The Road to Ljubljana

Another long day of driving but made it to Ljubljana, Slovenia (yes, Slovenia not Sylvania – that’s a light bulb) around 4:30pm. Our host wasn’t able to meet us at the apartment because of an emergency that came up so his good friend Van came by and showed us the ropes. The emergency, Lan lives on a farm just outside of town and his fence fell down and his goats were escaping. Had to round-up the herd so his friend came in his place.

The apartment is a modest one-bedroom, one bath with a kitchen, dining area and living room. Also came with a parking spot but we elected to park in the lot next to the building, easier to unload our luggage.

Living room

Dining room (?)

Kitchen

Bedroom

Bath and laundry

Checked in, unpacked and called it a day. Driving does take a toll on your mental stamina so dice and cards and a little TV sound good.

So, why Slovenia? Never been here, so why not. Hadn’t read much about Slovenia or Ljubljana (pronounced, “Lube Lee Yawn A) but it was on the way to Croatia so why not. OK kids, time for another history lesson…

The earliest record of human settlement in Slovenia was discovered in Hells Cave, located in the Loza Woods near to the town of Orehek. Two stone tools were found which were approximately 250,000 years old so the first inhabitants of Slovenia were the Neanderthals.

Slovenia was settled by Illyrian and Celtic tribes in the Bronze age and the area became part of the Roman Empire in the first century B.C. The Slovenes were a southern Slavic tribe which moved into the country in the 6th century A.D. In the 7th century, they formed the state known as Samu, which was allied with the Avars, who ruled most of the Hungarian plains, until they were defeated by the Charlemagne tribe in the 8th century AD.

The Hungarians were defeated by the Turks in 1526 and were forced to seek Austrian Hapsburg rule to avoid being part of the Turkish Empire. The Hapsburg monarchy was the first to include all of the Slovene regions under its control. Both Slovenia and Croatia became part of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom when the dual monarchy was established in 1867.

Skip forward to 1918 and the end of WW1 and so much for Hapsburg rule.  Seizing the opportunity the Slovenes, the Serbs, and Croats, decide to join up and create the new and original, “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes”. That all changed in 1929 when they simplified it to, “The Kingdom of Yugoslavia”.

Skip further forward and the end of WW2. Now a new sheriff is in town, Stalin, and thousands of people are classified as dissidents and imprisoned. Thousands also decide to escape the oppression and emigrate to Argentina, Canada, and Australia.

OK, we’re getting there, just a little more. 1948 and here comes Tito and Titoism. And they thought things were bad with Stalin! Political oppression worsens and things just didn’t get better.

Over the next 40 years, Slovenia transformed from a Socialist, oppressive country to what it is today, a democracy with free elections and a thriving economy. Slovenia broke from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as did other members, and formed the Republic of Slovenia. In 2004, Slovenia joined NATO and the EU, and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2007.

Our neighborhood

Ljubljana

There, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?

Forgot to add the Cold War bomb shelter in the basement of our apartment building!

Our own private bomb shelter!