Ljubljana, Slovenia – July 1999

School is out for the summer, but the road repairing is just starting. Oh, joy, oh, happinessÂ… So, if you’re planning on driving down to the coast, don’t forget to pack a big bag of patience. Especially if you’re driving down on a Friday afternoon. The “normal” driving time is about an hour and a half, but if you really get stuck, a four hour drive is not an unusual occurence. I hope your car has air-conditioning.

About the things happening here in JulyÂ… A friend of mine will resent it if I don’t mention the REM concert first. It’s going to happen July 25th in Izola (that’s a town on the coast).

In Ljubljana, the big thing is the summer festival in Krizanke. As mentioned last month, the tickets are available through the internet at http://www.festival-lj.si. The festival starts July 7th and ends sometime in September. Also, the first three days in July are dedicated to the annual jazz festival, but I can’t tell you anything about it. Sorry!

Otherwise, things are pretty much dead in Slovenia in the summer. Let’s be honest, Slovenia is dead in summer. People are headed out to sea (so the roads get blocked), but the “continental” part stays empty. So, it might be a good idea to spend your holidays in Slovenia not on the seaside, but elsewhere. Some suggestions you can find on the net, a good place to find it at is http://www.creativ.si.

The people and stores in Slovenia are currently obsessed with the new taxing systemÂ… It’s called something like “the value added tax”. I have no clue what the correct English expression is. Some say the prices are gonna go up because of it, the others that they are to go down, the third say nothing will changeÂ… Most people are just stuck in between and don’t know what to think. Anyway, we’ll see it for ourselves on July 1st, when the system changes. I think the European Union countries work on that tax basis, so now we also have to, if we want to get in. We changed so many things already, what’s one more?

We survived the visit of President Clinton last week, even some of the roads got repaired in his honor (plus it was time to do it), so the next big visit awaiting us will be the Pope, I think in August (but don’t really know for sure). However, he’ll be going to Maribor (the second biggest city in Slovenia), not to Ljubljana (he was here in 1996). I heard they were repairing the roads already.

P.S. I would love to hear from readers who would like to make any comments. Do you agree with my suggestions and comments? Is there things that you would like me to write about? Do you want more information? Please feel free to contact me …Tina Petek

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