Before we left Canada several people asked “Why Slovenia?  Is that close to or part of Slovakia?”  As it turns out Slovenia, as a travel destination, is not that well known but watch out as tourism here is on the rise, and for very good reasons.   It’s a beautiful country and we all agreed that the people here are some of the friendliest we have ever met.   They are all so helpful and with our complete lack of understanding of the Slovenian language, which I am sure would be impossible for me to learn, they do their best to speak English.   Communication has never been a problem, especially when it’s with the younger folks, ie. under 35ish, who are so quick to pull out their phones when you’re lost and point you in the right direction – of course this rarely happened!   Slovenia is about one third the size of Nova Scotia and has a population of just over two million people.  It borders Austria, Hungary and Croatia and the landscape changes quickly from the Alps to the plains and from dense forests to Mediterranean coastline.  One young man we spoke with said you can ski in the morning in the north and by the late afternoon swim in the south.  Slovenia  was part of Yugoslavia until its dissolution in 1991 and apparently has had the easiest transition to capitalism than all former communist countries in Europe, at least that’s what our guide says!  University education is free, and not just for Slovenians, so International students are welcome.  Before we came here we watched Michael Moore’s ‘Who do we invade next?’ and he did a small piece on Slovenia where he discussed the importance of education in Slovenia.  Young educated Slovenians want to stay and work in their own country and as a result Slovenia has experienced little economic emigration – and you can see this every day with all the younger folks heading to work, walking with children and generally just a sense of vibrancy.  Slovenia is also known as a “green destination” and that was one of the first first things we read at the airport as we disembarked – big signs announcing an award for this hard-earned reputation.   All throughout Slovenia it was noticed, as we saw very little garbage and everyone seemed to really take care of their properties.   Biking and hiking are really big here and for the most part the weather has been good, between 10-15 most days and on occasion it climbed to 20.  The wine has been excellent and inexpensive but we have not, thus far, been too impressed with the food.   Having said that, we are not hungry and my pants have gotten a little tighter so I guess it’s not that bad.    We’re still awaiting that delicious Slovenian meal where we can all say “now that’s what I’ve been looking for!”

To continue on our Journey we departed Piran for the salt pans in Secovlje that we missed the day before.  Now we have salt mining close to us in NS so I was a little uncertain as to what to expect but was pleasantly surprised to learn that salt production has been known here since the Middle Ages.  In the 19th century, however, it became one of the region’s main industries and every year from late April to late  August many families from the Piran area come to the salt pans to work until the harvest is over(much like strawberry and blueberry picking in NS we think).  To explain how this works – dykes were constructed across the bay creating shallow pans where seawater would evaporate leaving behind pure salt crystals.  It was then raked into piles, loaded onto barrows and then exported all over the Mediterranean – no pictures to show but this can easily be googled if you want more info!

From there we drove to Predjama Castle which is basically a castle from the 16th century that sits halfway up a hillside carved into a huge cave.  We toured around this remarkable place for about an hour with our English speaking headsets guiding us through and took a few pictures for you to see but fingers are too tired this evening to type more about it’s history……but Google if you wish!

Following our tour of the castle and a short walk we continued on to a military museum a little further north which we decided not to tour, thank the Lord!   So we travelled on to Idrija where we settled down for the night at Guesthouse Barbara, a small Slovenian establishment where we had a great evening, good (but not great) food and loads of laughs as we planned our next day.  After touring Idrija the following morning we hiked for two hours alongside the Rake which is a man made water course that fed the water wheel which was built in 1790 to pump flood waters from mine shafts.  It was a fabulous  walk  enjoyed by all before we piled into the car for our next destination, Kranj.    

Kranj is the  fourth largest settlement in Slovenia, and is close to the  airport, so we decided to settle in there for a couple of nights as we had one day left to explore the area before we dropped George and Gerry off at the airport for their return to Camada.   Georgina found a lovely little guesthouse outside the city center called Gostilna Ales and it turned out to be perfect.   We were an hour walk from Kranj so we easily walked into the city in the morning, looked around for a few hours and then walked back for a little ciesta before we gathered, once again, for cocktails before supper.   

Stayed up late, reminisced about what a great two weeks it had been for everyone and crashed knowing that the time was going back in Slovenia so we gained an hour’s sleep!   Up early, great breakfast and off to the airport to see G and G off as we continued on to the next event – they will be missed!!!