East southeast
Magda is peering at the enormous road map of Europe.
“Hey! We could take a ferry from Trieste to Durrës…”
“Albania?”
“Yeah, and then we could drive through Albania and Macedonia!”
[Googles, rethinks]…
Some regular visitors to this site will have already heard this news via other vectors, but our time in Slovenia is coming to a close.
For the last few years I have been occasionally astonished to think that of the many places I’ve received mail in my life, Nova Gorica, Slovenia is where I have lived the longest by far. I am not sure what to do with this fact. A colleague unearths an interesting aspect of it when she observes, “Well, whatever else you want to say about this place, I bet you never thought you’d be leaving it with a wife and two sons.” And I suppose she is correct in supposing that that idea was not at the front of my mind when I first crossed eastward over this border from Italy on one of the last gray days of 2001, a difficult year I was not sorry to see the back of, to see what there was to see in the Republic of Slovenia. But it is certainly at the front of my mind as we prepare to cross more new borders, also eastward.
They promised me two years’ work here.
In the years since that term’s expiration came and went, this place has become home in a most gradual and insidious and mostly wonderful process, though not without some of the ambivalences and vexations most homes entail in addition to the fondness and the familiarity. The deal was sealed when Magda agreed to move here, sacrificing her own, real, home for this adopted one. The births of both boys in the sour-candy-colored hospital down the road completed the feeling. No matter how much we may grow away from here, this will always be the city where Magda and I met and married, the birthplace of our sons, and so will retain a sense of home that so many of my previous beloved addresses have long since lost.
Our next home, from August on, will be the city of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. We will see what happens there. And we will let you know.
Eloquent and poignant.
I wish you luck and look forward to vicariously following your hectic journey and new cultural discoveries in Bulgaria.
And whatever you do, don’t pick up another wife and two sons in Sofia!
Comment by Erik R. — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 10.32 MDT+2.00
Parting is such sweet sorrow. Good luck with the relocation – does your employer help you out at all with that?
And the boys get to add Bulgarian to their ever-growing list of languages, lucky things.
Exciting times (he said, living vicariously through a fellow blogger).
Comment by simon — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 11.35 MDT+2.00
Best of luck! And look forward to reading all about your adventures in Sofia!
I understand it must be strange to leave: Brussels is only our adopted town, but I can’t imagine moving away…
Comment by Paola — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 12.18 MDT+2.00
No one has asked the most important question yet: will you be living on another isogloss?
Comment by jane — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 13.52 MDT+2.00
Excellent photo for this post. I think it shows a lot of respect for Nova Gorica and your sadness at leaving (all of which comes through very clearly) that so much of your story is set aside until the last couple of lines. Being selfish, however, and not tied to Nova Gorica, I’ll admit that I’m now pretty excited about learning about Sofia!
Comment by aquariumdrinker — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 15.30 MDT+2.00
I’m very envious. My wife and I only live a few towns over from our respective hometowns. The most change I’ve ever had in my life was living one adjacent state away for a while. She and I have talked may times about moving with our boys to Europe for a year or two. We think it would be So educational. Alas, we know we never will. Having the grandparents and great-grandparents so close is really nice (for babysitting of course).
Good luck. Safe Travel.
Comment by Alan — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 15.56 MDT+2.00
And I still owe you an email about Bulgaria! I thought of some of the things I would say, but many of them are true to other parts of Eastern Europe. So I could sum it up by saying this: Bulgaria is Eastern Europe, but more so.
It surely has changed in the 6 years since I left (I hear that both sushi and limes are available now.) I’ll email about some must-visit places. In the mean time, best wishes on your transition.
Comment by juliloquy — Tuesday 3 June 08 @ 17.03 MDT+2.00
J, I have such fond memories of visiting Slovenia, both in 2002 and in 2006. You bet your ass I’m bringing mine to Sofia the moment you guys have unpacked and located the closest source for cheese and wine.
Eastward! EUROPE!
Comment by Emily — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 03.06 MDT+2.00
Wow!
Going even more earthy, more primitive!
You, sir, are pushing the envelope of the family experience, but I can’t imagine a better equipped couple than you and Magda. The best of luck, a kiss on both cheeks, and you can always count on the boys being Slovenci, prvo.
Oh, the things they’ll find…
Comment by DarkoV — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 04.08 MDT+2.00
I can vouch for the presence (though not the quality) of limes and sushi in Sofia. Really, it’s a great place to live, so long as you can keep your sense of humor. Best of luck with the move.
Comment by kgrady — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 13.39 MDT+2.00
Well…you know you already have friends here, right? ;)
Comment by petya — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 13.50 MDT+2.00
I’m sad we never made it to Slovenia, but I think that you and Magda have to take some of the blame for the inspiration to share our lives with someone small and less easily transported. Not that it has stopped you. I wish we had your daring. “But there’s always Bulgaria…”
Comment by Martha — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 20.48 MDT+2.00
Thanks all! For reasons I imagine are clear, this wasn’t an easy thing to write, and there’s a lot less said than unsaid in this post. One thing left unsaid is how truly excited we are about the transition and the daunting move — which our new employer will help out with, quite a bit, Simon.
Jane: while I doubt we’ll ever live quite so directly upon quite such a linguistically dramatic isogloss again, there’s no shortage of the phenomenon in the Balkans, let alone our own home, so if you’re wondering about a name change for this site, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Some redesign is in our future, though, for sure.
To those of you who did and did not manage to visit us here in Slovenia, our invitations do not expire with our move to Sofia, so get your travel plans in motion, kids or no kids.
Finally, I have to say that seeing our first little Bulgarian tricolor flag icons next to comments 10 and 11 gave me a funny little jolt. This is really happening, people! It’s nice to know we’re already expected there. Now if we can just work on the avocado thing…
Comment by sgazzetti — Wednesday 4 June 08 @ 21.10 MDT+2.00
I’m keen to hear about the move itself…physically moving eight years’ worth of stuff, a wife, and two munchkins will be a story in itself. How Adam reacts to the new language. Whether Alek notices at all. And just think – you’ll be working for a real school! The tales of Ajsevica will be the source of much amusement one day.
Very cool to see Bulgarian flags, by the way.
Comment by KP — Saturday 7 June 08 @ 19.31 MDT+2.00
Sorry to see you guys go. :( I cannonballed into a pool of witty expat writers here in Slovenia and now I am just about floating around alone. Ah well, Slovenia, Sofia, or Timbuktu, it’s the outlook that really matters and you’ve got a hilarious one. Needless to say, I look forward to reading about how your sons are killing you in Bulgaria!
Comment by camille — Saturday 14 June 08 @ 08.21 MDT+2.00