Writing about a country or culture is always a ticklish affair. The potential to insult someone is always so close, so dangerously close, that it’s often best not to say anything of consequence. I suppose a lot of travel writing is sterile for this precise reason. Is there a country of Earth that doesn’t have a “proud culture” or “rich history” with a “friendly people”? Do a search on Google for “land of contrasts” (the king of travel cliches) and you’ll get close to 10,000 results, with countries like Thailand, Brazil, Guinea, China, India, South Africa, Turkey… basically, most of the world.

My hope is to avoid such pointless insights about the Republic of Slovenia, however tempting they may be. And may God strike me down if I ever refer to the capital, Ljubljana, as “the Paris of the Balkans” or something similar. Just to give you an idea of how overused that phrase is, here are a list of some of the cities that claim to be the Paris of their respective regions:

* Bucharest: the Paris of the East
* Martinique: the Paris of the West Indies
* Irkutsk: the Paris of Siberia
* Beirut: the Paris of the Middle East
* Shanghai: the Paris of Asia
* Tromso: The Paris of the North

And the list goes on forever. I should add that the title “Paris of the East” is hotly disputed, with Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Istanbul all laying claim to it. And that’s just in Europe. There are also some “Paris of the East”-cities in Asia.

At any rate, I hope that this weblog will avoid such generalities in favor of more interesting details. And I hope that it will be of interest to people both outside of Slovenia and within. In the end, this is a labor of love, and the purpose is to humbly offer a snapshot of the daily life of a small, freshly independent Alpine republic, making its way in this big world of contrasts.

Thanks for reading.