Archives for March 7th, 2006

Maribor’s main square, from above.

One of the first words foreigners learn when they move to Slovenia is obÄ?ina, and shortly thereafter they wish they’d never heard it. The word literally means "municipality" but it’s basically the place you go to get any kind of important paper: from your driver’s license to your working visa. There really isn’t an American equivalent. The closest anyone has come to reproducing it is the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel, who painted the interior of Maribor’s municipality back in 1562.  Interestingly enough, if you go there today you can still some of the people in that painting. Look for the horse-riding skeleton just outside the office for foreigners, and give him my regards.

Given my traumatic experiences there, I was surprised to see what a pleasant page this is: The municipality’s page for spatial planning. If you don’t speak Slovene, here’s a quick way to navigate through it:

1) Click here.
2) Click on "VSTOP" ("enter")
3) In the top left corner, you’ll see some choices. First, pick an ulica (street). Some good ones for Maribor include: Grajski trg (castle square), glavni trg (main square), or just take a random one.
4) Now the important part: At the bottom left, click where it says "Pogled brez BDOF1" and change it to "Pogled z BDOF1".
5) Now you can freely move around the map using the hand and magnifying glass tool.

Obviously it will be more interesting if you’re familiar with the city. If you know anyone in Maribor, though, it might also be a good idea to zoom in on their house, take a screenshot, e-mail them the picture and write underneath (in all capitals) I’M WATCHING YOU!!! 

(Thanks Katka!)