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11 Things You’ll Miss When You Leave Slovenia

Slovenia
by Martina Žoldoš Dec 16, 2016

1. One-year-long maternity leave

When you have to stop breastfeeding your two-month old baby and leave him or her with a stranger from 9 am to 6 pm all week because you have to return to work, you start appreciating a one-year long paid maternity leave.

2. Being able to ski in the mountains, bathe in the sea, and visit Vienna museums all in one day.

It’s not that you’re actually going to do it, but the options for an intense Sunday day trip are at your fingertips. Smallness can be an advantage.

3. Pumpkinseed oil

Whatever ingredients you put in your salad, it’ll never taste as good as the one dressed with pumpkinseed oil.

4. Free school

You think that the school system in Slovenia sucks. But then you leave and realize that you have to pay for a private school because the public service is so poorly resourced that after 8 years of learning a foreign language you can’t even string a sentence together.

5. Manners in traffic

Cars stopping and letting you cross the street. Cycling without a fear of being run over the minute you start pedaling. Driving without having to concentrate on potholes and speed bumps. This is the luxury of home.

6. Croatian islands

Although you complain that every summer Croatians raise the prices of their services and that a week-long vacation almost drives you to bankruptcy, there’s no sweeter place to relax than a deserted beach on the Adriatic Sea.

7. Be treated like a king as a guest.

In some countries offering you a coffee, beer, glass of wine, nuts, cookies and home-made pie, all at the same visit isn’t standard hospitality. You might have to be satisfied with a simple glass of water.

8. Real coffee time

The phrase “would you like to go for a cup of coffee” is not as literal as in Slovenia. It’s not an event worldwide and your friends may not have time for it.

9. Walking alone in the middle of the night without a fear of being attacked.

I bet it doesn’t cross your mind that you could be attacked when you’re returning home from a party alone on public transport at 2 am, even if you’re alone and female. Elsewhere you wouldn’t even think of stepping outside without company or without a car.

10. Satisfying your thirst by turning on the tap.

Imagine it’s almost midnight and you want to cuddle up with your partner, accompanied by a movie and a cup of tea but you’re out of water? You could survive without a tea but have to take off your pajamas and venture to the store to buy bottled water. You’ll miss the ease of strolling to the kitchen and turning on the tap.

11. Not having to drive two hours to be in nature.

It’s hard to step outside of your home and be far from some sort of nature, whether it’s a park, forest, meadow, river, vineyard, waterfall, field, mountain, sea.

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