The second week of September brings a long-standing tradition to Kamnik, along with some 30,000 visitors, as the Days of National Costumes and Clothing Heritage (Dnevi narodnih noš in oblačilne dediščine) returns for its 47^th edition, offering a full programme of ethnological, cultural and entertainment events all through the day and into the evening.

Named by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as among the top 20 traditional festivals in Europe, the focal event is always the parade of traditional national costumes, which this year takes place at 15:00 on Sunday, 8 September. This year the traditional Slovenian costumes will be joined by those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Turkey, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Austria, giving added interest to an already colourful event.

Beyond the parade there’s much for those interested in clothing, history, cultural heritage, music and more to enjoy, with exhibitions at various locations around town along with a traditional art and craft fair and demonstrations in the medieval part of town (5 – 8 September), folk dance and music on in Glavni trg (Saturday and Sunday), workshops for children, street music and an evening entertainment programme that includes live performances from Ansambel Domačini, Skupina Harmonk’n’roll, Skupina Špica, Obvezna smer, Manouche, and Andrej Šifrer, with videos below for your education and entertainment.

The full details are here and you’ll find that it’s a packed and varied festival – a great excuse to (re)visit the many charms of Kamnik and learn more about Slovenia.

STA, 26 August 2019 - Kranjska Gora is introducing the first electric mountain bike network in Slovenia to promote sustainable mobility. Cyclists will be able to rent the bikes in nearby Gozd Martuljek and in the centre of Kranjska Gora.

Cycling is a very popular way of exploring the Upper Sava Valley. According to the local tourist information centre, it is the perfect way to experience what the Alpine destination has to offer.

"The Upper Sava Valley offers beautiful cycling routes under the shade of trees from the starting point Topolino in Slovenia across the Rateče border crossing to the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy where you can see beautiful mountain peaks," they say.

Apart from promoting the idea of sustainable tourism and e-mobility, the mountain bike network offers an easier way to explore rugged areas and overcome long distances.

Kranjska Gora will be the first to establish the network of e-bikes in Slovenia in cooperation with the company Alp Adventures. Cyclists will be able to rent a custom-made bicycle via a mobile app Green4rent at the cost of six euro an hour or 39 euro per day.

The bikes will be initially available for rent at the Špik campsite in Gozd Martuljek and at the Alp Adventures rental shop in the centre of Kranjska Gora.

Next year, the municipality will expand its network by improving the system and setting up new renting spots. According to the director of the Kranjska Gora Tourist Board Blaž Veber, their wish is to offer the combination of bicycles and tourist buses in the future.

The tourist board included all the possibilities of public transport in the area of Julian Alps in one brochure this year.

"It will be very useful to our visitors because there are many transport possibilities in this area and we had not been able to get all the information about routes, prices, frequencies and stopping points in the past," explained Veber.

If you have finished high school, are fluent in Slovenian, have knowledge of English and basic comprehension of another language, as well as good health and fitness, then you have the opportunity to apply for a job as one of the Ljubljana-based cabin crew for Adria Airways.

The positions are full time, open to applicants with from 0 to 1 year of work experience, and the deadline to send in your CV is 22 September (2019). More details – in Slovenian – can be found here.

Over at singletracks.com Brian Gerow has written a great account of a mountain biking trip to Slovenia based at Ecohotel Koroš in Jamnica, the first Mountain Bike Hotel in the country.

The story is in two parts, over and underground, with the latter taking place along a 2.5km track in an abandoned lead mine (Mežica Mine), an adventure that’s only for the most confident mountain bikers.

Above ground Ecohotel Koroš has many less challenging tracks to explore, and the site is slowly gaining a place on the international circuit, having been part of the Enduro World Series in 2018 and hosting the event again in 2020.

You can learn a lot more about cycling in Jamnica (very close to the Austrian border) in the original story, while the website of Ecohotel Koroš can be found here.

STA, 18 August 2019 - Slovenia's oldest town, Ptuj, will set the stage for the 23rd annual Days of Poetry and Wine (Dnevi Poezije in Vina) between 21 and 24 August, although the festival and accompanying events will spill over to 18 other towns in Slovenia and across the border.

The festival will feature 20 established poets from across the globe with Serbian poet Radmila Lazić and Chinese poet Bei Dao as the guests of honour and Germany as the country in focus.

Pre-festival poetry readings will start on Sunday, 18 August, in Petanjci in the Prekmurje region in the north-east, followed by an event in Ljutomer on Monday where poets participating in a poetry translation workshop will present their translations to the public.

The next day will see events in a number of villages and towns across the country, including an event at Ljubljana's riverside Špica and poetry reading on a boat on the river Ljubljanica.

The official opening in Ptuj on Wednesday will see Ilija Trojanow, the multi-award winning Bulgarian-German author, read his Open Letter to Europe.

"Trojanow is truly global citizen; being of Bulgarian descent, he writes in German, lives in Austria, grew up in South Africa and writes his poetry in English. His are in fact three mother tongues," says the festival director Aleš Šteger.

Since 2017 the festival has picked a prominent European thinker each year to write a letter reflecting on Europe, which is then sent to European institutions and published by various media. "We've been assured that it'll be translated into at least 12 languages," said Šteger.

A total of 60 events such as poetry readings, poetry duels, workshops for children, concerts, carnival promenades, art installations will be accompanied by a selection of finest wines.

For the first time the festival will feature readings by young authors and poetry for breakfast. In a first time it will also visit the Carthusian Monastery of Žiče.

Exceptional international poetry that comes to life in the intimate spaces of old gardens and squares attracts almost 10,000 visitors from Slovenia and abroad to the festival each year, the organizers say.

Most of the events are being held in Slovenian and English and all except for one are admission free. Proceeds from the tickets for the poetry duel will go to studio for young talents.

Since 2014, the festival has been part of the European poetry platform Versopolis, which is dedicated to the promotion of poetry internationally.

The full programme can be found here

August 18, 2019

The seventh edition of the Floating Castle Festival, with about 25 daily shows, with music and stage performances (including puppet shows for kids) is about to take place in the Slovenian Littoral between August 26 and 31 (2019).  

Floating castle, also known as Ethno Histeria until 2014, became Floating Castle On the Road for this year, since it recently lost its headquarters at the beautiful but slightly remote location of Snežnik Castle, which might not be that bad after all since now the festival has moved a bit closer to the broader public again. The first four days will take place at four quaint Istrian villages not far away from coastal capital of Koper/Capodistria. Also, anyone who’d like to avoid getting lost on the countryside roads can reserve a seat on the so called Džumbus Bus, which will be driving from Ukmar Square (Koper) to the location of a day for a price of 5 EUR for a return ticket. For reservations contact Maja at 041 778 061.

Once there, shows are free but visitors are encouraged to donate 2 EUR to a hat.

In case you’d like to spend the night nearby, there are rooms available (here) and four separate grounds for camping as well (click here for details).

On Friday, August 30, the festival will move to the streets of Koper and on Saturday, the festival summer will conclude at the festival’s origin, Snežnik Castle.

For venues, the line up, contact and further details please visit the festival’s website.

STA, 16 August 2019 - The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has been notified that golden-brown algae have multiplied at Lake Bled. Bathers should therefore avoid water activities where the algae are visibly present and take a shower after bathing.

NIPH reports that the algae can be spotted as brown coloured areas. The institute also advises against bathing in areas where the algae are present or sitting on dried algae on the lake shore.

The bathers should also take a shower after bathing. In case of allergic reactions such as skin irritation or breathing difficulties the bathers should seek medical assistance.

Špela Remec Rekar from the Slovenian Environment Agency, who monitors the state of Lake Bled, pointed out that the ecological state of the lake, which was always in good or solid condition, is worsening.

The expansion of tourism and an increase in the number of fishermen and bathers are the reason for this.

The Municipality of Bled is working on minimising the environmental effects on the lake. This year the municipality completed the construction of sewers and will gradually close the roads by the lake for traffic.

Some of the areas are closed off for bathing now, with Romana Purkart from the Bled Tourist Board "inviting bathers to the Grajsko bathing area that provides the needed infrastructure along with environmentally friendly sunscreen".

The BBC Travel website has a long and interesting article that takes a deep dive into the story of the Swiss healer Arnold Rikli, whose work in Bled drew health tourists from all over Europe more than 150 years ago.

Related: How to spend from 4 to 48 hours in Bled…

So while the author, Mahima A Jain, does go up Mala Osojnica for sunrise, this is a story about Bled that doesn’t mention the church on the island or kremsnita, and touches on the Castle only to note it has an exhibition in Rikli.

As the article says:

Riki was the founder of a naturopathic and hydropathic healing regimen, a form of alternative medicine that avoided pharmaceuticals, and instead relied on the four elements of nature – sun, water, air and earth – for treating illness.

The regimen was one of physical activity, from early morning hikes to sunbathing, exercises in the fresh air to the use of cold, warm and steam baths to purify and strengthen the body. Evenings were for social activities, and all patients were prescribed eight hours of sleep.

It sounds idyllic, and it’s a fascinating story that connects with the current state of health tourism in Bled. It’s here we’ll also note the outsize contribution of Slovenia’s spas to its tourist industry as a whole, with spa towns second only to the alps when it came to the number of overnight stays in 2018, at 4.49 million for the Alps and 3.49 million for spa resorts.

The luxury travel advisors Virtuoso, “the leading global network of agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel”, has given out 18 awards to destination, cruise and lifestyle partners who it sees as offering outstanding products and services, as well as excellent collaboration with its members, in the areas of boutique and top quality tourism.

The winners cover the world, from the US to Oceania, with the Slovenian Tourist Board (Slovenske turistične organizacije - STO) picking up an award for Hottest Destination of the Year. STO was also nominated for the title of Tourism Board of the Year, which it lost to Switzerland.

The awards were given out as part of Virtuoso Travel Week, which takes place in Las Vegas between 10 and 16 August, and provides a venue for more than 6,000 tourism professionals to meet, make connections and do business, with the STO scheduled to have more than 230 meetings at the event.

Great news from Las Vegas and #VirtuosoTravel Week @Virtuoso
?#Slovenia (Slovenian Tourist Board) has been recognized as the Hottest Destination of the Year?#ifeelslovenia #award #tourism #sloveniantouristboard pic.twitter.com/uwaDi1i3SU

— Slovenia Tourism (@tourism_slo) August 12, 2019

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