely presented. The next week Susan Fortney and Nancy also ate here. They saw the final parade for Pust.

As you can see they decorate very gaily for Pust.  All of the stores have some type of decoration.  This is Pust Man with us at Bistro Amadeus.  Our very nice waiter, Leo Furman,  took our picture.  Nancy saw him the following Sat. dressed in his Pust costume, which was fancy with a powdered wig and blue vest over a ruffled shirt. He looked like a courtesan from the past.

The dining room is located on the second floor behind the windows.  Downstairs there is a very nice pub. Bistro Amadeus is located just below the Ptuj castle on Presernova Street.

Katja checked us out of the Garni Mitra Hotel. Garni means breakfast comes with the room. She is studying nursing.  She lives in Ptuj and commutes to  school in Maribor.

Katja and Atjosa are sitting  in the  visitors area.   The Mitra has spacious  rooms with  large bathrooms. Our room faced Presernova St.  People are still living above businesses in the Old Town.

The "Koranti" are gathering before the parade. They were greeting friends in the square as they passed through it. The man in red is dressed as the devil.

A close up of the outfits.  Ptuj and surrounding towns that joined in wore the red leggings. The part of the headdress that looks like a tie is a tongue. There are feathers on the tips above the streamers.

The center square before the parade. It was about 10:00am.  The metal gates were being arranged along the route to define the parade area. A key part of the activities are  men with bull whips who go ahead of the Kurents.  When they crack the whips it sounds like little firecrackers.  Notice the  lines over the street with flags bearing white and black designs and streamers.

An interesting statue standing in the Mestni Trg.  It is called The St. Florian column. (1745)  The day was warm and beautiful , with a  sky that was a lovely blue.

This is  the only part of a church left after the Allied bombing of 1945. The presbytery with a medieval alter was all that survived the bombs. Next to this structure is the Minorite Monastery. Since the Minorite order was dedicated to teaching, it was not dissolved in the 18 th century edict by the Habsburgs that ended all other monastic orders and has continued to be a working monastary for seven centuries.

This Minorite monastary was built in the 13th century. These stained glass windows are in the Minorite chapel in Ptuj.

The inner courtyard of the Monastary in Ptuj.  It is similar to a former convent we saw in Gorica, Italy.

Another view of the inner courtyard of the monastery .  A well is in the center. Also housed in the monastary is  a 5000 volume library which includes  an original copy of the New Testament(1561) translated by Primoz Trubar.

On the way to the parade Nancy saw a tourist office and stopped to ask if they had an old poster of the Alps.  Alesa Kovac  graciously  stopped her work and found several posters.  She works for Soncek Turisticna agency that sets up tours primarily to Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

It is Pust Parade time and these men preceded the Prince.  The grandstand is in front of the Old Town Hall.  There is a flowery creation hanging from the wires over the street.  We saw several similar decorations  around the old town.

On the horse is Matevz Zoki, Prince Karnevala 2001.  In front of the town hall, he dismounted and went inside to a second floor balconey to address the town and welcome them to the Kurentovanje Parade held in Ptuj.  In the brochure it is described as a Tradicionalni Ptujski Karneval.

The flag of Slovenia flies over the balcony where the prince watches his men of the court in their regalia enter on their horses.

Another noble fellow wearing purple enters riding his noble steed.  Notice the Poster on the far wall of the Koranti. There will be a clearer picture later.

More noble men for the parade.  The horses wore hoods and the men were dressed in black. We couldn't read the patches.

More horses arrive carrying men wearing chain mail.  All of these horses and men lined up in front of us during the  Princes's speech.  Next week's edition will have more parade pictures.

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