When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
food / travel

My Trip Back Home Finds A New Face Of Slovenia

Sax Bar, a popular place in Ljubljana in the 80s
Sax Bar, a popular place in Ljubljana in the 80s
Andrej Mrevlje

LJUBLJANA — I have been traveling for a few weeks now, on a journey filled with inner dialogue. Searching first for long-desired destinations, I was soon digging deep into my childhood. It was a walk toward the past — a backtrack of the images and sensations that were important in forming my personality. Doing it together, in part, with my siblings, I was able to recreate some of the events I'd forgotten, and also shed a different light on the events that had anchored themselves in my mind for decades. My trip was sort of like the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, in which all the protagonists have different recollections of the same event; different narratives that only manage to offset the subjectivity of events by adding them up, reconstructing them, and, in Kurosawa's case, explaining a murder. No murders in my case.

My travel took me to different places, starting out by crossing the Atlantic on the magnificent Queen Mary 2. Some of Yonder's readers had the impression that I did not have a good time on that boat. I loved it, it was a great experience, but it was a different kind of travel than what I expected, or what I wanted it to be for many years. It did trash my old quixotic notions of crossing the Ocean, replacing it with a more realistic one, enjoyable nonetheless.

The monument to Alma Karlin (1889 – 1950) in Celje Photo: Andrej Mrevlje

No surprises of this kind in London, where I walked through Soho on the way to the National Gallery, the wealth of the wealthy on display in the windows of high-end shops, fancy bars, and restaurants that no longer belong to locals (already a loose term in this city). London is changing fast and will be the first capital to be overrun by rich populations that some decades ago were called foreigners. If the referendum on the EU would have been called a few years later than it was, Britain would have never, ever voted for Brexit.

I was also very glad to see my own country prospering. Very few Slovenians in the past would have admitted what some do now: Slovenia has a very high quality of life. The surprising thing is that it accomplished it with much less wealth than London. The country has a much smaller GDP and people have lower salaries, but they are surrounded by beautiful nature and good food that is getting increasingly better, even selective. If only they would smoke less! For someone who is used to the crowded streets and noise of New York, Slovenia seems to possess endless space and that deep-resting silence and peace. And yet my small country is somehow also a hard-working, bustling place.

The money in once-sleepy Ljubljana seems to be well spent.

What makes me even happier about today's Slovenia is that it is investing money to unearth historical sites, including an entire Forum of a small city of the Roman Empire, or some medieval palaces and tombs that for many years were covered by some socialist trash. Even in a small city like Celje, where I was born, there are now cultural and historical sites that I never saw when I was growing up. We had our fun as kids, but instead of having it among the Roman ruins, we played among big socialist planters.

Ljubljana, the town I consider mine in Slovenia, has gone through a real urban revival. Sure, being the nation's capital, the city is spending more than any other, upsetting other cities like Maribor. But the money in once-sleepy Ljubljana seems to be well spent and the city is now blossoming, crowded with mostly young visitors, as shopkeepers and restaurant staff in the old part of the city have stopped using the local language. Meanwhile, some visitors are trying to learn some of the Slovene language.

Ljubljana Photo: Andrej Mrevlje

When I lived in Ljubljana, I seemed to know every single foreigner who came to town. It would be a guest professor, lecturer, some foreign friends of friends, my friends visiting. Ljubljana is now flooded with tourists coming from all parts of the world. There is a very systematic effort to offer a fresh look that respects the original aesthetics, traditions of the country. That includes some old ideas that were made for the city at the beginning of the last century but were never implemented. It is so nice to see those old plans coming out of the drawers, being altered, improved, then implemented.

The city is in the hands of the youth. Finally.

There are new bridges and rejuvenated life on the small river Ljubljanica, which curves through the city. There are so many ways to walk the city and find new perspectives, added to the old ones, all the small details and renovations that make the city a subtle testament to our culture and our modernity. There are also lovely bars and restaurants on every other corner. The city is in the hands of the youth. Finally.

There is more to say and other stories to tell, but in the meantime, I wanted to send this postcard of my old city and its new world.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Photo of a Palestinian man walking through the rubble of a destroyed building in Nusairat, central Gaza.

A Palestinian man walks through the rubble of a destroyed building in Nusairat, central Gaza. Israel’s army has announced its operations have now expanded across all of Gaza.

Emma Albright, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Bertrand Hauger

👋 Sawubona!*

Welcome to Monday, where Israel’s army announces its operations have now expanded across all of Gaza, 11 hikers are killed and 12 are missing after Indonesia's Marapi volcano erupts, and Spiderman has a say in the Oxford 2023 word of the year. Meanwhile, we have a look at the question of what political or popular figure could lead the Palestinians in the future.

[*Zulu - South Africa]

Keep reading...Show less

The latest