Introducing Slovenia, my home country

and introducing our Sloveniatrip 2010

Finally I get to blog about my home country Slovenia. I'm wondering what to say and what not, because I could write whole novels, but I'll try to stick to the basics here. I'm sure there is so much info online about our lovely small country, it's just a search away from you. But I want to share some of the things I feel are noteworthy about Slovenia. Here is a list of the things that I consider interesting and important and it will help you to understand my home country better, before you start reading my posts about the "Slovenia trip 2010":

✰ Some important facts about Slovenia

- Slovenia is a central European country and partly in southern Europe.
- Slovenia has around 2 million inhabitants, which is less than Singapore.

- Slovenia with 20273 km² is very small, Switzerland is two times bigger.

- The capital city and also the biggest city of Slovenia is Ljubljana (small photo above).
- Slovenia is a member of the European Union and NATO since 2004.
- Slovenian currency is the Euro since 2007, former was Tolar (1991-2007).
- Slovenian living standard can be compared to the one in Portugal, Greece and Taiwan.

- Slovenia is an independent and democratic country since June 25, 1991.

- Slovenia, although very small, has a very diverse culture and nature.

- Slovenia has high mountains, famous caves, mountain lakes and a small coast.
- Slovenia has no big cities over 1 million inhabitants, the biggest has 270.000.

- Slovenia is famous for excellent bee honey and wine.

- Slovenia has excellent sportsmen, especially skiers, soccer and basket ball players.
- In Slovenia most people are Caucasian. Most foreigners come from Southern Europe.

- Slovenians are part of the Slavic peoples, such as Russians, Czechs, Poles and Serbs.
- Slovenia and Slovakia are two different countries
- Slovenian people love nature. Hiking is our national sport.

- Our highest mountain Triglav is 2864m tall. Slovenia is full of hiking trails.

- Most Slovenians are friendly and welcoming to foreigners.

Slovenia is a member of the EU since 2004.

Although Slovenia is really small, there is so much to see here. Foreigners, who visit for the first time are amazed how diverse my country is. From high mountains with scenic lakes to the hot Mediterranean sea to amazingly impressive caves, Slovenia is full of nature's hidden treasures. The reason to come to Slovenia would be to enjoy nature, but you can also discover many historic sights and learn about the rich culture of this small nation. You will be surprised, how much was going on in this part of the world since stone age.

The Slovenian Flag (white, blue, red) and has a Coat of Arms which features Triglav, our highest mountain. If you're curious about the Chinese girl, read here>>

✰ More facts about Slovenia

Slovenia is a small and young, but proud nations. Slovenians hate it, when foreigners mistake them for Slovakians or say that Slovenia is part of Eastern Europe. Slovenians are very conscious about the history, because it influenced our nation a lot. We were centuries under Austria and some parts of Slovenia were under Italy and Hungary. Especially the two World wars still influence the politics in Slovenia today. Because of our small size, we were force to learn languages and many Slovenians speak English, those near borders also the languages of our neighbors (Italian, German, Hungarian and Croatian). If you travel to Slovenia, you probably won't have communication problems, unless you get stuck in some small villages. The basic formal phrases are Dober dan ('doh-bear dahn', Good Day), Hvala ('hwa-lah', Thank you) and Nasvidenje ('nah-swee-dan-yeh', Bye).

Slovenia is located in the southern part of Central Europe, between Vienna and Venice.

✰ About the Slovenia trip 2010

After I returned from Taiwan a while ago, it was obvious, that I needed some time to make it back to that beautiful country. Saving money for a trip to the Far east takes some time. So my girlfriend and I decided that she could visit me in Slovenia during summer and not only, because we miss each other so much, but also because I wanted her to see where I come from and to make her meet my family. That's when I started to plan our Sloveniatrip 2010.

Photo of Koper in the morning, our biggest port.

In the next weeks I will thoroughly introduce Slovenia and write about our trip, which lasted several days. We mostly focused on Eastern Slovenia, because it's the furthest away from my home town Maribor and because I think the best and most beautiful places in Slovenia are located there. Besides, I wanted to bring her to Italy, since it's so close. Here is a map of our tours:

My Slovenia Map (via Google Maps). Click on the map to enlarge.

In the 6 days we toured around Slovenia (plus Italy and Austria), we saw:

Day 1: Postojna, Predjama castle, Koper, Izola, Sečovlje salt works, Portorož, Piran (overnight)
Day 2: Koper, Trieste, Gorizia (Italy), N. Gorica, Solkan bridge, Kanal, Ljubljana (overnight)
Day 3: Ljubljana sightseeing (overnight)

Day 4: Škofja Loka, Kranj, Bled, Bohinj, Maribor (overnight)
Day 5: Maribor sightseeing (overnight)
Day 6: Graz (Austria)

We spent a whole day in Slovenia's capital city Ljubljana.

You can imagine that such extensive tour is very exhausting and if you remembered, we toured Vienna and Bratislava few days ago. I've been driving over 900km during our trips and we walked around so many towns and cities for many many hours every day. And it was usually over 30^oC every day, which added to the exhaustion big time. Parts of me got sunburned a lot, while my Taiwanese girlfriend (in the typical Far eastern manner) usually carried an parasol umbrella to protect her from getting tanned. With that said, we really had the best time of our lives. It was just me and her and the beautiful scenery. It was a road trip, many funny and not so funny things happened, but the ride was smooth, the car didn't give up, although it struggled at some parts. We returned home safe and sound and with precious memories. And I'm happy my girlfriend loved Slovenia :-)

Here are some impressions of the trip (only a small fraction):

Top down: Predjama, Bled, Piran, Ljubljana, Bohinj, Maribor and Koper.

Start my Slovenia tour here: Postojna and Predjama castle>>

✰ Slovenia in foreign blogs and press

✰ Slovenia, a small country with a big heart [Telegraph.co.uk]
✰ Slovenia: Mountains, hot springs and gorgeous scenery [Telegraph.co.uk]

✰ Slovenia: Unheralded gem at the Adriatic [By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 2001]
✰ Lake Bled: Alpine panoramas at half the price [Telegraph.co.uk]
✰ Slovenia: A truly majestic horse show [Telegraph.co.uk]
✰ Ljubljana, my kind of town [useful info, Telegraph.co.uk]
✰ Slovenia's secret Ljubljana makes a splash [Telegraph.co.uk]
✰ Piran: A slice of Italy across the sea [New York Times]
✰ Ljubljana, Slovenia: Piranske soline [New York Times]
✰ In Ljubljana the old and new Europe are in balance [New York Times]
✰ Karst: Tasting Slovenian cuisine at the source [New York Times]

✰ Eslovènia, el paíz de l'iztok [A blog about Slovenia in Catalan language]

✰ Europe's best-kept wine secret [GQ India]

[My SLOVENIA page][All photos by MKL, 2010 except where otherwise noted]

The Kofola incident and how Cockta kicked ass

Being thirsty makes you stupid. You better believe it!

After the extensive tour of Bratislava's historic center and after seeing the Bratislava castle from closeup, my girlfriend and I finally arrived back at the Bratislava Hlavná Stanica (main railway station) with the bus. It was really hot and humid, despite being cloudy most of the time. You would probably not be surprised, if I tell you, that we were not only tired, but mad thirsty. Oh yeah. And we suddenly remembered, that we haven't yet tried the famous Kofola, the Slovakian (previously Czechoslovakian) soft drink, that is usually referred as a former communist version of Coca-Cola and always recommended as something you have to try, if you come to Bratislava. We had some 30min before our train left back to Vienna, so we decided to buy the famous soft drink at one of the small shops in the station area.

Guess what? We were so thirsty and tired, our brains must have been hibernating or something, because we bought the first two Kofola's we saw! Oh yea. That's how they looked like:

We were happy to finally get the drink, that's recommended in every Bratislava guide. But then like a minute later, we paused for a second and thought: Wait a minute! Are we dreaming or is this real? We were totally puzzled. You may wonder what happened. This is what happened:

We paid 4€ for 2 friggin' Kofolas!

That's 5.13USD for two soft drinks! That's sick, man. We were angry at the boy and at ourselves. Well, in defense of the boy, we were pretty stupid. But remember, we were really tired and thirsty, can that be a good excuse? I guess the fact, that my girlfriend was Asian and that I had a big DSLR around my neck gave us away as tourists (duh!), so he just tried his luck and bam! Jackpot. Ok, I may be a bit over the top here, but still...

- - -

For those tourists, who want to buy Kofola at the Bratislava Hlavná Stanica, the main railway station, please don't repeat our mistake and don't buy Kofola at this shop:

This small shop rips off tired and stupid tourists like us.

The shop is located as the first on the right side of the station's main building, when you return from Bratislava's center. There are many shops like this one near the station and the prices for Kofola vary. They are usually between 1 - 1.2 Euros. If you ask me, it's still too expensive. That drink should not cost more than 50 cents!

- - -

Ok, so there we were, inside the station, waiting for our train, talking about the Kofola incident. My girlfriend was mad (like the girl in the video) and kept saying that it was wrong, that what he did made Slovakia look bad and that in Taiwan this can't happen. She wanted to go back and complain and ask the boy to give us the money back, but I held her back and told her, this is not Taiwan, it's Slovakia. The boy will probably pretend he doesn't understand English or what we want from him and won't give us back any money. And I didn't want trouble at that obscure station, believe me.

So the only thing we could do in that situation was to drink the Kofola. What else could we do anyway? And we were thirsty. So I open up that (lemon flavored) Kofola Citrus and slowly drink the thing... and the first thought that came to mind was:

It tastes like medicine O.o

Not only that, it also tasted like Coca-Cola after being open for three days... But we still drank it. My girlfriend and I finished one bottle in no time and we brought the other one to my home in Slovenia. I made jokes about Kofola during the whole ride and my girlfriend was slowly getting sick of it. At one point I threatened her to give her a new nickname: Kofola. I guess these were side effects of drinking Kofola too fast :-P

When we nearly arrived in Slovenia, I suddenly had an idea: We in Slovenia have a similar drink, which is cheaper, healthier and tastes so much better. It's called Cockta (short for Cocktail). I told my girlfriend I will blog about these two drinks and compare them. The next day I went to a local supermarket and bought a Cockta and decided to do a test.

The Slovak Kofola together with the Slovenian Cockta.

I poured the Kofola and Cockta in small glasses and gave my family a try. Guess what? My girlfriend liked Kofola more than Cockta =_= Ok, that hurt! I couldn't believe it, so I gave her more Cockta to try. It didn't help. She already succumbed to the hidden poison in every Kofola that makes you addicted and burns 30% of your brain cells. Ok, the rest of my family was divided. My mum, her boyfriend and I liked Cockta more, while my younger sisters and her friends liked Kofola more. So that day Kofola beat Cockta. I have no explanation for that. I drank Cockta in the 1980s already, because there weren't many soft drinks at that time, but the young people of today have an abundance of these beverages and may not know what is good and what not. Believe me, Cockta is good. If you come to Slovenia, try it.

See how many bubbles Kofola has? Scary.

Truth is, Cockta has a longer history and wasn't intended to be the communist replacement for Coca-Cola, but was meant to be an original drink. It has no caffeine and it's made of herbs only. Hence it must be healthy. I'm sure some Slovenian doctors prescribe it. The drink originates in the 1950s. Kofola on the other side was meant as a replacement of western soft drinks, was developed in 1960 and has more caffeine than Coca-Cola. Now if you're a Kofola fan and laughing at Cockta drinkers, we'll see, if you laugh in ten years from now when you're gonna turn into a toothless insomniac! I ask you: Why do you drink Kofola? If you're thirsty, drink water or Cockta, if you need caffeine, drink coffee.

Alright! I won't tell you what to drink ^_^. And I admit, I'm biased, because I'm Slovenian and because I got ripped off in Bratislava. But seriously: Cockta is better :-P

✰ Check the COCKTA homepage in English and follow the Cockta story>>
✰ Check the KOFOLA homepage in Slovakian and learn about the drink>>

I think Cockta has a better website, more creative than Kofola's (and in English). There is also a Kofola Facebook fan page and and a Cockta Facebook fan page, you can join them.

So what do you think, which is better, the Slovenian Cockta or the Slovakian Kofola?
Did you ever get ripped off for a drink and got really mad? What did you do?
Do you like Pepsi or Coca-Cola more? Do you have a famous beverage in your country?

[Slovakia is not Slovenia][All photos by MKL except Chuck Norris, 2010]
[Ps: Don't take this post too seriously, if you're a Kofola fan. Thanks.]

Trip to Bratislava: Bratislava Castle

The most famous landmark of Bratislava

The Bratislava Castle from the historic center (zoomed in).

The Bratislava Castle (or Bratislavský hrad) is a huge castle on a hill above the old part of Bratislava, overlooking the Danube river in the south and the medieval part on the east. I must say it's one of the most impressive castles I've ever seen and that's due to its size. When it comes to interesting elements, the castle's facade looks a bit plain, especially today, when the whole complex is being renovated.

This castle is definitely the landmark of Bratislava. It's seen from many corners of the city and it's one of the symbols of Slovakia. The image of the castle is featured on Slovakian 10, 20 and 50c Euro coins (source). From 2008-2013 the castle is being meticulously renovated and when finished, it is supposed to look like on the image on the left (source). I definitely want to return in few years to see the newly renovated castle. Read the history of Bratislava castle here>>

Let me show you my photos of the way up to Bratislava castle and the magnificent view we had over the most parts of the city.

✰ Up to the castle

The road up is partly narrow and steep, but not tough to master.

A nice mermaid statue along the way. Sadly, it's full of graffiti, like most of Bratislava.

The first view of the old city was promising. We continued to go up.

This is the Nicholas gate before the Lugisland bastion.

Another view of the fortifications below the main palace.

✰ Slavín war memorial

Slavín, a famous war memorial, is seen from this part. See a bigger photo here>>

✰ Bratislava castle

And then we finally saw it: The massive Bratislava castle amids renovations.

Another view.

Two sides.

A proud Slovakian flag at the main entrance of the castle.

This detail is interesting.

The main entrance.

The Leopold's gate at the end.

Posing for my readers ;-) See how small I look compared to the castle?

✰ Statue of Svätopluk

Statue of Svätopluk I, King of Great Moravia in the 9th century.

The Svätopluk statue from behind. His pose is directed towards Austria. Will he attack? ;-)

✰ View over Petržalka

The river Danube and the Western part of Petržalka.

Nový Most and Eastern Petržalka, Bratislava's biggest borough.

My princess from the Far East :-)

The Nový Most or New Bridge over the river Danube.

Had to zoom the top of the UFO restaurant on the New Bridge, cuz it's fun.

✰ View over the old Bratislava

Nice view over the southern part of Bratislava's historic center.

The Old Town hall at the Main Square and the St. Martin's Cathedral on the right.

This is Bratislava. Do you like it?

✰ Bratislava in conclusion

We spent one afternoon in Bratislava and we liked the city, but only if by city you mean buildings. But we didn't like the people, who were mostly unfriendly or looked a bit annoyed. Did we take too many photos? Are Bratislavans generally not nice to foreigners or interracial couples? Of course that's hard to say, because we only met few. I'm sure there are many friendly Bratislavans, but I have to yet meet some. The city really has a rich history and a lovely old part, which is clean and neatly renovated. So is the castle. But the further you are from the center, the dirtier it gets. And there are a lot of graffiti everywhere, which is a pity. Makes the city look bad.

The highlights of the trip were: The Old town, the food and the castle. I would definitely return to Bratislava on a short trip from Vienna, but I'd not go to Bratislava as the main destination. I want to see how the renovations of the castle and the St. Martin's Cathedral will proceed and I also want to try the traditional Slovak dish bryindzové halušky again. Well, just when we thought we'll have a happy end in Bratislava, something happened: The Kofola incident. More about that on my green blog soon.

St. Martin's <- BEFORE ✰ NEXT -> The Kofola incident

[Bratislava map][All photos by MKL except where otherwise noted, 2010]
[Slovakia is not Slovenia][Ps: I know my watermark has a typo =.=]

Trip to Bratislava: Nový Most

From Nový Most to St. Michael's Cathedral

Trinity Plague Column (or Morový trojičný stĺp) from 1713 was built in memory of the people who died of plague (source). It's located very near the New Bridge.

After we finished our tasty meal, but with shockingly bad service on Hviezdoslav square, my girlfriend and I decided to see the New Bridge (Nový Most) and then later move on to see the famous castle above the city. The part of Bratislava here is very close to the Danube, the river that doesn't only flow through Bratislava, but also through Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade (all capital cities of European countries). We haven't stayed too long here, because the weather started to become gloomy and it looked like it will rain, but we didn't bring our umbrellas with us. Lucky for us, the rain didn't fall that day and we could still take some nice photos and enjoy the view from the castle hill. Here are some photos of the famous New Bridge:

The Nový Most (or New Bridge) was completed in 1972. It's a so called cable-stayed bridge, because it consists of a column and cables supporting the bridge deck. The bridge is 430.8m long and spanned over the river Danube. It connects the central Bratislava with Petržalka, the biggest borough in Bratislava (and in whole Slovakia), which is famous for being full of paneláks, the ugly concrete prefabricated panel buildings, built during the Czechoslovakian communist era. It's still the largest residential are ever built this way (source).

On top of the Nový Most is a unique restaurant called UFO Restaurant. It's one of the wackiest restaurants in Bratislava. The top is at over 80m and has a nice view of the old center and the castle. But the food is very expensive. From what I read from a tripadvisor.com member Bos, dining for two can cost you over 60€. Here is one of his photos from inside the restaurant.

My girlfriend's camera lens was really great. I could zoom in the observatory on top of the UFO restaurant, which is 95m above the ground. You can even see people taking pics from there. Amazing!

Beautiful, isn't it she?

The famous St. Martin's Cathedral is located nearby. Sadly, it was being renovated, so I couldn't take any good photos. It's the biggest church in Bratislava and one of its landmarks.

More about it here>>

And then we headed uphill to the castle.

We turned left here and slowly walked upwards.

More about the Bratislava Castle and the marvelous view in my next post.

Shocking experience <- BEFORE ✰ NEXT -> St. Martin's Church

[Bratislava map][Slovakia is not Slovenia][All photos by MKL, 2010]