JULY 12 - As usual, there is a large but mostly vacant border post and customs complex at the border. We blow through it, our only ‘official’ check being the cursory glance the bus driver gave our passports when we boarded in Trieste.
Pass by some substantial roadcuts and mountain peaks, all obviously limestone. The rural areas are forested on the slopes with intense and highly mechanized agriculture in the valley floors. The design and signage of the highways are similar to that used in the US. Off in Ljubljana, make our way on bus #14 to the Bežigrad district where our room is. It is on a quiet back street with plenty of vegetation around, including a trellis with kiwifruits.
Slovenia, the ‘Switzerland of the Balkans’, is not exactly what one might expect from a part of former Yugoslavia. It has the odd position of being both in and out of the ‘Balkans’: In, because of its status pre-1991, but out, because culturally, it gravitates much closer to Austria and Italy than it does to Croatia.
We are now entering the complicated history of the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia was the first to hold a referendum to become an independent country in 1991, with Croatia declaring soon after. It was relatively easy for Slovenia, since most people within the territory were more or less the same ethnicity.
The local bus system is really easy, just buy a card at a machine next to the bus stop and load it with Euros with a credit card. Then tap the card when entering the bus.
After shedding the bags we head back downtown. Odette groans when we walk into the National Museum, anticipating boredom. I tell her that she always says that beforehand, but then finds something amazing to capture her attention.
One important pre-historic find, quite famous in Slovenia, is of a flute made from bone, found in the Dijve Babe I cave in the southwest part of the country. It dates from about 45,000 years ago, among the earliest indication of human presence in the region. And it is the oldest known musical instrument in the world.
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A lot of good, detailed displays of pre-Roman groups and their archaeological remains. Coins were struck in the region from the 2nd Century BCE with Celtic designs. The earliest written language found in Slovenian is a derivative of Veneti, which developed from Etruscan, which in turn developed from what the Greeks brought to the Italian peninsula.
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