Slovenia – Greg and Mandy's Travels

Slovenia is a great, little country. Put it on your list. Very European. Clean and very enviro conscious.

Only 2 million people in the country, so it’s small, and has been at the mercy of nearby neighbours for most of it’s history, notably the Austro-Hungarian empire for hundreds of years. Only 200,000 live in the capital Ljubljana, and 40,000 of these are students. Hands up if you think this large proportion might have something to do with free education all the way to PhD level, and reduced tax rates for students?

Rained all morning, but we still joined the free walking tour of the city. Didn’t really think about how the rain affects the tour. Firstly, its noisy and harder to hear the guide, but less obviously I took almost no photographs as you don’t want to get a camera out in the rain (and you are holding an umbrella). I also have very little idea where we went, as you don’t look up in the rain to identify landmarks.

Slovenia has been the most fortunate history of countries in the region. Being so far west, it was never invaded by the Ottomans. Being of no military significance to the Germans, Slovenia was not invaded by them either, and was therefore not bombed, so it also survived WWII virtually unscathed. It was the smallest and most distant of the Yugoslav territories, so whilst Tito did rule here, they were never hassled by the Soviets, and were never in the midst of the Yugoslav civil war.

They were the first of the Yugoslav states to declare independence (yesterday we were told it was Croatia – depends on who you ask), and their war with Serbia lasted 10 days rather than the 3 years of ethnic warfare the rest of the country had. So most of the buildings are original, and there are only a few ugly eyesores.

Went to Aldi to buy some lunch. Felt just like soup, and eventually found it between the chainsaws and the bird seed. After lunch, when the rain had eased we went back out to try to re-trace our steps and get some photos. Failed miserably, but the city being so small, we eventually stumbled over most of the sights.

The entire city centre is blockaded to cars – took them 7 years to progressively implement it, and they have instituted a couple of free electric micro buses that you ring to be picked up somewhere, and taken somewhere else. “Please use it. We pay for it, so it would be a shame if its not used.”

They have free electric car charging stations, and 5 types of recycling/rubbish bins periodically down the streets. Won the award for the Green Capital of Europe in 2016. The toilets are back to being free, and smoking tables in restaurants are outside. Yay!

They use Euros, so you don’t have to change anything, and the Big Mac index is AU$6.75 – cheaper than most other places. Like most places, staples are very affordable, but luxury/tourist things like restaurant meals and ice creams are about what we’d pay. A city that’s a delight to be in.