Most read · Slovenia through my eyes

5 of my unusual observations about Slovenia

petrakeckes

Yes, we all know that Slovenia is proud of it’s tremendous mountain range, crystal clear lakes and a pictoresque landscape. But, apart from these, let’ s have a look at a few other facts that might appear as… hmm… interesting in this country 🙂

  1. You can smell the cows everywhereee 

It is nothing unusual to see small family-run farms in Slovenia, which are mostly situated in small villages and actually look very lovely. So, when you decide to take a car trip and drive through Slovene mountains and beautiful villages, you will not only pass a number of corn fields (corn is at every corner here) but your nose will remind that you are passing a farm, too J

WP_20150827_007 (2)

2.     Let’s go to pay the bills or Slovenes do not use internet banking

Yes, weird… When I came here and saw some of my local friends to sit into their car, drive about 10 minutes in order to go somewhere to pay their printed phone bill which they had received via post, I laughed and made jokes about it JI said – really? You invest your time and petrol for paying your bills in the 21st century? My smile changed into a look of surprise when I realized that the majority of Slovene people pay their bills in this way. Well, Slovenia is a traditional country with traditional manners, and as they say, why to pay your bills from your computer or smartphone when you can go and have some nice chat with the lady behind the counter?

WP_20150904_002 (2)

3.       Offices close at 3 or 4 PM

This is quite unusual but actually a really cool fact about Slovenia. The most common working hours in this country are from 7 AM to 3 PM. So when you need to go to sort something out to some office or institution, it’s good to hurry up otherwise you find you find the sign “Closed”. This might seem strange at first, but I bet that many of us would be happy to have almost the entire afternoons free. Of course, provided that you are an early bird and don’t mind to get up at 6 J

4.      Slovenes buy their bread at the bakery, fruit in a Fruit&Veg shop and flour at the mill

Although Slovene supermarkets are well equipped at you can find them at every street corner, some Slovenes still prefer to do their shopping in a traditional way. Therefore, they go to a butcher’s to buy some fresh meat, they visit a local Fruit&Veg shop to get some apples, a mill to get pure and chemical-free flour aaaand… they go to a Pekarna to get their bread. By the way, Slovene bakeries are pure heaven. They are usually open until late hours every day and apart from the wonderful smell which coming from them, they offer an amazing selection of fresh rolls and buns, strudel and burek… must love them

5.       Bikes and handbags in baskets

Oh, they are my favorite thing number one in Slovenia! In Slovenia everyone has a car and everyone has a bike. Bikes belong to the main means of transport here. Not only the infrastructure for riding a bike is well-developed but you can also make a pretty nice Saturday trip by riding through the picturesque countryside. And seeing a girl in a nice dress riding her bike through the streets of Ljubljana while carrying her handbag in the front basket makes you feel like you would travel back into the 60s again. Pure retro J

WP_20150805_002

Have you been to Slovenia, too? What unusual have you noticed?

To connect with me, feel free to follow me on my social media:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

6 thoughts on “5 of my unusual observations about Slovenia”

    1. I like your observations especially because it’s obvious that you’re very kind :). About smell of the cows. It may look unusual but only few years ago the things were much worse, or better. 15 – 20 years ago, in many villages every house had at least a cow or two. Now in the same villages you can’t find cow anymore. But it’s true that even in Ljubljana you can find the farms and cows are very often in the mountain farms.

      Internet banking is in big growth but some people are still afraid of the internet scams.

      But like i said, very good observations!

      Like

      Reply

      1. Hi Aleš, of course, this does not apply to everyone and it is also different from place to place. I just write what I’ve seen and noticed 🙂 Thanks for reading my blog, more articles are coming in the next days 🙂

        Like

  2. Nice post! Just wanted to say not everyone’s so old fashioned about paying bills. People older than 50 mostly still pay them like that, but most people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s do use online banking. I’ve never paid a bill any other way. 🙂 It did surprise me, too, when I moved back here permanently almost 6 years ago. But times are changing and even Slovenia is slowly making its way into the 21st century, haha. 😃

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hey! Thanks for your comment. Of course, I don’t want to throw everyone into one basket. It is just from what I have seen so far – there are more people doing this on old-fashioned way in Slovenia than in other countries. Well, nothing wrong with that 🙂 Have a good day!

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment