SURPRISING SLOVENIA
Two feet of netting was the only barrier between me and hundreds of bees. "Don't worry, they aren't aggressive," Danjela assures me. Her beekeeping business spans multi generations, so I believe her. I spent an hour with her and her swarms. As she is showing me the inside of her hives and honeycombs, Danjela talks passionately about Slovenia's strong beekeeping traditions. Truly amazing is how life-giving bees are. Their honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, combs and beeswax provides everything you need to sustain life in it's most fundamental sense - nutritional, medicinal, and of course the beeswax provides all kinds of uses.
Slovenia will surprise you. This tiny country - half the size of Switzerland, is often confused with Slovakia (Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia and Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia). When I travel, I try my best to learn about the place I will be visiting. Even then, you can never predict the personal experiences you'll encounter that will change your perspective. Perhaps it's their strong economy compared to the rest of Eastern European neighbors. Or the Italian, Germanic, and Slavic influences rolled into one. But there is no denying Slovenia's diversity.
Besides their beekeeping industry, 70% of the land is covered in forests, mountains, and lakes, making Slovenians some of the most active people there is. With large areas of alpine country, the locals joke that Slovene babies learn to ski before walking. They also joke that if a Slovene sees a trail, they will hike it. At first glance on the map, Slovenia looks landlocked, but in fact they have 29 miles of coastline, which gives it a Mediterranean feel down the coast.
Sometimes, traveling to a place and not knowing what to expect can be the best thing to expect.
Like the winged lion is the symbol for Venice, the Dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana (Loob-lee-YAHN-a). Here, a pair of dragons (other dragon not shown) sits on guard at the entrance of Dragon Bridge leading into the old town.
Slovenia has rivers running underground, carving out caverns for millions of years. Rivers like this one flowing through Ljubljana would 'disappear' underground and re-appear somewhere else. A river may have been known by several names before technology was able to chart and follow underground rivers to discover it's been one river all along.
With a little over 200,000 residents living in Ljubljana, it feels more like a small town than a capital city. They say the President can sometimes be seen at a café having lunch without bodyguards.
The outside facade of this Serbian Orthodox church is unremarkable. But take a look inside - frescoes are painted on all sides of the wall as well as the ceiling.
Lake Bled, located at the Northwest corner of the country is the gateway to the Julien Alps. No motorboats are allowed on the lake, helps keep its pristine water clarity.
Lake Bled has a tiny island with a cute little church with a small museum and café. No motorboats allowed so you'll have to put in some manual power to get there.
No European town is complete without a castle on a hill. This was originally built as a medieval fortress, but is now a museum and a cultural venue with a working medieval printing press, restaurant, and wine cellar.
Unparalleled views of the lake can be seen from the castle.
A three mile foot and bike path goes around Lake Bled provides stunning views from different vantage points.
Pletna boats are unique to Lake Bled. Hand crafted and passed on to the next generation, they're flat bottomed with no rudder.
Beekeeping is a big industry. This structure has 40 hives with a colony around 50,000 bees in each hive. Every bee knows which colony they belong to and will always go back to their own colony.
This is Danjela, a passionate beekeeper who could not imagine doing a different job than beekeeping. It's family she tells me. Bees provide food (honey & honeycomb) medicine (bee pollen and royal jelly), and beeswax. Here, she shows me her honeycombs - the light ones towards the back are new and edible; while the darker combs are old and not edible.
Slovenia claims to be over 70% forests, parkland, and green spaces. No argument there so far. Waiting for the cows to come home.
Predjama Castle is built as part of the mountainside. A large cave system, popular with tourists lies nearby below ground. This large region, called the Karst is arid flatland (still green nonetheless) but underground, are miles of caves formed over millions of years by underground rivers and flooding that occurred above ground. Because of the Karst (aka soft Limestone) makeup of this region, over time formed caverns of stalagtites and stalagmites.
Lipizzaner horses were originally bred in Slovenia for Austria. Their elegant shape and noble but puppy-like gait were prized by the royal court and showmen. The horses are born black and turns white in 3 years. About 1 in 10 remain black for the rest of their lives and those are considered albinos. They are raised and trained in Slovenia, and live out the rest of their lives here with plenty of room to roam.
Welcome to Piran. When it came to drawing the coastal borders, Slovenia drew the short stick. With over 2,000 of miles of coastline up for grabs, Slovenia ended up with 29 miles of it and the rest including 1,200 islands and islets went to Croatia. Piran is a peninsula and on a clear day, you can see Italy (Trieste) on one side, and Croatia on the other.
Because of it's proximity to Italy, Piran has a very Italianesque feel, both in architecture and ambience. Street and road signs are in Slovenian and Italian, lots of seafood and pastas, and Italian tourists wearing speedos.