Sunday 5th March 2000

Sarah: "Have got up to find I am surprisingly alive. Look in the mirror and see Alice Cooper. Eye makeup and hair dye fortunately come out fairly easily in shower. Now looking vaguely normal."

Karen & Dave: "Not surprisingly no one stirred until approximately 10:00am the next morning. Repeated hair washing was required by those who used hair dye, while Ben had made a complete transformation during the night with all urges to body-slam walls completely gone (maybe the suit had some strange power).

Both teams packed their bags as the students were due to return to their rooms that evening, with new accommodation due to be arranged for us by the other Igor during the day.

Rob and Mark, together with the remaining CTDC members, left their bags in the dorm office and set off for the bus station in Kranj, leaving Toby and Tracey behind, as they were leaving later in the afternoon on a flight back to the UK. Liz, Val, Ruth, Anna and Paul from the Puckaholics were off for a few days skiing at Kranjska Gora so made the journey down to the bus station with us along with their heavy bags.

A farewell was said to the wigless Odd-Job after he was spotted seeing off the Yugoslavian team coach, we then caught our bus to Bled, leaving the skiers awaiting theirs. We arrived in Bled after half an hour's ride through stunning Slovenian countryside on a beautiful clear and sunny day. Many of the mountains were still covered in an icing of snow along with a scattering of snow over some of the higher fields.

We disembarked the bus, in search of pizza and beer, the two things that had become our only daily requirement during this trip. A five-minute walk up the street led us to an excellent home made pizza restaurant (lager lager pizza lager). Martin took this opportunity to update the quote sheet for the weekend, and a further few classics were recorded during this time. The pizzas turned out to be awesome, but everyone did their best to demolish these in style. Martin and Sarah admitted defeat - Martin halted in his tracks by the mammoth crusts - while the crusts also almost overcame Dave, before a Herculean effort saw them finally dispatched. Rob, Mark and Karen conquered against all the odds. Doug, Ben and Marion had a separate table and were an unknown quantity. However, we can't imagine mere food stopping Doug, no matter what the quantity.

Doug and Marion departed early to climb the hill to the castle overlooking the lake and the town, while those remaining let their pizza go down with the aid of another lager, although Dave did complain his pizza was now floating inside him.

Karen and Dave then left the restaurant, supposedly for a breath of fresh air, but no sooner had Ben, Martin, Rob, Mark, Georgina and Sarah poked their heads back outside the restaurant than they were subjected to a icerock attack ("Icerock"? Think of a "no wimps" version of snowballs) at the hands of Karen and Dave, who had spent the intervening minutes accumulating a fearsome arsenal. However, Karen and Dave would have been better spending those minutes practicing their aim, as despite the lethal nature of their projectiles, no injuries whatsoever were reported!

The crew then made their way up to the castle via the road, although the route did shorten somewhat when a no-rule race-and-scramble was initiated near the top. Out of breath, the eight made their way to a viewing area that afforded some spectacular views, including Bled's very own ski run. Out of the blue someone found an open air bar in the castle grounds, a table was found and drinking continued. Doug and Marion joined us after visiting the dead people's museum in the castle (yes, apparently there were dead people).

As the sun went down behind the mountains, we started to make our way down. Once beyond the castle walls, an epic icerock fight started that lasted a full half hour. Lumps of ice as heavy as could be carried were lobbed from the car park towards the path some 3m below, which was strewn with other CTDC members. Return fire with lesser-sized missiles continued for some while. Considering it only took two or three shots from the monster sized projectiles from above to demolish a carefully constructed ice-man, it was amazing that no one was seriously hurt let alone hit by one of these (Doug may contest the claim that no one was hit, but we reckon the war wound on his neck was just his way of explaining one of Marion's lovebites).

The fighting continued down the zigzag path to Bled, again with no serious consequences apart from scaring the hell out of couple of sightseers who were also making their way down the path. They quickened their pace to escape the fast moving projectiles that accidentally missed their intended targets of other CTDC team members.

The lake was the next place to suffer from our presence. Mark and Rob started a "big stick" fight, which again amazingly ended up without injures, but did cause a distant spectacle for the locals and confusion for young children who are not allowed to do such things. After descending upon the local gift shop we headed back to the bus stop.

As the day had gone on, we had come to notice an increasing number of people dressed up for the Pust wandering round the street. At first it had been just children, being walked along by conventionally-dressed adults, but gradually the adults came out as well. The highlight of our costume-spotting was a group who appeared to be dressed bizarrely as toilet rolls tied together. However, after closer scrutiny they turned out to be candles!

Deciphering the timetable was proving difficult, so we asked a young lady when the next bus left for Kranj. She told us that one was due in ten minutes, but half an hour later there was still no bus, it was now dark and we were slowly starting to freeze. We could have done with those candles! None more so than Doug and Marion, who had come out dressed for a nice warm day.

Jumping up and down, group huddling and shared bodily warmth all failed to work, so we decided a quick tipple would warm us up. No sooner were we in the bar, than a bus swung around the corner. We all made a mad dash back to the bus stop, only to find it was the wrong bus. A second rapid attempt at a warming drink was successful to those brave enough to risk it again."

Sarah: "We spend a very enjoyable Sunday with the others in Bled (minus Toby and Tracey as they are flying home that evening) - eat pizza, drink beer, climb up to the castle, more beer, venture into the museum, more beer. Lakes and mountains quite stunning. On the way back down we quickly get into a game of icerocks. Build a cute little icerock-man sort of thing.

Waiting for bus to take us back to Kranj but no-one is quite sure when it will turn up. Finally most of party goes off on a search for more beer. Bus arrives - Aarghh! All managed to fortunately down drinks and sprint back to bus."

Sunday evening

Karen and Dave: "The bus taking us to Kranj was crowded, but most of us were oblivious of this as a deep slumber quickly set in. Fortunately, not all of us slept. Back in Kranj we headed back for a rendezvous with Igor to sort out the nights accommodation. After a cold walk back, Igor was unable to give us the answer we wanted, there was still nothing sorted! So we arranged to meet again an hour later, leaving us enough time to make a return visit to the Eurotrash Bar for some more refreshments. This time it was a hot drink with a beer or spirit chaser, time ticked away until we returned to the dorm."

Sarah: "Now in Student common room waiting for information about sleeping arrangements which are looking shaky because students are coming back this evening to reclaim their beds. Douglas puts blackboard and chalk into effect to give us a lesson in Octopush strategy. After a while our heads start hurting so we play hangman instead."

Karen and Dave: "Rob, Mark, Marion and Martin all came out with some classics. Rob's predictably went along the lines of LA_ER and BE_R, while Ben's choice of word was sussed quickly as he had spent the whole weekend raving about the cool name of the local Slovenian band "Agropop". It was noticeable that this had not abated once he had managed to liberate one of their posters that had been adorning many notice boards around the university and town.

It is now nearly two hours since Octopush Igor said he would meet us back at the dorms in an hour's time, and there is still no sign of Igor. Martin decides to track him down.

Martin's first call woke up Miro, the tournament organiser, but eventually he got Igor's mobile number, and then Igor himself. His subsequent arrival lead to heated discussions with the dorm manager and Igor the doorman, but eventually they came up with what they thought was a very cunning plan, which involved finding spare beds in student-occupied rooms and filling them with CTDC members."

Sarah: "Bed situation is worsening. Harassed caretaker is organising us into sharing dorms with pupils. Some of us not very convinced by this."

Karen and Dave: "Considering our intended late return time after hitting the town, dubious state of intoxication after doing so, and early rising time (Dave & Karen at 4:30am), some of us were less than happy so decided to opt for mattresses on the television room floor. Dave was very happy with this as he was sharing a room with three women!! Unfortunately for him although the mattresses were initially put close together, they rapidly ended up in different corners - Doh!

With beds sorted, we were now happy to hit Kranj for a nightcap before our early return journey to the UK, except for Doug and Marion who opted for a quiet night in with a young male student! During the walk down to the town, we found that the pizza had now worn off and we were once again in need of food: the hot-dog stall next to the 24-hour supermarket didn't know what had hit it! Giant sausages were stuffed suggestively into rolls with holes in the end.

We found a quiet bar near the centre of Kranj (well OK it was deserted but full of atmosphere), which had service with a smile. The landlady did her best to explain various aspects of Slovenian life as well as recommend some intriguing liquor, and her recommendations made up a significant part of what many of us took back from the Duty Free the next morning.

Karen, Georgina, Sarah & Dave left around 12 o'clock for the dorms, with Martin, Ben, Rob and Mark staying to savour their Slovenian lock-in . . .

Web Design by Reed Consulting (UK) Limited. Page last updated 11th January 2001. Please visit or comment.