Slovenia

It has been a few days since I got back from my little trip with Steve to Slovenia. I must confess - I did not even know where this country was. But, I do now. It is a great little place. Slovenia only has 2 million people in the entire country, but the arts are alive and well in this small little place.

For those that are wondering, Slovenia is located to the right of Italy, and right underneath Austria. It is part of former-Yugoslavia, and recently joined the European Union. Since it joined, it has become a tourist destination for many Europeans - because your money goes far, and the food is great!

When we arrived in Slovenia we were taken to our hotel - actually we were taken to Steve's hotel. He thought it wouldn't be a problem to book another room for me once we got there, but they were full up. So, this nice man who was organizing the trip called a few close places and found me a place to stay (which actually turned out to be nicer than Steve's place) ;)


Anyway, we made our way to the performance venue and Steve had his sound check with the Italian Trombone Quartet, Trombonisti Italiani. Steve recorded his 4 Valves, 4 Slides CD with them a few years ago. Recently he has recorded another disc, Colours of the World, which is a collection of folk songs from around the world. Really neat stuff. For more information on Trombonisti Italiani and their leader, Lito Fontana - click here.


The venue was great, a little small - but the place was almost sold out. We were in a small town near the capital called Domzale for the concert. They have a subscription series where they bring in artists from everywhere, and this was one of those concerts. Apparently they also have a couple of brass bands in the town, so many of those players showed up as well.

After the concert we were taken back to Steve's hotel for dinner. We had a great time that evening with plenty to eat and drink. The quartet was there along with a few other guests for the evening. Great conversation filled the evening, and it was a lot of fun meeting new people.

The next morning Steve and I went to the capital, Ljubljana (I must say that I had to check the spelling of that twice while I was writing it) for a little sight seeing. The place is great. Some of the more modern architecture has a slight 70's Russian influence to it, but if you can look past that you can see the true beauty is the older stuff - whatever wasn't destroyed in the war.

There is a river that runs right through one of the major town squares. It kind of reminds me of Amsterdam a little (although people aren't making their homes on the water). We met up with a conductor-friend of Steve's from a previous business, and he took us up to a castle high on a hill. There we got a full-on view of the city from a birds-eye perspective. It was truly beautiful. After that we got a little time to walk around before we went to lunch. The food is hard to describe, but I would call it a mix between German and Italian cuisine. It was, however, great.

It was great to get the opportunity to see another country - even if for only a short time. I hope that I can go back sometime. I do know that this little country will be a hotbed of tourist activity in the future - first for Europeans and eventually Americans. People there are very friendly and laid-back, and they love the arts.