TRAVEL - SLOVENIA - ZMAJČEKI CAN DO IT BETTER

AUTHOR: M. JAHOVIĆ GDNUS

As I wrote in my previous travelogue about Croatia, I also visited Slovenia. After the delight and experience I had in Croatia, I continued my business journey to Slovenia. Just like in Croatia and in Slovenia, it's my first time. I expected to come across one of the most orderly and richest countries not only in the Balkans but also in Central Europe. And such an expectation was of course based on the stories I heard from people around me, and newspaper articles from the media in the Balkans. However, not all that glitters is gold, and neither is Slovenia's economy. But let's start in order.

Head from Zagreb to Ljubljana by highway. Through Samobor, I came to Bregana - the border crossing. I expected that there would be border controls, but nothing. That is the European Union, and there are no borders between the members, even when both are in the Schengen system.

My first impression is delight, beauty, nature, settlements. Everything is arranged, arranged, unrealistically clean. Nature is still something that left me breathless, those beautiful mountains, hills, valleys, forests, but also specific houses, which resemble those in Austria.

In about an hour and a half from the time I left Zagreb, I arrived in Ljubljana. Entering the city does not reveal anything that there is any urbanized place, let alone the capital of a country. I thought the navigation had taken me to the wrong place, but after a few minutes of driving, the outline of the city appeared. I arrived in Ljubljana. The town is small, cold, but neat and beautiful.

He was sent to a meeting with Montenegrin emigrants, in their premises, which are located right across the street from the Embassy of Montenegro and within easy reach of the train station. The building that houses the Montenegrin Home is unsightly, dilapidated, and in poor condition. I also learned that it will soon be demolished, and our compatriots living in Slovenia will be left without their premises.

I also learned from them that the position of minorities in that country is not regulated in the way I expected . On the contrary, minorities have almost no rights. It is difficult to expect that the position of minorities will be regulated as in Croatia, which is an example for everyone, but I did not expect such an extreme, that is, a complete absence of minority rights, in Slovenia.

We also started a conversation about the economy, salaries, living standards standards. Well, Slovenia is comparable to all the Balkans. However, salaries for average occupations are much lower than in Croatia, lower than in Montenegro. Pensions in Slovenia are even worse, and prices are unrealistically high. Pensioners have to find some part-time job to survive , most often they are guards or taxi drivers. Sad. And the official average salaries are anything but realistic, because their calculation also includes the enormously high ones, which politicians and their political followers prescribe for themselves. The situation sounds familiar, identical if not identical in the entire Balkans.

But let me not conclude this travelogue with negativity, and I do not would be incomplete if I didn't mention the best burek I've ever tried anywhere. Yes, you read that right, your eyes don't deceive you. The best burek, believe it or not, you won't eat in Sarajevo or anywhere in Bosnia or Novi Pazar, or Albania, or Turkey.. .. You will eat the best burek in Ljubljana at the Saraj restaurant, which is owned by a hardworking Montenegrin born in Bjelopolje. To make the charm even more beautiful and the atmosphere better, apart from the beautiful ambience, you can watch the skilled hands of a great cook make that burek in front of you.

Are beauties natural , orderliness, the best burek and the culture and civility of the citizens are enough reasons for me to come to Slovenia again. Of course they are, but in the future I will not make any conclusions about any destination until I see for myself.