The Devil went down to Pirano

My last day in Piran on Slovenia’s Adriatic coast and I’m listening to a performance of Guiseppe Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata for violin and admiring 2 newly minted PADI qualifications - Advanced Open Water and Enriched Air Diving.

Exhaustion brought me here, after Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Coughing up yellow and green sputum (bronchitis) and sneezing blood and puss (sinusitis) in Ljubljana was the last straw. Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia and Bucharest were put on ice and I checked into a resort in Piran for 7 nights for sun and sea.

Visiting Prague was a longtime coming. I meant to visit last year but was Hapsburged out.

It is astounding but desecrated by tourists. A young woman was the attention of a man the age of her grandfather who grasped her behind and buried his face in her bosum, a lap dance without permission or payment. Predatory eyes followed her and I had to remind myself that it’s not my fucking job to set every arsehole to rights. 

Back to Tartini, Piran’s most successful son was born here in 1692 when it was an Italian possession called Pirano. His most famous piece is devilishly difficult and his virtuoso performances of it lead to a belief that he had sold his soul …which Tartini deliberately encouraged with the story that the music had come to him in a dream in which the Devil was playing violin.

The persistence of this motif in culture is fascinating. Paganini used it in the 1800s as did, of course, the Charley Daniels Band in the 1970’s with Devil Went Down to Georgia. A variant is an important part of the mythology of the Blues, appearing first in the story of Robert Johnson’s meeting with Lucifer at the crossroads. Then there is the movie Angel Heart with Micky Rourke, Lisa Bonnet, Robert de Niro and Charlotte Rampling.

Coincidentally, at the pick of the local restaurants is a head chef called Kristian Zule  …“There is no Dana there is only Zule!”

Where I slept: Barbara Piran Beach Hotel: Definitely has seen former glories but you can't fault the location or the service. Or the beer.

Where I ate: Stara Gostilna: Magnificent upgrade on Slovenian traditions including seafood.

Tip: Take a dive or brush up on your scuba qualifications at the PADI dive school on the beach.

Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz

“Warsaw has just now been destroyed. No one will ever see the Warsaw I knew. Let me just write about it. Let this Warsaw not disappear forever” - Isaac Singer.

After the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, on Hitler’s orders demolition teams, not artillery, levelled what once was a vibrant, international city of grand boulevards the equal of Paris. The camps exterminated remaining inhabitants. Now amidst hectares of graffitied Soviet concrete is every kind of architectural style, all built after 1955.

Kraków, capital of the Nazi General Government, was spared destruction. UNESCO approved the entire Old Town, and nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine, as World Heritage Sites. Ringed by gardens, Wawel Castle overlooking the Vistula, it is delightful.

Be prepared for obtuse and rude service providers in Poland. The attitude reminds me of Australian drivers when you overtake them …or Queensland cops in general. Or Parisian taxi drivers. I suspect a sheer bloody mindedness that life is meant to be hard and damned if we’ll let anyone get away with efficiency. But no country bares the scars that Poland does. It is the conscience of Europe in many ways and who would want that.

Driving from Warsaw to Krakow traverses beautiful countryside. The agricultural potential is enormous. Modern highways are under construction, albeit in a characteristically laborious Polish manner. Diversions are unnecessarily complicated, when they are necessary at all.

Apple Maps struggles to make sense. “Turn left …at the road” she offers hopefully.

Do not book Auschwitz museum tours other than through the museum. Other sites run a scam changing your timeslot after the free 24 hr cancellation. Complain and they’ll promise a refund but it never comes. Auschwitz scamming is not a good look.

In fact, if you have time on your side, just turn up as I did after the address on my online ticket was correct but opened in Apple Maps with guidance to a shabby residential block in Kraków’s suburbs.

Back to Warsaw, the dozen or so well-designed steel and glass office block towers point symbolically to where hope lies - not in inauthentic recreations of the past but in the new, the next generation unburdened by memory, in prosperity.

Where I slept: Anny 5 Apartamenty (Kraków): Basic but well positioned.

Where I ate: NUTA: Stunning food.

Lviv, Ukraine

“Did you exchange a walk on part in the War for a lead role in a cage” - Pink Floyd

First morning, first air raid. The wailing siren gave me a tingle up the spine, the one you get when fear is matched by defiance. Air defence over the city is holding up. The Patriot anti-missile batteries are doing a great job.

Charity is well and good but doing business together is better for both parties because it builds a relationship of equals. Part of the psychology of the oppressor is to take away the humanity of the oppressed. In Ukraine’s case that process is facilitated by us if we see Ukraine as poor, foreign and unlike us, its situation hopeless, the plight of its people pitiable.

None of that is true.

The truth is Ukraine is a sophisticated, cosmopolitan, democratic country and proud people. That is my witness. We need to maintain normality as far as possible.

Much can be achieved by maintaining business as usual, including tourism, so that Ukraine’s economy ticks over and is ready to flourish when the little despot over the border with notions of empire pops his clogs.

Neither should we pat ourselves on the back for gifting matériels, because it is an investment in all our futures and the other party to the bargain - the young Ukrainians using those arms - contribute something worth impossible multiples our capital outlay.

Lviv is a beautiful city. Its people are friendly and welcoming. It is brimming with culture - unfortunately, I will miss the next performance in its stunning opera house. I walked through the centre of town at midnight and felt safer than I do in Sydney. The food scene is exceptional. Guide Michelin needs to find its balls and get over here.

One day I’ll get to see Odessa and Kiev.

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦! Pronounced: sla-va ooh-kra-ee-nee. Meaning: Glory to Ukraine.

Where I slept: LOFT7: Very nicely appointed, very friendly and great position.

Where I ate: Amadeus: Great cocktails. Traditional fare.

The Baltics - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Truth about European Architecture

I’m going to focus on the capitals - Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius - because that’s where I spent most of my time in this region.

This grouping should in no way suggest “if you’ve done one you’ve done them all” or that the 3 can be “done quickly together”. See all of them and take your time.

Each is built around medieval old towns that, while much better preserved than you could hope for, differs in critical respects. While both Riga and Tallinn have typical maritime centralised fort layouts, Vilnius’ old town, inland and with natural defences of forests, swamps and hills sprawls in a series of winding streets.

The truth about European architecture is that in most towns, because of their long history of conquest and catastrophe, one finds a hodgepodge of architectural styles on top of each other, even in the same buildings.

Riga is noted for its art nouveau style. What this means is that amidst the wreckage and rebuilding are preserved exceptional examples of art nouveau, which you can get an impression of if you’re a dilettante like me, or find, if you know what you’re doing or have a guide.

Tallinn has a spectacularly preserved medieval centre, Hanseatic League stone and wooden warehouses like Bergen, and gothic churches.

Vilnius is a place for those that love the gothic and baroque. Coincidentally, it’s the scruffiest and edgier of the three.

Each has benefited from their 20 years in the European Union. They are free, prosperous, modern economies with exceptional high tech industries, universities and infrastructure. While they are obvious next targets for Putin, like Ukraine he will find them changed and impossible to swallow. I don’t mean militarily, I mean culturally.

I wish I had visited Riga and it’s nightclubs in my heyday as a young man.

Where I slept: Kreutzwald Hotel (Tallinn): A short walk into the old city. Friendly. Wellton Riverside Spa Hotel (Riga): Lovely views over the river and right on the edge of the old town. St Palace Hotel (Vilnius): Set in a charming historic building close to everything.

Where I ate: Restoran8 (Tallinn): Fabulous Estonian food and not a touristy place. Max Cekot Kitchen (Riga): You will rave about the food, and everything about it is so cool. Dziaugsmas (Vilnius): A modern menu where the ingredients do the talking.