Spring Holidays

THE JULIAN'S LOG

Tenth Post

"SPRING HOLIDAYS"

The end of April, beginning of May brings with it a holiday atmosphere in Slovenia. April 27th is a Public holiday, celebrating the Day of Uprising against Occupation in 1941 and is closely followed by May 1st and 2nd, Labour Day holidays. People celebrate with friends, family and have short holidays at home or at the sea.

FOCUS ON……….MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS

On April 30th, the night before May Day, bonfires are lit like beacons around Slovenia, to remind people of looting from the Turks, which happened for 2 centuries. When there was danger of an attack, the fires were lit as a signal.
The fire in Mojstrana was huge this year, helped by our apple tree prunings. However, as locals gathered and the schnopps and beer were flowing, the fire was very slow to burn due to the rain over the previous 5 days, it was probably at it’s best as we left at 11.30!
We celebrated May Day itself, by walking up above Mojstrana to Borovje, a small mountain nestling on the Karawanke mountain range. We’d only ever walked up once before in thick cloud in November and in the wooden summit box we had discovered a full bottle of Schnopps. We had vowed to return and replenish it’s stocks! The view was much clearer this time round and the birds and flowers were in abundance to remind us it was Spring. There was still a welcome bottle of schnopps at the summit, and we left some Orehovec, walnut schnapps, as promised. Our friend Roman and his band “The Party Kings” played live in our local pizzeria in the evening, so we danced the night away, just in case we hadn’t done enough exercise for one day!

On May 2nd, we went to Kranjska Gora. Here it is traditional for horse riders from Slovenia, Italy and Austria to meet and “ride beyond the borders” The horses and riders created a colourful scene in the centre of this pretty alpine village, with it’s craft market stalls and outside bars hosting a friendly family day.




So, all in all we have enjoyed our truly Slovenian May Day Celebrations

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition. Next Blog focus will be on
ACTIVITY BREAKS