Frankly, I didn’t know a lot about Slovenia, but I’m so glad Ana could come on the blog and share about her beautiful country!
So Your Character is … series is where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last time’s So Your Character is from Iceland … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!
Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally or politically shocking to some. Each of these posts is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.
(None of the Images are Mine)
My name is Ana and I work as a translator. In my free time, I am a writer and have recently published my first book, Diši po ljubezni (Smells of Love). I love to dance, write, and travel, enjoy good food, good wine and good company. I live in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, which is a town you fall in love with. You can find more about me and my work on my book’s FB page Diši po ljubezni (Smells of Love), my FB blog Hrana za dušo (Food for your Soul), my webpage, and my IG site.
My name is Lara Paukovič, I am 27 years old and I live in Ljubljana, the capital of a small central European country Slovenia. I am a freelance writer and a journalist. At the moment I regularly write for an influential Slovenian political and cultural magazine Mladina (Youth) as well as have a weekly column in our most widely read newspaper Slovenske novice (Slovenian news). I published two novels, Poletje v gostilni (Summer in Service) and Malomeščani (Small Town People), both are set in my hometown. When I’m not writing or reading, I like to spend time with my boyfriend and family – watch a good movie, go for a walk, have a cup of coffee or a nice meal somewhere outside (if possible ).
What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?
Ana: Slovenia is known for its breathtakingly beautiful nature and the surprisingly diverse geographical features stretching across just over 20.000 km2. We take great pride in our clean waters and healthy ecosystem. Our inbred love for nature is manifested in the widespread phenomenon of garden culture. May it be in the countryside or in the urban areas, almost every other Slovenian owns a garden where our own vegetables are grown. Despite being a Roman Catholic country, we preserve a number of pagan rituals and customs, which are performed to the day.
Every spring, Carnivals are organized all across the country to celebrate the end of winter. They include masks that portray the current political state in the country as well as traditional costumes. One of such costumes is Kurents, which have become part of the UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
We also have our own Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on March 12th, St. Gregory’s Day. The tradition has it that that’s the day birds “are getting married”. Young maidens used to believe that the first bird would indicate the type of man they will end up marrying.
Lara: Smallness and greenness. Slovenia is often described to foreigners as a country where you can “go skiing in the morning and take a dip in the sea in the evening”. Actually, you can do this in a couple of hours. It covers only 20,271 square kilometers and has a small population of around 2 million, but it contains everything you need – nature, ski resorts, the sea, vibrant cities, and peaceful countryside.
There are a lot of natural landmarks, such as forests, lakes (especially Bled and Bohinj lake), caves, hills … It is easy to get lost somewhere and have some peace and quiet or get back in touch with nature. Slovenians are mostly very fond of nature, they also love hiking – most people I know go for a hike almost every weekend if the weather is appropriate, it seems a very “Slovenian thing to do”.
Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?
Ana: My country is a lovely and surprising mix of Continental, sub-Mediterranean, and Alpine climate, which makes flora and fauna very diverse. Around 60% of Slovenia’s territory is covered by forests, which makes it the 3rd forested country in Europe. Our waters are extremely clean; you can drink from a large number of springs. Because we are aware of the importance of this natural resource, we subsequently added a special article in our constitution, stating that “every person has the right to access drinkable water”.
With so many beautiful places, it is difficult to single out just a few. However, this is my top list:
Lake Bled is a popular wedding destination for people from all across the world. It is famous for the small island on the lake to which you can travel by a “pletna” boat. On the island, there is a church with a wishing bell. Whatever you wish for, will come true if you ring it.
The Postojna Cave is an amazing underground cave with breathtaking formations in which you can also see baby dragons (proteus) that can live up to 100 years.
Our beautiful coast stretches across 44km (27.3 miles), but can accommodate all tastes. There are tourist towns, such as Portorož, ancient sea villages, such as Piran, and natural coast, such as the Moon Bay. The Moon Bay is located under the highest cliff on the Adriatic coast.
Lara: As mentioned above, the nature is really beautiful, but I myself am more of a city gal, so Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where I live, is definitely my favorite part of the country. Ljubljana evolved a lot in a recent decade thanks to our mayor Zoran Janković about whom people have very opposing views, but it cannot be denied that he greatly transformed the city. The old town with its picturesque houses and many bridges over the beautiful Ljubljanica River is now completely closed for traffic and attracts more and more tourists every year. This bothers some inhabitants – they are against gentrification and would like the city to be more suitable for “normal” locals and less for tourists and wealthy people.
Still, I think Ljubljana will never lose its special charm. I love all the cafes and restaurants by the river, sitting there on a summer evening, drinking wine with friends, and observe people passing by is one of my favorite things to do. If I can I catch an exhibition in the National Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Graphic Arts, or some small independent gallery. I also enjoy walking around the Tivoli city park, browsing the city’s biggest bookshop, Konzorcij, or curling up in a café with a book or laptop if I have work to do. Smaller cities are interesting to visit too, for example, Škofja Loka, Novo mesto … I am very fond of the charming small town Piran, the hidden gem of the Slovenian coast.
Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?
Ana: Our dishes are largely influenced by Austrian cuisine on the north, the Balkan cuisine on the south, Italian on the coast, and, probably, to the smallest extent by Hungarian, on the east. Even though the prevailing influences come from Austria and the Balkans, Slovenia has its own quite discerning cuisine.
To start with deserts: There are three famous deserts everyone must try when they visit Slovenia. The most known and the most popular among Slovenians is “potica” which is a walnut cake that we make for every bigger celebration or holiday.
Another mouth-watering dessert is Prekmurska gibanica Pie made of walnuts, cottage cheese, poppy seeds, apples, and pastry. It is extremely juicy and goes well with apple cider or a sweet Moscato wine.
The third one is “kremna rezina” that is local to Lake Bled. Make sure to try one when you visit it.
I personally love fish, but most Slovenians would probably opt for meat, so I will present you a meat dish instead. On St. Martin’s Day we celebrate new wine vintage. On the day when must turns into wine, we prepare a special dish called St. Martin’s Goose. It is made of roast goose, steamed red cabbage, and “mlinci” – wheat flour pastry covered in duck fat and, of course, served with red wine.
Lara: I am afraid I am not a big fan of typical Slovenian food, it is too heavy for me and contains a lot of meat – not the best option for a vegetarian. But popular dishes here are for example “ajdovi žganci” (buckwheat spoonbread), usually served with meat sauces, sausages, etc., the Carniolan sausage, usually served with cabbage or turnip, “štruklji” (cottage cheese rolls), “Prekmurska gibanica” (very heavy layered cake made of poppy seeds, walnuts, apples, raisins, and cottage cheese), “potica” (walnut roll), “prleška tünka” (pork and minced bacon with lard), “Idrijski žlikrofi” (stuffed dumplings, usually with meat sauce). Traditional Slovenian Sunday lunch usually contains beef soup, roast meat, and fried potatoes.
Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as “biscuits” instead of “cookies”?
Ana: Slovenia has as many as 48 dialects that have evolved due to diverse countryside. In practice, this means that a person from the south won’t understand a person from the east.
The most interesting feature in Slovenian grammar is “dual”. In brief, it means that we don’t only have singular and plural nouns, but nouns that specifically talk about two people, which can be two women, two men, a man and a woman, and very rarely two objects. So “midva” meaning “the two of us” makes the expression “We love each other” (Imava se rada) even more intimate.
We also have quite lovely swearwords that are anything but that. One of the most charming ones is “Three hundred hairy bear!” Due to the lack of our own swearwords, we usually borrow Croatian or Serbian swearwords.
Lara: Slovenian language has many different dialects – the exact number is not agreed upon but there could be more than 40. They are generally divided into seven dialect groups. Some of the dialects differ from the standardized language so much it is hard to understand them if you do not live in the part of the country where they are spoken. For example, the Prekmurje or Prlekija dialects, spoken in the northeastern part of Slovenia. The standard Slovenian word for the verb “talk” is “govoriti”, meanwhile the people from Prekmurje say “gučati”. The Ljubljana dialect is often called “žabarščina” (frog talk), because we sometimes say “kva” (apparently the sound frog makes – “quack”) instead of “kaj”. “Kaj” in Slovenian means “what”. Another specialty of the Slovene language: it preserved the use of dual in addition to singular and plural and we are very proud of that.
Describe briefly a regular day in your country.
Ana: Most Slovenians go to work early and try to leave work as soon as possible, as they value their free time immensely. We do not have a 9-5 workday, even though a lot of companies have wanted to introduce one. Yet, the majority of the population still goes to work between 7 and 8 and leaves work before 4. Of course, there are professions where people have to work long hours, but even those people tend to value family life and free time. Whenever we can, we go into the countryside. We love doing all kinds of sports, hiking, and especially travelling. Some say Slovenians are never at home, which might be the case, as you can run into your countryman in any part of the world.
We love spending time together, so you will often see families spending the weekends together, men behind the grill, children running around and playing, and women drinking coffee or some very healthy vegan beverage. Health is of utmost importance for Slovenians. We tend to eat healthy, and have an array of restaurants for all diets and tastes. Being a wine country with three completely diverse wine regions, we are very fond of good wine and food. However, it was only in 2020 that we finally got our first Michelin stars.
Lara: 8-hour workday is the most common: from 8 to 4 or from 9 to 5. I am a freelancer so this does not apply to me; I organize my days according to the deadlines, interviews, events I have to attend and socialize. If I am time-efficient enough, I can go out for drinks or attend late-night social events even during the week, which people don’t usually do – they prefer going out on Fridays and Saturdays (of course, I am referring to the pre-covid19 era). Although I have to say Slovenia is not really known as a party country – at least not compared to the other developed European countries I’ve been to.
Some people, especially in the cities, sometimes like to go for coffee or drink with friends or coworkers after work or they do groceries afterward, so they arrive home around 6 or 7 in the evening. The rest of the day is then devoted to the family responsibilities and watching TV late into the night.
How does your country compare to others, especially the States since my audience is primarily American? Environmentally? Politically? Culturally?
Ana: It is impossible to compare Slovenia to the USA, as we are tiny both in terms of size and population. We are a nation of 2 million people living on 20.000 km2, which is tiny even for Europe. However, we have our own language that is spoken by just over 2.3 million people. The main difference between Slovenia and the USA is the affordability of education and healthcare. Our educational system is free for everyone, as is our medical system, although the lines at the doctors’ are getting annoyingly long. We are a parliamentary republic, with the president having more of a protocol role.
We are very health-oriented as a nation and as much as 72% of Slovenians do some kind of sport in their free time. The majority of our houses and flats are owned and not rented, as we do not move house, but we do love to travel. On average, every Slovenian speaks at least two foreign languages, mostly because not many people speak Slovenian.
I would also say that the first impression you get of a Slovenian is that we are a bit reserved but friendly. We tend to open up when we get to know a person better. And when we do, we love spending time together, especially when good food and wine or beer are served.
Lara: As far as politics is concerned, Slovenia is currently led by a right-wing populist Prime Minister Janez Janša who has a lot in common with the States’s previous president Donald Trump (Janša is also Trump’s big supporter and was called “European Trump” a few times). He uses populist methods to control people, frequently spreads fake news on Twitter, and has no respect for the media, non-governmental organizations, culture which is not to his liking, etc. He is also frequently compared to Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Briefly describe three of your country’s historical events that you feel are important.
Ana: One of the most important historical events is the foundation of the University of Ljubljana, which was established in 1919. An interesting fact about the first generation of students at the university: Even though the number of men greatly surpassed the number of women, the first Ph.D. was bestowed to a woman, which was a rarity in Europe at the time.
The most important for my young country is definitely the Independence Day in 1991, which was followed was a 10-day Independence War. On 25 June Slovenia declared independence, which was a big step for a 2 million nation.
In 2004, we joined both NATO and the EU. We exchanged our former currency “tolar” for “euro” and took over the presidency of the EU Council four years later for the first time. We are going to do the same in the second part of this year.
Lara: On 25th June we celebrate Statehood Day. 25th June 1991 was the day when Slovenia, previously a part of Yugoslavia, became independent. The formal declaration of independence occurred on the next day, on the 26th of June – on this occasion Milan Kučan, the first president of Slovenia, uttered the famous words “This evening dreams are allowed, tomorrow is a new day”. During the night, on the 27th of June, Yugoslavia attacked Slovenia and the Slovenian War of Independence started. Luckily, it lasted only ten days – wars in other Yugoslavian countries, which also declared independence, were much longer and deadlier.
Another important date is 26th December when we celebrate Independence and Unity day since on 26th December 1990 Slovenes got the results of the independence plebiscite in which 95 % of the voters decided they would like Slovenia to become an independent and sovereign state.
France Prešeren, Slovenia’s most important poet (our national anthem is based on his poem Zdravljica), died on 8th February 1849, so we celebrate Prešeren Day every year on 8th February; this is the Slovene cultural holiday, a work-free day when it is possible to visit all museums and galleries free of charge; there are also cultural events happening all around the country.
What are some stereotypes about your country that irk you? What media portrays your country badly be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
Ana: Since the former first lady of the USA was Slovenian, most Americans probably have heard about Slovenia for the first time in reference to her. A fun fact: Her hometown, Sevnica, now offers a cake named Melania.
There are some stereotypes that I am not very fond of, but I cannot refute all of them. Some are, in fact, quite true. We are supposedly envious of our neighbors, so the proverbs “grass is greener on the other side” and “keeping up with the Joneses” apply strongly here. Even though we are a hardworking nation with exceptional people that have achieved and done great things in the world, we sometimes do not know how to be proud of ourselves.
Another thing that is very typical of Slovenians is that we drink a lot of alcohol. We are a winegrowing country and also a beer producer, with quite a high number of people owning their own vineyard and producing their own wine. Drinking is a problem, especially because people are not used to expressing their feelings openly. Therefore, resorting to alcohol seemed to be the easy way out for many. This – at least it seems so, has slowly been changing for the better in the last years.
Lara: Many people, especially Americans, still think that Slovenia is some undeveloped country in the Balkans with absolutely zero connections with the “bigger world” – or they have no clue where Slovenia is. I remember my first visit to New York when my American friends asked me things like whether we can buy corn in Slovenia or if I ever heard of the shop H&M. This stereotype is clearly visible in the movie Borat 2, where Melania Trump, ex-first lady of America and probably the most famous Slovenian next to basketball player Luka Dončić, is portrayed as a “lowly peasant girl from a sh**hole country Slovenia” who wants to marry rich to get out of the country.
The book Veronica Decides to Die by the famous Brazilian novelist Paolo Coelho is also set in Ljubljana, but, ironically, Veronica, the main protagonist, wants people to believe that she tried to commit suicide because of an article that suggests no one knows where Slovenia is. On top of that, the book was adapted into a Hollywood movie which was not shot in Ljubljana but in New York City.
What media portrays your country well be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
Ana: Slovenia is not very well known in the world, but a book written by Noah Charney, Slovenology, is a lovely representation of Slovenians from a point of view of an American that moved to Slovenia and married a Slovenian woman.
We are not so much portrayed, but best represented by the magnificent sportsmen and scientists that originate from the country. We have the world’s best alpine skiers and ski jumpers, such as Peter Prevc. Our best hockey player, Anže Kopitar is currently playing for Los Angeles Kings and also won a Stanely Cup, our two best basketball players have also been playing in America, Luka Donćič for Dallas Mavericks and Goran Dragić for Miami heat. Our top cyclists that have broken one record after another, Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar, are also in the limelight of media. They are definitely a great representation of who Slovenians are.
The world probably also knows us by our world-famous philosopher Slavoj Žižek, who in 2019 debated with Jordan Peterson the topic of happiness under capitalism versus Marxism. His interesting persona and great intellect are widely appealing to the people that like to listen to his debates.
Besides sports, Slovenia is perhaps best known for its culinary arts. In 2017, Ana Roš became the world’s best female chef 2016. She also appeared in the Netflix series Chef’s Table.
Lara: Noah Charney, an American writer, and journalist living in Slovenia wrote a book Slovenology: Living and traveling in the world’s best country which was quite a bestseller here (obviously), but unfortunately I haven’t read it yet so I cannot tell you more about it.
Who are your top three favorite fictional characters native to your country in books, movies, or shows?
Ana: A lot of our fictional characters are brave children. Kekec is a fearless young boy, a shepherd from the mountains in the Julian Alps who is fighting an evil wild hunter (Bedanec) and an evil herbalist woman who is stealing children from the mountains (Pehta).
I was always mesmerized by fairies, who allegedly dance on river banks in the White Carniola region at night and are guarded by the Water Man. That was one of my favorite bedtime stories.
Another fictional character, Martin Krpan, is a witty and strong man smuggling English salt (gunpowder) on his horse from the Adriatic Sea Coast to Slovenian lands and also all the way to Vienna. On one of his travels, he meets an imperial carriage and makes way for it on a snowbound road by picking up his laden horse and moving it aside. The Emperor is impressed by his extraordinary strength. Many years later the Emperor summons Martin Krpan to Vienna to fight against a brutal warrior, Brdavs, who has already slain most of the city’s knights. Krpan unwillingly accepts and defeats Brdavs. As a thank you the Emperor gives him special permission to traffic the salt. He also gives him permission to marry his daughter. I like this story because it shows the true character of Slovenians: courage and wit.
Lara: Since Slovenians are not commonly portrayed in world literature, I chose fictional characters created by Slovenian authors. All of these are not really my favorites, but they appear in the most popular Slovenian books. Taras Birsa, a criminal investigator in the wildly successful crime novels of Tadej Golob (the first one is titled Jezero – The Lake), read all over the country and adapted into the TV series; Marko Đorđić, the main protagonist in Goran Vojnović’s bestselling novel Čefurji raus! (Southern Scum, Go Home!), which explores relations between Slovenes and immigrants from the countries of the former Yugoslavia; and Veronika Zarnik, the young woman that meets a tragic end in Drago Jančar’s novel To noč sem jo videl (I Saw Her That Night). Jančar is the most acclaimed Slovenian writer at the moment; he won not only all the important Slovenian but also some very prestigious foreign prizes for literature.
Are you interested in participating in this project? Check out the tips archive to see which countries have been filled and if you’re from a different country, shoot me an email at howellvictoriagrace(a)gmail(dot)com. I’m especially looking for Cuba, Senegal, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Laos.
[…] a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last time’s So Your Character is from Slovenia … be sure to hop on over there and give it a […]
Wowww between the food, those waters, and the christmas decorations, it seems like a gorgeous and interesting region!
Right? I was never that interested in Baltic countries until these interviews and now I want to go! Thanks for commenting, Athena!
Okay now I REALLY want to visit Slovenia. What a gorgeous sounding country! Absolutely loved learning more about it. Thank you both so much for sharing!
RIGHT?! Thanks so much for commenting!