Slovenia: Unspoiled and beautiful… but what a world away

Our journeys this year have brought us to some unique and off-the-beaten-path destinations. Because few of these places were set in our itinerary prior to this year, it’s been fascinating to see where the work and volunteer opportunities have taken us. Knowing hardly anything about Slovenia apart from the knowledge that it is a small, semi-undiscovered country formerly part of the old Yugoslavia, Travis and I have landed here somewhat blindly for a 2-week helpx stay.

Leaving Italy was a bit of letdown for me, as I had anticipated this segment of our year for some time. But, as Travis wrote in his last blog, we feel like through our variety of farm stays we were really able to see and experience a large part of the country and will cherish our memories there. So on the 1st of June, we took a train from Venice to the border city of Gorizia, Italy, where we were met by our native Slovenian host, Tjasa. Her home and B&B is located just 25 minutes from the border in the town of Branik. Crossing the border into Slovenia from Italy passed without us noticing it. As with many other European countries, once Slovenia became a part of the European Union several years ago, the border fences were taken down.

Being so close to Italy here in Branik, you’d think that much of the landscape, the people and the culture would be similar. Surprisingly, this is not the case at all. In truth, we feel like we’re a world away. This lovely village is located in a lush valley of vineyards, vegetable gardens and what appears to be every variety of fruit tree that can flourish here. Green, tree-covered mountains surround us, with the horizon of the Julian Alps just to the north of us. Perched atop many of the high peeks are stone churches surrounded by very small villages, and from the window of our room we have an amazing view of one of the largest and oldest Slovenian castles. There is vast, unspoiled territory in all directions to explore by foot or on bicycle. When I say “unspoiled,” I mean there are no large road signs, ugly store fronts, or much of anything else that would suggest this is a modernized society (except in the few larger cities). This country is ideal for cycling. Road bikers are aplenty, and we’ve seen many groups of cyclists (clubs or tour bikers) speed past while we sit there wishing we had our bikes and could join right in. If we ever come back to this country, we’re doing it on our bikes. There couldn’t be a more picturesque setting.

Most of the homes here, including the one we are living and working in, share a common architectural style with solid stone walls, tile roofs, wooden floors and colorfully shuttered windows. They are built together in clusters, so only the newer homes can be seen on their own. Back in the day several different families lived together in one home, so with 4-5 homes built close together you had a small self-sufficient village. Absolutely EVERY home here has a little vegetable garden; I’ve never seen so many beautifully cared for patches of land, offering everything from cucumbers to sweat peas to up to five varieties of lettuce. Whether a home has a lot of space or just a tiny 10x10 foot patch of earth, without a doubt it will be a plentiful garden that a family could live on. In fact, I’ve noticed the market here carries a pretty sparse selection of fresh produce- maybe this is the result of a lack of buyers being that everyone has their own veggies? Just a thought. Most homes also have a couple of fruit trees (I love to walk by and guess what fruit is on it’s way to season), several grape vines and sometimes olive trees too. We’ve read that many Slovenians produce their own wine and olive oil (or pumpkin seed oil) to go with all of their meals.

It is definitely cherry season here! I have never seen so many cheery trees in bloom in my life; I think every home has one. Every time we’re out we see people on ladders up in the trees picking cherries and putting them in their baskets. Our host Tjasa told us that the policy on picking fruit here is a bit like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” so if Travis and I pass a tree on a walk it’s “okay” to take a few to try. Delicious. We’ve found our favorite trees in the neighborhood where we’re somewhat hidden from on looking eyes. As far as the local cuisine, it appears to be a rather hodgepodge mix of some Italian and the traditional European meat and potatoes with some local touches. Although we loved Italian food, we’re both pretty happy to have a change from all the pasta, pizza and tomatoes for a while. A favorite of our stay has been visiting the little pub down the street that we can walk to from our home. Slovenian wine here is just 60 cents a glass and Travis has loved the good regional beers on tap. Even though drinks weren’t terribly expensive in Italy, you sure can’t beat a fun visit to the pub for less than 4 euro!

Speaking of the pub, we’ve had some of our best Slovenian people watching moments here. The town of Branik is not exactly a tourist destination, so we’re definitely in the minority. In fact, the bartender said to us today, “So, you’re still in Branik… why?” We laughed and explained to her that we’re working for our stay and the chance to experience local culture first hand. She was pretty interested to hear that a couple from Los Angeles would want to come and visit Slovenia. Why not? It’s beautiful here! But back to the people. Hmmm… how to explain? This town certainly has the “small town” local feel, with farmers riding by on tractors, women working in the gardens wearing their work dresses and aprons, regulars who come on their motorcycles to the pub each night, and much teenage angst amongst the youth (think gothic black clothing, etc…). One thing they don’t seem to be experts at is their sense of style. Coming from Italy, this is quite a contrast. Just picture some classic 80’s hairstyles, men in plaid workout shorts with button down collar shirts, and women in whatever appears comfortable to them at that moment. Very interesting. Travis and I fit right in when we walk in town wearing our paint splattered work clothes and terribly over warn tennis shoes. We sure can’t fit in with the language here though; it is completely incomprehensible and unrecognizable to us. Apparently, it’s almost impossible for adults to learn as well. If you don’t grow up speaking Slovenian, it’s pretty rare you’ll ever be able to speak it in your lifetime. Good thing most people speak some English too, or we’d be pretty stuck.

Now that I’ve painted you a picture of what Slovenia looks like and sounds like, what exactly are we doing here? Well, our host Tjasa is a known Slovenian painter by profession, who bought a large home several years back that she has turned into a B&B as a side business. The main purpose for her in having these rooms is to hold artist workshops a couple of times a year where she invites budding artists from all over the world to attend. Here she teaches the basic to more significant elements of art while she hosts and entertains her guests. When she doesn’t have guests, Tjasa seems to lead a pretty private and reclusive life. Although we took some time to warm up to her, overall we’ve found Tjasa to be a very cultured and intellectual person. She’s studied in over five different countries, speaks five languages, and is a lifelong learner always excited to talk about something going on in the world. During our stay the topic much of the time has been the state of the economy; she’s a bit of a dramatist who thinks we shouldn’t go back home to the USA while the dollar is weak. She recommends us to settle in Singapore instead! Needless to say, we’ve had some interesting conversations.

As Tjasa’s first helpx workers (she didn’t trust any inquiries from helpers before us!) it’s taken a little bit of time to establish a working routine with her, but we’ve come to enjoy the work. She had a massive project for us to undergo- restoring the windows on her house which is a couple of hundred years old. To start, the house has about 30 windows, and Travis and I have had to take them all out of the window frames, strip them of paint, sand them down to the original wood, and then re-paint them. It’s been a giant undertaking and quite tedious at times. Mixed with that we’ve done a little wall painting, woodcutting and various other tasks… but mainly it’s been 8 days now with windows, windows and more windows. After our 5-6 hours of work a day we either take a hike, use Tjasa’s bikes to explore the countryside, or take a 25-minute train to the border town of Nova Goriza where we use the internet at the library. By taking 10 steps south of this train station, we can go right back into Italy. On our first visit to this town, we got lost, ended up in Italy, and had to stop to ask directions to the library. The answer of the shop clerk was classic: “This library is in Slovenia, I don’t know where that is!” It turns out the library was just 4 blocks from his store.

We did get the chance to take one quick side-trip here north to the beautiful Lake Bled. This is a resort town with a crystal clear lake surrounded by the Julian Alps. Incredible scenery abounded with alpine vistas, A-frame homes, and the feel of Austria and Switzerland. It gave us a taste of what we’ll soon be seeing as we travel to these countries later this month. So overall, although we had a bit of culture shock at first coming to Slovenia from Italy, I would say we’ve ended up adjusting well to this country and would definitely return someday to see more of it. Especially if we had our bicycles with us.