- Michael M.: Too much going on. Life in flux, etc..
- Sunshine: Wow, I was soooo happy to see a new post in my rss reader. I was hopping this is already the comeback! :(...
- gandalf: Did you only get caffeine through Dr.p or did you drink coffee as well? I’m interested, since...
- neeka: nine kilos… wow… :) happy holidays to you, michael, and to all your loved ones! veronica
- m: It was a bargain. No strings attached.
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
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Step away from your monitor, and their facial expressions will swap. (Source)
YOU’RE NEVER ALONE
1) When you go out, you’ll inevitably bump into someone you know within 10 minutes.
CROATIA
2) No matter where you are, Croatia is less than two hours away.
ALL THE HOLIDAYS
3) All the public holidays are celebrated in the same way: eating and drinking until the threat of combustion.
THE WOMEN
4) The women are so universally beautiful that any man who so much as leaves his home instantaneously violates Matthew 5:28.
THE ANONYMITY
5) Slovenian tourists can travel in perfect anonymity, because virtually no one on this planet has an idea where the hell you’re from.
YOU’RE NEVER ALONE
1) Whenever you go out, you’ll inevitably bump into someone you know within 10 minutes.
CROATIA
2) No matter where you are, Croatia is less than two hours away.
ALL THE HOLIDAYS
3) All the public holidays are celebrated in the same way: eating and drinking until the threat of combustion.
THE WOMEN
4) Slovenian women are so universally beautiful that any man who so much as leaves his home instantaneously violates Matthew 5:28.
THE ANONYMITY
5) Slovenian tourists can travel in perfect anonymity, because virtually no one on this planet has an idea where the hell you’re from.
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Interesting choices!
To be honest I didn’t know Slovenian women seem so universaly beautiful (to the men and/or people who were not born here).
P.S. How far back do you have to step for that optical illusion to work?
I can only agree with the first one..
Sunshine: I find that Slovenian women only look beautiful from at least 100 meters away. (Just kidding, but that was a seriously clever comment. Kudos.)
I had to stand at the back of the room for the optical illusion to work. Here is a detailed explanation of how it works.
Hehe: I couldn’t agree more. With all of them… Especially No. 4.
Good post, Michael.
Hate to bring this up, but I’d hate to live in Slovenia if I were black.
English black guy travels to Slovenia, has his passport inspected, lands in jail. Dog bites man situation. I’d love to link to it, as it’s discussed on this site, but I find it impossible.
In any event, I held back to see what would transpire, but I was so disappointed to find out that, on this blog, no one would state the obvious (even you Michael, you held back, although you know that the guy was inspected EXACTLY because he was black).
I was waiting for a healthy debate to spring up - but no - the people who read this blog seem to be surprised by the fact that every foreigner has his passport reported at a hotel in Slovenia … well, not so much, morons …
As a frequent white traveler to Slovenia, I can assure you that giving my information to hotel people is optional.
Moreover, I’ve been in exactly two situations on trains where black men have been taken off the train when crossing the Slovenian border.
Moreover, do you know how black people get treated in Ljubljana?
Slovenes are living in Mississippi in 1961. If you’re American, and you come across them, they’ll treat you like you’re living in Mississippi in 1961.
Patrick, you’re mixing things up. Again… I have no idea how much you know about Slovene security procedures, but I can assure you hotels report their guest list by themselves. You don’t have to volunteer information. It is simply taken. So, the man from BBC wasn’t “inspected”. Personal freedoms have a sligtly different definition this side of the Pond.
You’ve been to two situations where black people were taken off the train? Oh my! Has it occured to you that perhaps there were perhaps legitimate reasons for that?
As you know, Slovenia has not yet entered Schengen border agreement and must therefore excercise extreme vigilance on its borders.
I agree that racism is no stranger in this country, but you picked the wrong example to make a case of. Besides (and I’m being higly sarcastical) black people in Slovenia are in good company of the Roma, gays, lesbians, left-wing intelectuals, Croats, Bosnians, Muslims, etc… The only people that are not hassled here are… well.. morons. Know what I mean?
Clever post, and clever image to represent it. A lot of pros turn into cons when you step away or squint your eyes.
@ Patrick: Reporting passport or ID card numbers in hotels to the local police is compulsory throughout most of the European Union under the Schengen acquis (article 45 of the Schengen treaty). (It was obligatory before in Slovenia anyway, but just so you know it isn’t something out of the ordinary in the EU.)
If the hotels you stayed in failed to do so, they were in breach of legislation. I’ve certainly always had to provide a passport / ID card number in all hotels I stayed in recently.
As for racism, I personally haven’t ever noticed it, and certainly not institutional racism. I have lots of non-white friends and former school mates, and they never complained about anything to this effect; I also have several black neighbours, and they haven’t had any problems (other than the usual annoyance with Slovene bureaucracy, but that’s normal for everyone). And yes, this is in Ljubljana, so I don’t reckon your point is valid.
Then again, I’ve never noticed any other form of discrimination amongst the people I socialise with, so it could be that some strata of the society are indeed that way inclined: however I would argue that it isn’t characteristic of the entire society.
Obviously there are some problems, and you’d naturally want to experience no intolerance whatsoever; however, this is rather difficult, as even when most of society is perfectly tolerant, it is always the (however tiny) minority that is vocal and casts a shadow over the whole society. But this is the case regardless of where you are, and usually has nothing at all to do with the general sentiment in a given environment. Indeed, what may be perceived to be racist or otherwise discriminatory remarks may very well in some cases not be anything more than a poorly thought out generic ‘attack’ on someone and using the most obvious characteristic to carry it out. In other words, it may not have anything to do with actual racism (etc), but only poor culture. (Not that it’s much better as far as the ‘victim’ is concerned - but the reasons for such behaviour are markedly different from those of inherently discriminatory behaviour.)
Also, perhaps you’re misinterpreting some interactions as being antisocial because you’re, as far as I can tell, American, and Americans tend to be far far friendlier (albeit sometimes superficially) in everyday interactions than Slovenes. Slovenes are rude, but they’re rude to everyone equally. That you may choose to detect this rudeness in some situations more so than in others may be revealing a particular sensitivity on your part, rather than being a reflexion of reality.
(Not that I’m claiming that with any certainty, but it’s definitely a possibility, wouldn’t you agree?)
Patrick: I’ll admit that when reading the BBC story (the original post is here) I had this acute sense of dread that some racist abuse was forthcoming. But he doesn’t mention anything; he even cheerfully poses with the cop who arrested him. Still, I’m not under the illusion that it’s easy to be anything off-white or non-Slovene here — as peng makes clear. I’m also very pessimistic about the future as far as that’s concerned, but that’s material for another time.
Erik: I think I spent more time looking for the damn image than writing the post. I sometimes get caught up with things like that. It’s awful. Even worse is when I spend a long time looking for some throwaway link that I know most people won’t click anyway.
I can’t see any changes in the facial expressions. Maybe I’m trying too hard.
As for the racial debate. I always thought it’s logical that they take your passport at the hotels. I think the problem is that we don’t have the same history with the discrimination towards black people and therefore, we might not find some things we say or do as discriminatory, at least that’s how it is with me. For example, when I see a black men on the box giving food to white kids, I don’t see anything wrong with that and it surely doesn’t make me think any less about that man.
As far as the train incidents go, there is the issue with illegal border crossings that need to be taken into consideration. Also, maybe you Patrick don’t know that, but if you take a white person with blond hair and give them a Swedish passport for example, they’d be much less interrogated on the airport in the States, than when you give them a Slovene passport.
Finally I agree with the last paragraph from Pengovsky. As a Slovene I’m much more worried about the politically stimulated hatred we are developing towards Roma people, gay people, open-minded people and our former brothers from the south.
Anja: Just blur your vision… Squint or something :d
I fell down laughing after number 4
But it’s true!
I guess Nr. 4 applies for most Slavic women
good list, now i know what pleasures and perils lie ahead!
@ patrick - I am black and moving to Slovenia in just a few weeks. I have no doubt that there will be racism (in case you hadn’t heard, it’s everywhere!>), but I have to say that I was pleasantly underwhelmed with how little I actually noticed last time I was there. I was hoping to at least have to dodge one rock or outfox one angry crowdm but they never materialised (must be something to do with that bureaucracy…).
Nonetheless, my eyes will be open as they have always been, and trust me, I am a big mouthed lefty whistleblower type about that kinda stuff. So I will be blogging LIVE AND DIRECT from Gorenjska (yikes!) so you can sit tight, keep an eye on my blog, and get it right from the horse’s (or at least one of the horses’) mouth.
Women. Women. Women. It’s always about the Women.
How about this question regarding Slovenian men?
All () of the men in the countries formerly known as the Land of the Southern Slavs are world renown, ahem, “story-tellers.
Please rank the countries in order, with the most convincing/charming b.s.-er first.
Here are your choices, in no special order.
1) Bosnia
Dalmacija (extra special category)
2) Makedonija
3) Serbia
4) Crna Gora
5) Croatia
6) Slovenia
7) Hercegovina (special category)
What say ye, regarding the male side of things?
Love the entry, Michael!
Camille, just make sure there’s no int’l warrant out on you before you come and you should be fine. Hope we get to meet up! I’m planning to be at the Cow Ball in Bohinj on 16 September… (note: no rednecks)
Hey Dr. Fil!
Do you have a link to the interpol computer? I think there was a small matter of an international diamond heist at one point, but I thought I’d cleared that up…..
Cow Ball in Bohinj? I’ll put it in my calendar! As for red necks, I am curious to see some of them. I grew up in farming/ranching country in California and went to school with many rednecks. I am interested to make some scholarly comparisons!
@dr. fil. & camille: Rednecks are the same all over the world… Although they do seem to be thick in the ground in this part of the world…
@DarkoV: Any chance of all of them taking the top spot?
Camille, sure do. Click here to check whether interpol’s updated their database. Did you rat out your accomplice?
DarkoV… worry not. Slovenian men are quite appreciated
Men, though, not boys. We’ve been debating this extensively lately with the girls.
So, patrick: You also have to face the fact that slovenians become cops when all other options fail. The most stupid policing i ever saw, I saw here. Off course I’m a bit biased, having been asked for ID three times for doing the unthinkable(walking, where there is enough space to drive a car). This despite, being tall, blond and aryan in every way. People tell me it’s because I walk through the wrong neighbourhood when the police is checkin for illegals. And if this is how they check for illegals, or as they said Burglars at one of the times, then this is the promised land for criminals..
Regarding the starting statement about the slovene law force, i base that on all the slovene cops i know.
Gandalf… with regard to Michael’s point #1 it could also be you were the only person in the neighbourhood the cops didn’t know, i.e., they’d bumped intoeveryone else before you already.
filomena.
This is also something that ppl told me. but I’ve been here for two years more or less and I’m always walking and two of the times it were the same officers.. Well it anyway doesn’t happen as often as it did when I lived in Prague.
Gandalf… now I’m really curious what you look like
and about your choice of attire…
filomena:
Well, i do try and stay out off the slovenian national dress(the NES pants with patches over the knees and hiking boots :)) but I don’t dress in any extreme way..
@ Gandalf: *Where* do you live? Whoever wears NES trousers these days? That was popular well over 10 years ago …
alex,
in a way you proved my point about the importance of NES trousers for the slovene identity. hehe.. Seriously tho, i’m thinking of people 45+ and I live in PO, but I think I see more NES when I go east with exception of the cities ofc.
oh gawd this was indeed funney!
especially the part with the matthew 5:28 violation :))
Those are pretty awesome pictures. Fortunately for me, I’m pretty nearsighted and all I had to do to get the whole experience was take my glasses off.