Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Notable Slovenes:
A pair of prominent Ohio politicians—perennial presidential can-
didate
Dennis Kucinich
andformerSenator
George Voinovich,
bothfromtheCleve-
land area—are each half-Slovene. (In 1910, Cleveland had the biggest Slovenian
population of any city in the world—just ahead of Trieste and Ljubljana.) Classic-
al musicians might know composers
Giuseppe Tartini
and
Hugo Wolf.
Even if you
haven't heard of architect
Jože Ple
č
nik
yet, you'll hear his name a hundred times
whileyou'reinSlovenia—especiallyinLjubljana(see
here
).Perhapsmostfamousof
all is the illustrious
Melania Knauss
—a
GQ
cover girl who's also the current Mrs.
Donald Trump.
Sporty Slovenes:
If you follow alpine sports or team handball, you'll surely know
some world-class athletes from Slovenia. NBA fans might recognize basketball
players
Primož Brezec
and
Bostjan Nachbar,
as well as some other less famous
players. Slovenian hockey player
Anže Kopitar
plays in the NHL. The athletic
Slovenes—perhaps trying to compensate for the minuscule size of their coun-
try—have accomplished astonishing feats:
Davo Karni
č
ar
has skied down from the
“seven summits” (the highest points in each of the seven continents—that means the
peaks of Everest, Kilimanjaro, McKinley, and so on).
Benka Pulko
became the first
person ever to drive a motorcycle around the world (that is, all seven continents, in-
cluding Antarctica; total trip: 111,856 miles in 2,000 days—also the longest solo mo-
torcycle journey by a woman;
www.benkapulko.com
).
Dušan Mravlje
ran across all
the continents (
www.dusanmravlje.si
)
. And ultra-marathon swimmer
Martin Strel
has swum the entire length of several major rivers, including the Danube (1,775
miles), the Mississippi (2,415 miles), the Yangtze (3,915 miles), and the Amazon
(3,393 miles; for more, see
www.martinstrel.com
)
.
Another good (and uniquely Slovenian) memento is a creatively decorated front panel
fromabeehive
(panjske kon
č
nice).
Sloveniahasastrongbeekeepingtradition,andbeekeep-
ers believe that painting the fronts of the hives makes it easier for bees to find their way
home. Replicas of these panels are available at gift shops all over the country. (For more on