A Few Words About Slovenia
To go Back at any time,
use Browser's "Previous Page"
Slavonia, Slovakia, Slovenia! No wonder this country is so hard to pinpoint! Slavonia, it is not --- that’s an area in Croatia. Nor is it Slovakia --- that’s a country that once formed part of Czechoslovakia. S-L-O-V-E-N-I-A, the country we visited and the only country with LOVE in its name, shares borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.
Being about half the size of Switzerland, it is small but also picturesque. Its varied topography is not lost on tourists who flock to the country especially from northern Europe. Slovenia has mountains, lakes, waterfalls, forests, caves, hills, plains, rivers and even a bit of seashore (some 30 miles’ worth).
Although there are many other ethnic groups, Slovenes comprise around 80% of the 2 million population. With their own Slovenian language, customs and predominantly Roman Catholic faith, the population is more homogeneous than it is in other parts of the former Yugoslavia.
After Tito died in 1980, the Yugoslav federation began to unwind. Slovenia was first to secede. Dominated by Germanic, Hungarian and Italian influences since the Middle Ages, Slovenians in 1991 were more than ready to embrace independence. When Yugoslavia tried to prevent Slovenians from leaving the fold, hostilities commenced. Mercifully, that war in June 1991 lasted for only ten days. Since then, there’s been no fighting, no war and no terrorism in Slovenia. Its transition from one-party rule to a multiparty democracy has been relatively painless compared with other former Yugoslav republics.
A westward-looking country, Slovenia achieved membership in NATO and the European Union in 2004.