Is it time to get up yet?

I love traveling, but sometimes I think the jet lag will do me in. The older I get, the less my brain seems to cope with jetting across time zones.

By today’s standards, our trip from Columbia to Ljubljana was uneventful: A two-hour shuttle ride to St. Louis, a TSA-precheck shortened check-in, a jump to Washington Dulles, then the long flight to Zurich. Another wait and a short hop to Ljubljana.

Other than one ripped suitcase, I can’t complain. But flights today never live up to my memories of a Pan American 707 flight to visit grandparents in London when I was about 12. From the elegant stewardess to the dinner on real china to the roomy seats, everything seemed big, luxurious and welcoming.

What can I say? My behind has grown larger as the seats have become smaller, the lines are longer, the food is more obviously pre-packaged and the cabin staff have the same utilitarian appeal you find at Denny’s.


But there are always pleasant surprises on a trip like this. Zurich’s airport, for instance, is beautiful and rather shockingly (coming after Dulles) efficient. Then the morning sunlight on the Alps out the airplane window was far better than any of the movies I was offered on the porthole-sized screen in front of me.

We arrived in Ljubljana before noon, which was about six sleepless weeks ago to my body. I was easily revived, however, by the big smile and welcoming handshake of Marko Milosavljević. Though we hadn’t seen each other face to face in seven years, we dropped into the warm banter of friends immediately. It’s a phenomenon in academia that I truly love. We see each other only fleetingly at conferences or meetings, but we can keep the warm fires of friendship glowing just through email.

Marko arranged for a very pleasant university-owned apartment just footsteps from the Faculty of Social Sciences where I will teach. Cecile and I quickly moved in, bravely shook off the fact that our bodies thought it was still 0-dark:30 and caught a bus to downtown Ljubljana.

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March 1 was the Dragon Carnival and, although we came in too late to see the parade, the ancient (and pedestrian-only) streets under the looming castle were filled. The pre-Lenten festival is named for Ljubljana's patron mythical beast and is an opportunity to dress in costume, enjoy the sun and eat wonderful marmalade-filled donuts.

Even fortified with a couple of donuts and strong coffee, we faded fast. We bussed home, skipped dinner in lieu of a nap, got up long enough for a snack and then back to bed for the up-and-down fitfulness of body-clock adjustment.

The main events of the festival were over Sunday, but we spent the day wandering around the old city, just enjoying the atmosphere. We lunched at Ribca, a delightful seafood restaurant on the riverfront and reveled in the deep fried tiny anchovies we had longed for since our 2012 visit. It’s one of those rare dishes that I could eat until I exploded – and then die with a smile.

One doesn’t need to rush from tourist site to tourist site when you have six weeks in front of you. So we didn’t. We enjoyed a very leisurely stroll, another donut and coffee and then headed home for an early evening. My work in earnest starts Monday.

Captions: Zurich Airport; Our university apartment; The Bentleys and the Dragon; Festival families; Little fish, big flavor.