Slovenian Hospitality Velenje Style

Irena, her friend Mojca, and Whitney walking in Tržič

It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Slovenia who we've met so far. Everyone we have met has been accommodating and welcoming from the woman at the market who loved that I wanted to buy a lot of squash so she gave me an extra (huge) hunk for free to the people who have invited us into their homes.

As a quick heads up, I've included links to more information for those of you who are interested in the history and the events/places that I've mentioned here.

Irena and Whitney in Tržič

We've started to refer to Jedd's Fulbright host, Dr. Irena Mrak, as our social coordinator. She invites us to all the events we might be interested in from a trip to Italy to learn more about a shared ecoregion project, to her hometown to survey the damage from a recent flood, to her university for an end of the year party and a 10-year celebration lecture series. She picks us up and drops us off, she makes sure we have chocolate because we're always hungry, and she constantly helps us navigate through linguistic and cultural differences. Irena goes above and beyond her position as a host to make us feel settled and welcomed here while also being a professor with a higher class load than any other, a writer of scholarly articles, the President of Slovenia's Alpine Association, a world-class female mountaineer, and an active member of her local community. So far our positive experience in Slovenia is a direct result of the kindness and generosity of people like Irena.

I specifically wanted to write this post to talk about our experiences in Velenje and about how far everyone has gone out of their way to host us there. The Slovene people are generous and accommodating with us at every step. They always speak English with us and always seem overjoyed when we know even the simplest Slovenian vocabulary. From the friends of friends of friends who we have met up with and who invited us over for dinner, to the people at the daily market who explain to me how to say a quarter in Slovene "četrt," to the staff and professors at Visoka Šola in Velenje.

Our canine companion for a hike in Logarska Dolina

On our first visit to Velenje, Milena the school secretary of student affairs, scheduled a delicious and abundant three course meal with Irena, and the Director and Dean of Visoka Šola (Environmental Protection College). From there, she took us to the Velenje Grad (castle) where we had a guided tour of the castle and its museum which we were shocked to learn included everything from models of ancient homes in the area, to the beginning of the coal mine and the Socialist creation of the broader town of Velenje, to mastodon bones and African masks.

Later that evening, we were welcomed into Milena's home where she cooked, and let us help a little, a delicious meal. She asked whether we preferred pasta or sausage to which we of course responded that we would love either! We didn't realize until it was too late that this meant she would prepare both for us. We spent a long time with her America-obsessed son, met his hamster, and really enjoyed being in their cozy home talking and laughing and stuffing ourselves with good food and local wine. That night, Milena's daughter drove us back to the hotel that the school had put us up in which was our first time staying in a hotel together--a fact that Milena LOVED and happily told Irena about the next day.

Many of the professors at the school were curious about us and what we were doing there and many asked if we would be willing to visit their classes to expose them to more native English speakers, to talk about Jedd's research, even to talk about my farming research!

A good friend of Irena's, Natalija Špeh, is another geography professor and a founder of Visoka Šola. She gave us a short presentation about Velenje which was quite fascinating and later a tour around the lakes of Velenje (more information here). There was a small village around the grad (castle) in the area for a long time, but only relatively recently due to the lignite coal in the area has it become a larger city. The coal mines still provide about 1/3 of Slovenia's power supply, though lignite is a very low grade of coal. The coal mining drastically changed the local landscape and literally created three lakes as the ground sunk due to the underground excavation. The lakes eventually became polluted by the ash from the power plant and were effectively dead. Through various environmental mitigation efforts, the lakes have been cleaned up and now are a tranquil natural-looking area with a vibrant ecology of marine and bird life. The lakes have even become a tourist attraction for the area.

We were not expecting to be so fully wined and dined and toured while we were in Velenje and we are so grateful to Milena and Natalija and Irena and Boštjan and Andrejka and Gašper and everyone else have made our trips to Velenje so special.

Check out my next post to hear about our most recent trip to Velenje!

Stormy skies in Koper's harbor

The view from the small summit at the beginning of our Tržič hike

Jedd, Irena, and Mojca descending from the hills into the gorge in Tržič

View from Parco Naturale Prealpi Giulie