Slovenia 7

Lonely Planet - Travel Survival Kit

by Mark Baker

Snow-capped peaks, turquoise-green rivers, and an Adriatic coastline inspired by Venice. Throughout Slovenia, culinary and cultural sophistication hides behind a rural, rustic charm Inspirational images, destination highlights, author recommendations and the best of local knowledge
Planning features and top itineraries to help you plan the perfect trip
Local secrets and hidden travel gems that will make your trip unique
PLUS Outdoor Slovenia, the Slovenian Table, Slovenian Way of Life and Climbing Mt Triglav Coverage  Planning chapters, Ljubljana, Gorenjska, Primorska, Notranjska, Dolenjska, Bela Krajina, Štajerska, Koroška, Prekmurje, Understand and Survival chapters

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Guidebook

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Mark^^^Baker - travel writer

Reviews

[Manny]

If you're one of the millions of people who habitually wake up at 3 am and can't get back to sleep because they're so worried about their inability to speak Slovenian, help is at hand. We're going to a language technology conference in Portorož later this spring; with the assistance of a Slovenian Goodreader who modestly wishes to remain anonymous, we have used our web platform to create a little course which we've called Slovenian 101.

We're interested in receiving feedback from people who try it out. I have considerable difficulty pronouncing the words well enough for the app to recognize me - enough so that I wondered if there was some technical problem. But Not, and our Australian friend D, smugly show me that there's nothing to it; they just listen to the recorded voice, imitate it, and the machine knows what they've said. If people want to tell us whether they are Slovenian sheep (Not and D) or goats (yours truly), I'll update the review as data comes in.
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I showed the app to my depressingly multilingual colleague Irene (she is fluent in four spoken and three signed languages). Despite never having heard a word of Slovenian in her life, she sounded quite plausible after a couple of minutes' practice. The machine approved of almost everything she said.

"Try pronouncing it like it was Italian!" she told me encouragingly, when I confessed that I had not had quite the same level of success. Does Slovenian sound like Italian? They belong to different language families, but they've been living next door to each other for a long time. Perhaps that's more important?
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Scores so far:

Sheep: Not, D, Irene

Goats: Manny

In between: Matt

[Leniwa Wenus · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is not worth paying for. There's nothing in it that cannot be found on the internet. In addition, the authors' style is somewhat arrogant with jokes like "Ptuj. Its name might sound like a cartoon character spitting, but Ptuj is no joke".
Apart from that, the description of the Slovenian cuisine lived me somewhat puzzled: "Squeezed between four different culinary regions - ... - Slovenia has adopted and modified the cooking styles of its neighbours, while adding in the fresh vegetables, herbs, and grains it grows on its own". It's like saying they have nothing to offer of their own, whereas in fact their culinary tradition is rich and authentic.
Plus, I found some historical references doubtful. Even though you don't really need them as a casual tourist.
Overall, giving it 2 instead of 1 only because at the very end I found a list of famous people of Slovenia, which saved me some googling.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tourist guide just like any other. A perishable list of phones and addresses and not much more.

[Simon Gianoutsos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this has provided me with a wealth of useful information about Slovenia. It looks like a country worthy of spending a lot of time in.

[Valerie]

I THINK this is the version I read, but it may be a different edition, as the cover picture is different.

I wanted to learn more about Slovenia, because there's a lot of focus on the UNsuccessful Balkan states, and very little about the successful ones. Travelogues are fascinating treasure troves of trivia. Who knew that the original Karst region was in Slovenia? That the capital, Ljubljana (I'm p sure of that spelling, and isn't it lovely?) comes from a phrase meaning something like 'beautiful city'? Or that one of the main bases of the economy is (or was, I hope their hives haven't collapsed as in some other places) honey production?

[Vanlilith · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Kevin Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is old (pre-euro) and I found the Rough Guide to be a better book. If they release a newer version then I think this would be the better book.

[Jennifer Mizzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful! Especially the convenient Slovene phrases.

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems like a good resource, using it to help plan a future trip, appreciate the details.

[Steve Clark]

Lonely Planet Publications (2001)

[Rudolf Waldner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was exactly what I needed. A brief but fierecly thorough history of the country, plus must-sees by region.

[George Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

don’t go to slovenia rn there is water EVERYWHERE