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
the panels and Slovenia's beekeeping heritage, see here . )
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