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Slovenia

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About Slovenia:

SLOVENIA

Slovenia is a small country (20272sq.km, on a good day you can ride from the NE to the SW corner in under 4h) with a population of a little less than 2mio bordering to Italy on the west, Austria on the north, Hungary on the northeast and Croatia on east and south. Its unique position in Europe make it very interesting because it lies on the junction of four European macrogeographic units: the Alps (NW, N), Panonian lowlands (E, SE), the Dinarid massif (S) and the Adriatic coastal region (W). These also correspond with macroregions into wich one can geographically divide Slovenia. From a climbers point of view the most interesting regions are the Alps (with many subregions it covers about 42% of Slovenia) and the Dinarid massif (28%), especially its edge (with the famous Misja pec and Osp).

But i have decided to divide the country into "traditional" geographic regions (formerly the borders between Austro-Ogrian lands) because they make more sense to an average person. So the regions are: Primorska (mostly Dinarid edge), Severna Primorska and the So?a river valley (north Primorska with many scattered boulders and hidden cliffs mostly on the dinarid Massif, boulders in the upper valley of So?a river), Gorenjska (the Julian and Karavan Alps), Stajerska (Kamni?ko-Savinjske Alps), smaller mountain ranges and hills) and Koroska (Kamni?ko-savinjske Alps) and Notranjska and Dolenjska (Dinarid massif).

Though you might consider Slovenia to be a small and low country (the highest peak is Triglav 2864m and an average height of 556,8m) but it has a lot of quality sport, trad and ice (mixed, during winter) climbing. Sport crags are scattered throghout the country, trad routes are mostly in the Alps. There are also countless options for mountain tours and trekking. You can also try your hand at rafting (So?a, Sava, Savinja and Krka rivers), mountain biking, canyoning, paragliding and even zorbing.

People are mostly friendly and hospitable. When traveling in mountains its considered polite to greet everybody you meet (also the one ascending the mountain should greet the one descending it out of respect; he has jet to ascend), it is also reccomended to greet farmers an other folk you meet when hiking to a crag. An average Slovenian knows at elast one foreign language and especially teenagers are fluent in two, mostly english and deutsch, in Primorska region also italian.

There are a lot of things to see and try out. Most of museums and art glleries are in the capital and larger cities. Most renowned tourist locations are Bled (with and island on the lake), Bohinj valley (both Bled and Bohinj are in the Gorenjska region and thus very interesting for a climber), the capital, Ptuj, Celje (near Kotecnik), So?a river valley with Trenta valley (boulders) and our coastal towns (Koper, Izola, Piran (aquarium), Portoro?), spas, national parks...

Our national dishes and drinks include: Teran (dry red vine), air dried ham, zhganci (a meal made of flour, goes with ham, sauerkraut...), Prekmurska gibanica... offcourse you can also get pasta every way you wish, pizzas, hamburgers, steaks, etc. its just the matter of choosing the right restaurant. Tap water is drinkable, also most of high mountain springs, but drinking natural water in lowlands is not reccomended (especially the spring in Crni Kal village; I found out about it the hard way).

the color scheme was tepmorarily abandoned to comply with requirements of transfering the RDB onto the new rc.com.