The Eternal Slovenia/Slovakia Mix-Up Archives

Proof that Slovenia never dies.

One thing the Internet has provided us with (besides obscene amounts of pornography) is an outlet for humanity’s little grudges to flourish. Anyone who has spent any time on a forum or in a chat room knows how quickly a discussion of, say, salsa dancing can escalate into a full-blown war of words until (inevitably) someone gets called a Nazi.

The Last Combat is a natural outgrowth of this. It lets you pit two things against each other and then mock kill one or the other, or both. Presumably there’s some kind of vicarious thrill to this, because some matches get a lot of attention. (The most popular right now is USA vs. Russia)

Slovenia is currently featured in two fights: Slovenia vs. Slovakia (with no one yet participating) and Slovenia vs. The Czech Republic. (A case of the ol’ mix-up, I believe.)

Miraculously, there is no “Croatia vs. Slovenia” although I’m pretty sure it’ll be there before the end of the year — possibly even the end of today. When it does, I can see it making the list of most active fights very quickly.

In short: The Internet is dumb. Then again, how did we ever survive without it?

This truck got stuck in Britain. (source)

The Daily Mail recently reported on an unfortunate truck driver whose reliance on his satellite navigation system ended up getting him wedged in a backroad in Britain. (It’s not as sexy as it sounds) In its story, the Mail refers to the driver as “Slovakian,” which is odd given the fact that their picture above shows:

1) A Slovenian plate; LJ being short for Ljubljana.
2) The words “VOLVO SLOVENIJA” over the windshield.

Reader plavtrg wrote to the Daily Mail to point out their mistake, but so far they haven’t bothered fixing it. But don’t despair just yet! Reader Kris notes that the BBC got it right. So cheers to them! (And cheers to both of them for alerting me to this story)

The final question: would a sat-nav system have helped The Daily Mail get the story right? My guess: Probably not.

(Thanks plavtrg and Kris!)

Intereuropa disgraces itself with its lousy map.

One could perhaps forgive a foreign company for messing up a map of Slovenia. But what about a Slovenian one? Yes, my friends, it’s true. The ultimate disgrace in mapmaking is upon us. The Slovenian logistics company Intereuropa (one of the biggest companies in the country) boasts a map of Slovenia on its homepage that wrongly includes Croatian Istria and is missing the “chicken head” by Hungary.

To add insult to injury: some hackers managed to deface part of the site. I think it’s since been fixed, but previously clicking on “Slovenija” led you to some quasi-literate “Bush is teh sux, Turkey rulez!” page.

It’s a dark day in mix-up history.

(Thanks David!)

Pampers & Mussolini: An unstoppable combination.

If you go to the official Pampers page, click on Europe and highlight Italy, you’ll notice that Slovenia has been absorbed into the Boot. Just like Big Ben would have wanted.

For shame…

(Thanks to Big Whale and Borut!)

Look closely and you will see…

I know some of you have mix-up fatigue at this point, but this is one for the books.

Hansol’s map of Europe kind of reminds me of one of those annoying autostereograms that you have to stare at cock-eyed for a while before the solution pops out at you. The contours of Europe seem crude but normal. Then you notice Slovakia and Slovenia have been interchanged. And then Croatia pops up in a place you never expected to find it.

What’s odd is that they actually have authorized service centers in Ljubljana and Bratislava — you’d think someone would have shot them over an e-mail saying: “Hey, guys, really liked the flashy map BUT…”

Or perhaps not.

(Thanks Bober!)

The Mix-Up has claimed yet another high-profile victim. (source)

The Eternal Slovenia-Slovakia Mix-Up usually just results in gaffes, but last month it nearly got Slovenia out of trouble with the EU.

One Friday last month, the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas criticized Slovakia’s poor environmental legislation and urged the country to catch up with the rest of Europe. He meant Slovenia, of course, not Slovakia. In fact, according to the commission’s analysis, Slovakia has a stellar legislative track record and should be considered a model example for the continent. But what did they get for all their hard work? An undeserved dressing down from the environment commissioner.

Unfortunately, what could have been the perfect crime for Slovenia was hastily uncovered and corrected. Not that many Slovenes or Slovaks cared either way.

(Thanks Boštjan!)

A story from leading tabloid Slovenske Novice. Click to enlarge.

This one could hurt, because National Geographic has always been good to Slovenia. The country was included in their “50 Tours of a Lifetime” list. They also published a long feature by one adventurous couple, Hiking the Via Alpina, which included some beautiful photos and even a debate about which Slovenian beer is better. (The couple couldn’t agree.)

A Slovenian edition of the magazine hit newsstands last April and shortly thereafter they decided to release a Slovenian edition of National Geographic Traveler called National Geographic Popotnik. Their motto: Nobody Knows This World Better.

You know where this is going, right?

The editor of NGT, Keith Bellows, came to Ljubljana earlier this month to celebrate the launch of the new magazine and, apparently, to try to prove the motto wrong. Slovenske Novice claims the National Tourism Office also paid for his expenses. I should repeat that Slovenske Novice is a tabloid, and that it’s not exactly a beacon of quality journalism. Then again no Slovenian newspaper really is, so they’re pretty much as good as it gets.

SN writes that Mr. Bellows:

…expressed his satisfaction with the fact that he could be present at such an important milestone in publishing in Slovakia. The chief editor of the Slovenian edition of National Geographic, Miha KovaÄ?, who was sitting next to him, immediately whispered in his ear that they were in Slovenia. The American editor apologized unconvincingly and continued with his presentation.

I searched around a bit but found no other mention of this. RTV has an uneventful little story, and 24ur.com has a lousy search engine. I’m glad in a way. I don’t think I could handle it if were true anyway, so I suggest we all assume it’s a made-up story and leave it at that.

(Big thanks to Matty and Mare!)

Sometimes nuclear physics is easier than European geography.

How hard is it to tell Slovenia and Slovakia apart? So hard that even nuclear engineers don’t notice the difference.

(Thanks Mark!)

The eternal Slovenia-Slovakia mix-up: This time, it’s personal.

A Christmas gift arrived for me yesterday via Bratislava. I laughed when I saw the sticker on the packaging. The lady at the post office didn’t think it was funny, though. Not that they would ever laugh anyway.

There was some Slovak on the package and it was neat to see that I could understand it, even though some of the characters were smudged beyond recognition. It said something like this:

Prišlo poškodené z cudziny

I first guessed that this meant “Arrived damaged and with irregularities(?)” since I thought cudziny might be related to the Slovene word Ä?uden. (strange) But after poking around online, it seems that it’s actually “from abroad.” Still: I got the gist of it, and that was a great feeling.

Inexplicably, however: the contents weren’t damaged at all. It was all talk. Or all sticker, in this case. Not that I’m complaining. I’m just happy it arrived.

(Thanks for the gift, Tron!)

Good Lord, it really happened. (source)

Well, folks, here it is. Anouk, a leading member of Englistika and a recovering Dutchoholic, has stumbled upon the Holy Grail of mix-ups: a Dutch site that thinks Slovenia is Sierra Leone.

I don’t think this can be topped. I’m kind of impressed, in a way.

Presumably the problem was caused by similar country codes: Sierra Leone is SL, Slovenia is SI.

(Thanks to Anouk and Grega at Englistika!)