Slovenia
All posts from Slovenia
Making it to Slovenia
Posted 16 Apr 2008:Getting from Hungary to Slovenia requires careful targeting. Slovenia and Hungary only share a 100-km border, and the cross-border links are minimal to almost non-existent. Only two decent roads cross the border, added to a rail link between Budapest and Slovenia`s capital Ljubljana that is only serviced once a day. My mission for today is to take that one train and to find out how much Slovenians and Hungarian know about each other.... Read more
Nr. 21: Slovenia
Posted 17 Apr 2008:Slovenia is a small country squeezed in between the Balkan, the Mediterranean and the Alps. Its two million inhabitants became EU citizens on 1 May 2004 and the country has been steadily catching up with `older` EU members.... Read more
Post Yugoslav Era
Posted 18 Apr 2008:Up until 1991, Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia which, for almost a century, showed itself to the world as a show case for multi-state federalism. United under dictator Tito, Slovenes shared an artificially created country with Croats, Serbians, Bosnians, Kosovars, Macedonians, Vojvodinians and Montenegrans. Little of that is left. Slovenia is now a country of its own. It`s its population still qualifies as Yugoslav, by the simple fact that Yugoslav literally translated as Southern Slave, which is the ethnic family to which Slovenes belong. But how Yugoslav do they still feel after almost 20 years of independence?... Read more
Workaholics
Posted 19 Apr 2008:In communist times, the link between effort and wealth was a rather faint one. Until 20 years ago, any Slovenian would be almost equally rich as his neighbour. No matter what profession either of them had and no matter how much effort either of them put into their jobs. Times have changed. Converting effort into money is now one of the driving forces under the Slovenian society. Slovenes are hard-working, ambitious and talented, but can they cope with the pressure of always having to exceed expectations?... Read more
Active weekends
Posted 20 Apr 2008:Slovenians seem to be quite hard-working and busy during the week, so it would make sense to think that they will take it easy in their spare time. And so they do, but probably only when it rains. All other weather conditions are a perfect excuse to hit the road and engage in some kind of outdoor activity.... Read more
Waiting for love
Posted 21 Apr 2008:Slovenia is located right next to Italy, but there are definitely some stereotypes that the Slovenians do not share with the Italians. Italians are said to be romantic and seductive. Very little of that applies to the Slovenes, who seem to have some difficulties in expressing their appreciation of the person they fancy.... Read more
Dreams and ambitions
Posted 22 Apr 2008:Dreams and reality are two separate things, and directing one towards the other is yet another discipline. Then, there`s the difference between childhood dreams, grown-up dreams and illusions. Today, I am asking some people in the centre of Ljubljana: what did you want to become when you were a child, what have you become and what do you hope to become in the future?... Read more
Basic Slovenian
Posted 23 Apr 2008:It`s time for another article about language: the Slovenian language this time as I am still in Ljubljana. Slovenian is part of the South-Slavic group of languages, which further includes Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Bulgarian. Contrary to Serbian and Bulgarian, Slovenian is written in Latin letters. Slovenian distantly shares some words with Slovakian, but many of those are `faux amis`: the words may be the same but there meaning can be entirely different.... Read more
Joy and frustration
Posted 24 Apr 2008:Rainy days, the alarm clock ringing in the morning, bumping into somebody you just did not feel like meeting.. Some annoyances are universal. So are many of the things we all like: music, food, one or several places to call home. Today, I am asking people in Slovenia about what they like and what annoys them, hoping to get some culture specific answers.... Read more
Students in Ljubljana
Posted 25 Apr 2008:Previous articles may have led readers of Us Europeans to believe that the population of Ljubljana is uniquely composed of students, mostly in international disciplines. Reality is not very distant from that idea. Ljubljana IS the Slovenia`s capital of student life. Young people populate the streets, the terraces, the parks ? everything. Up until every next Friday, when they pack their bags, and head home for the weekend.... Read more
Church imperialism
Posted 26 Apr 2008:Religion was not banned in Slovenia under communist rule, but it certainly wasn`t encouraged either. The communist system nationalized all churches and church-owned territory, just like they did with any type of property, but they only banned religion for civil servants and state officials. Regardless of its ever good intentions, religion was one of the decisive motive for the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Ever since then, the different churches have tried to strengthen their grip on the population of the new republics. In Slovenia, the Catholic Church keeps trying to re-conquer its once dominant position in the country. With variable success.... Read more
Portrait of a Slovenian
Posted 27 Apr 2008:Selecting respondents for my daily interviews is a rather random process. While walking around town, the very few criteria I use to decide whether somebody is a suitable respondents are the following: 1) Looks like speaks English, 2) Looks friendly 3) aged roughly between 20 and 30 years old. I thought of today as a suitable day to write another small biography, just interviewing one person and finding out about his or her life. Presenting today: a 20-minute interview with Simon, 31, photographer.... Read more
Communist showcase
Posted 28 Apr 2008:Today is the last day of my stay in Slovenia. I am reporting from Nova Gorica, a small city right next to the former separation between the worlds of communism and capitalism. Nova Gorica was built shortly after World War II. It served as a compensation for the Yugoslavian loss of territory to Italy, decided upon by the allied forces.... Read more
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