Maribor is the Future
All aboard!
Slovenian Railways got some nice new trains. Unfortunately, if you're travelling between the country's two largest cities, they still stop almost literally every 5 minutes in every village along the way, so the 120km route takes upwards of 3 hours. At least the scenery is pretty....
Infamous autumn fog
It seems that central Slovenia's infamous autumn fog has already arrived this year....
Morning mist
Along the Sava river....
The ugliest town in Slovenia
Trbovlje is commonly described by locals* as ‘the ugliest town in Slovenia’, but it's probably most notable as the hometown of the Slovenian art rock band Laibach (who themselves are probably best known for performing in North Korea in 2016).
Otherwise, for most Slovenes, Trbovlje is most famous for the giant chimney of the former lignite power plant, which at 360 metres is the tallest tower of its type in Europe, and I'm pretty sure can be climbed by adventure seeking tourists nowadays.
*In the early days of my Slovenia experience, I was teaching an English course at an insurance company and had all of the participants tell me where they were from, when one lady said she was from the ‘ugliest town in Slovenia’ in lieu of uttering the actual name, she sincerely seemed offended that I honestly had no idea that she was talking about Trbovlje, while her colleagues assured that this was indeed the case.
White nationalists in the toilet
On the plus side, almost all railway stations in Slovenia still have free bathrooms. However, on the not so plus side, some of them might also come with a free message from your friendly local nationalists, like this one in Zidani Most....
NB: "Slovenia for Slovenians"
A great deal (in a vacuum)
Unlimited train travel in Slovenia from €65/month or €520/year. Sounds like a pretty good deal....
NB: Germany has the same offer - with just a slightly larger network plus unlimited travel in one designated city - for like €50/month.
But first, coffee
First stop in Slovenia's second city of Maribor: Coffee in the sprawling city park....
Pleasant surprises
When your friend tells you you're going to one of her friend's places for lunch, but forgets to mention that it's a massive hilltop estate with amazing views of the surrounding countryside....
Billie the Whippet
This is Billie* the depressed whippet. Her owner went on holiday in Croatia and left her behind with grandma, and she was none too happy about it. Not even cuddles from her stuffed rat and an impromptu photo shoot with some random American guy could cheer her up...
*Apparently, named after Billie Eilish
Tsar the Bear
A Slovenian black bear, who seems to identify as a friendly old family dog. In any event, definitely a happy go lucky chap. His name is Car, which is the Slovenian spelling of Tsar and pronounced the name way....
Home cookin’
An absolutely delectable homemade Slovenian lunch: Vegetarian goulash (which through some kind of culinary magic still had the smokey flavour of bacon) with cmok (like American-style stuffing, but in cylindrical form) and freshly made seasonal plum cakes for dessert. Mmmm mmmm mmmm....
Siesta time
After lunch siesta. Unfortunately for your dear photographer, there was no space on the couch (one more dog on the other side not pictured)....
Ei kiitos! (No thanks!)
Finnish black licorice candies are one of those things that a friend might bring you back from Finland and would then sit in your car for years, because literally not a single person likes them.
Not great, not terrible. But definitely closer to the latter. The taste was interesting, but not enough for me to accept the offer of taking them. Maybe next year....
Balinčki
If you ever wondered what would happen if pétanque and Frisbee golf both had way too much to drink at the annual backyard sports equipment convention and made a baby....
NB: For someone who constantly rants against the untold evils of neoliberal capitalism and American-style consumer culture invading the old continent, it's always nice to see a 'Made in Slovenia' label. Not so nice, on the other hand, is having to pay €25 for eight little plastic discs. At least embracing one's own hypocrisy is still free!
Street art
'Metkino nabodalo' ('Metka's Skewer') by local artist Metka Kavčič.
More info (in Slovene): https://sobotainfo.com/novica/lokalno/foto-nova-pridobitev-opazuje-vas-oko-nabodeno-na-vilice/
An auspicious start to the day
You know it's going to be a great day, when this is the first thing you see in the morning (because it's directly above where you were sleeping)....
Dog days of summer
Lazy summer weekend along the Drava river outside of Slovenia's second city of Maribor....
A taste of Bosna
If you're a meat eater and you've never tried proper Bosnian style ćevapi, you're really missing out....
NB: This was at a place called Baščaršija, which is just around the corner from my friend's place and highly recommended next time you're visiting Maribor - and you will be visiting Maribor, because it's the future!
Aspirational display
On Slovenian Railways new trains, the live schedule on the monitors seems to default to a cheeky -1 minute delay (ie the train is a minute ahead of schedule). However, after taking quite a few trains over the past few weeks, this never actually lasts the entire length of the journey.