A hostel encounter

Day 27: Refugio Solarie to Tribil Sopra

Hours walked: 9:00-3:00

Kilometres walked: 12

Jesuses seen: 2

Quote of the day: “Now we’re travelling the world  but then we still have the ocean and … space” -Tova

At 8am we were served a sugar-loaded breakfast: jam-stuffed croissants with jam on top, juice and hot cocoa. Slightly buzzed, we set off with fond farewells to the hostel family, the dogs (busily licking each other’s ears out) and the mysterious donkey who bared his teeth at us as we passed. 

We had a pretty short day today, but it had its share of elevation, mainly sharp descents on single-track - one woefully blazed, leading us to bushwhack for ten minutes into a steep mountainside before retracing our steps. There were a few views through the trees; we are in much greener, forested land with softer hills, and the spectacular peaks of Slovenia have given way to picturesque towns, some not more than a few crumbling buildings, peeping out from the folds of the hills. 

The girls are always in better moods when the distance to cover is short, and never more than when we came across a thicket of wild strawberries by a roadside. Usually we let them grab a few and then chivvy everyone along, but this time we had the time to forage to our hearts’ content; by the end, we had pooled two big handfuls (or one gowpen, is the old English word) and everyone got more than enough. 

Even with a leisurely pace, we got to Tribil Sopra around 3, where we met … no-one. Just the two Dutch hikers who have been walking our trail for the past couple of days. The hostel was empty, our guesthouse was locked tight, nobody was visible anywhere in the whole town. After 45 minutes of waiting, Jakob let the girls loose on the hostel, which is a converted school, and they promptly started building forts out of foam mattresses and lobbing pillows and sweaters at each other. One Dutchwoman said sardonically, “You know we’re on the Peace Trail, right?” 

They didn’t want to leave when we eventually learned where our house’s key was hidden, but we made them. Dinner was very packaged and lightweight as we’d had to carry it, mainly alphabet soup and dried mashies plus some eggs thoughtfully provided by the hostel. Jakob returned there at 6:30 to present our passports (which we have to show every night) and was soundly tongue-lashed by the angry Italian matron (actually Swiss) for having followed the instructions given to him on the phone by her coworker (“she is hopeless, nobody can understand her”) rather than the written, contradictory instructions. After a solid half hour of haranguing, she literally said, “now go! You have to run now!” (To be fair, this was because the dutchwomen had bought popsicles for the girls and Jakob to hurry before they melted.) So he escaped and fell asleep early.