slovenia

Comenius Project Culture guide

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE THROUGH MUSIC Meeting in Slovenske Konjice, Slovenia January 19th– 23rd 2009

Slovenske Konjice Slovenske Konjice is a town and a municipality in the Štajerska region of northeastern Slovenia. It is the administrative and cultural centre of the Dravinja Valley.

This nice town, with about 5000 inhabitants lies between Konjiška gora on one side and golden hills of the wine-growing Škalce on the other.

In the young municipality reside 13938 inhabitants, 6900 male and 7038 females. The biggest settlement is Slovenske Konjice (approximately 5000 inhabitants). Other population is concentrated in other settlements: Bezina, Draza vas, Loce and Zice.The main economic activities are industry and service industry. Above all the latter has been strong developed in last years, when the town faced large changes as is ruin of larger industrial companies.

English Group impressions “Slovenske Konjice is a small town; the centre is quite old but the school, and many other buildings are new. The school stands on a hillside with a castle above it and commanding views over the valley below.It is large and airy with wide corridors. It was very clean and light.” ( Carolyn) This is a record of our visit to Slovenske Konjice, the first one of seven planned for all the participating schools in our project – “Intercultural Dialogue Through Music”. This is funded by the EU, through the British Council in our country and involves 9 schools in 8 countries – Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany,Italy, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The project will run over the next two years, culminating in a final concert in Kazanlak, Bulgaria where our coordinating school is situated. This concert will take place in June 2010.

As anybody who went on this trip will tell you, this is an amazing opportunity to meet and get to know people from all over Europe who want to widen their horizons, see and experience life in different countries, learn from each other and share the joy of singing, talking, playing, working and laughing together.

We spent a brief time together, but I firmly believe that some of the friendships that we made will last a lifetime.

ARRIVALS AREA, LJUBLJANA AIRPORT Students and teachers from other countries had already arrived so Mrs Russell was able to renew her acquaintance with a number of the staff she had met, almost exactly a year ago, in Bulgaria and I was able to meet, for the first time, many of the people I had been exchanging e-mails with for even longer.

It was raining hard as we travelled by coach from Ljubljana to Slovenske Konjice but the snow was quite thick on the ground. We saw deer running across fields towards woodland. The landscape was much like that of Southern Switzerland, with mountains, hills and flat valleys; the buildings were also similar. The journey took about 1 ¼ hours and the first stop was at the school, where most of the students were to meet their host families. All the staff, as well as students from England and Cyprus, then checked in at the Hotel Dravinja, which is a short distance away, in the town centre.

Tatjana, the Slovenian co-ordinator, met and greeted all of us. It occurred to me what a huge undertaking it must have been – co-ordinating all the travel arrangements, booking accommodation, tours, coaches etc – all for a group of people who you do not know, from 7 other countries. After we had unpacked; those of us who had arrived met up for a walk around the town and up to the school.

After our short tour we went back to the hotel and met with some of the other teachers from Poland, Cyprus and Italy. We were immediately impressed by how well everybody spoke English and also how friendly they all were.

Barbara (Basia), from the school in Southern Poland, was wonderful. She was really taken with our students and keen to teach them some Polish.

Dinner was served at 7.00 p.m. and the first thing we did was rearrange the tables so that we could sit together; from then onwards all the teachers sat on one long table.

That really set the tone for the meeting – everybody wanted to spend time together and get to know each other and, although only eight students stayed at the hotel they were included as well. Other teachers arrived in the evening from Germany, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and joined the party. We all went to bed early that night, exhausted after the lack of sleep the previous night and the long journey. Also, we knew we had to be up early in the morning!

School starts at 7.10 a.m. in Slovenia, which, given the hours difference to UK time, meant that we had to be up very early to shower, breakfast and walk to school. We had a bit of a lie-in and arrived at school at 8.00 a.m. where we were met by Tatjana and the Principal who provided us with coffee before we began lessons. Like the rest of the building, all the teaching rooms we saw were light, clean and modern, and, to our surprise, all the students were wearing slippers! When the bell went for the end of a lesson, it was literally music to our ears, so different from the harsh sound that we are used to at home.

The students had language lessons, using the partner dictionary and music lessons, where the music teachers from all the different countries taught the song they had chosen for the project. In our case, this was “Greensleeves�, which seemed to go down well as many either knew it already or really liked the lilting tune. Even I joined in with the singing – it was a challenging but amazing experience hearing 8 different songs, in 8 different languages being sung by everybody. Mastering the pronunciation was perhaps the most difficult part, some words and syllables sound completely different.

When we finished school we were all shown around the town by two other teachers from the school.

It has a long and interesting history; it was first settled by the Romans and we saw a Roman gravestone in the grounds of the church.

The church itself was beautiful in its simplicity. Like many that we saw, very few original stained glass windows remained, destroyed mainly in the Second World War, but also in other recent conflicts.

We paid a visit to the local museum and saw beautiful and amazingly intricately carved statues that have been moved from the church to protect them from weathering.

They were made by local craftsmen, something the area is known for. We also heard the local legend of St. George who is patron saint of the town, he slayed the dragon that lived on the hill above.

When the tour finished, we departed by coach to visit the Carthusian Monastery in Zice.

CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY AT ZICE This was once a very important centre for the Roman Catholic church; now largely in ruins. A small part of it has been restored and this houses a museum. It was a very cold day and the herbal tea and biscuits provided were very welcome! Some of the students, including ours, were more interested in throwing snowballs than looking around!

The streams in the valley were still iced over on the top, although it was a thin layer and we could see the water rushing along underneath.

From the coach we saw amazing frozen waterfalls stark white against the darkness of the trees. The landscape as we wound up and down the narrow valley reminded me of Narnia; dark snow-laden trees, icy streams and thick snow.

The following day we had an early start scheduled; our coaches were due to depart for Maribor at 7.10 a.m. Our first stop on arrival in Maribor, the second city of Slovenia, was a visit to the wine cellar.

None of us would normally be wine tasting at 8.00 a.m. but it was a very interesting place! It consisted of a network of large tunnels, under the city, housing huge barrels; some of the biggest in the world.

The oldest ones are made of local oak and are still used today. The largest are stainless steel and hold 100,000s litres of wine. Wine production is a major industry in this part of Slovenia and is home to the oldest vine in the world. It still produces grapes and the wine made from it is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and is given, in very small bottles, to world figures, such as Presidents and Popes.

Small children were sent inside, through the opening at the bottom to clean out the barrels. They could only stay inside for a short time as they would become intoxicated by the fumes – there were no volunteers from our party.

We then had a guided tour of the town, which was interesting but we were all very cold and wet. When it finished we had some free time to explore the city and eat our lunch (rather fragrant, but tasty, salami sandwiches, the aroma came rushing out anytime anybody opened their bag!). We made straight for the first café we could find and all decided hot chocolate would be perfect to warm us up. We were a bit surprised when the waiter asked if we wanted black or white, but all ordered white as we thought that hot chocolate without milk wouldn‟t be very good. Anyway, it turned out to be white chocolate! It was very sweet, with frothy cream on the top; and also very thick. We decided it was much more like custard than hot chocolate and actually quite difficult to drink because it was so thick. Anyway, we enjoyed it and it certainly warmed us up!!

We had a walk around, (in circles as it happened!) when making our way back to the meeting point, but we got there on time.

When we got back (somewhat later than planned) it was time to start practicing for the concert, which was scheduled for 5 o‟clock. The concert hall was right next to the hotel and everybody had a short time on stage to check sound. Our students had already been practising in the corridor at the hotel.

It hardly seemed possible that everybody would be performing in front of an audience within a couple of hours. After the rehearsal it was a quick dash back to the hotel to get changed, a brief run through and then back to the hall.

We went back to the hall at around 4.45 p.m. and took our seats toward the front of the auditorium.

As our performance was scheduled for the second part of the concert, everybody was able to sit and watch the first performances. The performance ended with staff and students from all the schools up on stage, in school T shirts provided by our hosts, singing the Slovenian project song.

Everybody had a wonderful evening and the audience thoroughly enjoyed all the performances. I think the most outstanding aspect was the way that everybody pulled together and made it happen. If you stop to think about it, it was a truly amazing achievement. Almost 100 people from 8 different countries, speaking 8 different languages who had never met before, joining together, and after just two or three hours practice, giving a memorable performance.

Well done to everybody, it was something I will remember for ever and was proud to be part of.

Special thanks must go to Natasha from Bulgaria who made it all happen and to Tatjana, the Principal and all other staff and students in Slovenske Konjice.

Our last full day meant another early start, all off on two coaches to the Postojna Caves and Castle Predjamski Grad in the morning, followed by a tour of Ljubljana in the afternoon. Most of the snow had now gone and, fortunately, so had the rain. It was quite a long journey to the castle, but well worth it. As we approached, it looked like something out of a fairy tale – built into the tall cliff with a river rushing underneath.

The castle is built in a huge cavern and stands six stories high. There has been a castle on the site since the 12th century and it is amazing that medieval builders managed to create this huge fortress in such a difficult location. Caves are incorporated into the rooms in the castle, including the torture chamber! Many of the rooms have been restored, giving us an idea of what living in the castle would have been like.

We then travelled on to the Postojna caves, part of the same system that runs underneath the castle. The caves cover a huge area, so big that you travel through them by train!After a ride on the train we walked through one section with a huge variety of different rock formations. The cave system includes an underground concert hall with a great echo! There are creatures living in the caves that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, including the “human fish”.

We travelled on to Ljubljana by coach and were able to do a bit of shopping before a short guided tour of Slovenia‟s capital city. The centre was beautiful, with a large open square and the castle towering above it on top of a steep hill.

We were able to buy a few souvenirs to take home, including a Slovenian flag to be used in a display at school and biscuits to share with the rest of the staff.

When the time came to leave Ljubljana it also meant we had to say goodbye to some of our new friends. The people from Italy and Bulgaria were not returning to Slovenske Konjice as they were leaving Slovenia even earlier than us. It was sad to say goodbye but we look forward to meeting up again in Poland.

We set off for Ljubljana airport at 3.45 a.m. after having some difficulty waking Matthew and Jonathan whose alarm had failed to go off! We managed to get everything into our cases, and yes, mine was still the heaviest, in fact, it was even heavier, with the presents we had bought and the gifts kindly given to us by partners.

It was a wonderful trip; that we all enjoyed and will remember for ever. The e-mails are flying around Europe even thicker and faster now as we catch up with friends and make plans for the project and future trips.

Thank you once again to everybody, we would all like to visit Slovenia again, in fact, I think Michael has a holiday in mind already!

Impressions by German student I came, I saw and I learned. That is basically how I would describe my experience with the Comenius project „Intercultural Dialogue Through Music“. The first meeting of the project in Slovenia was very exciting for me. I had never been to this country before and all was very different to Germany. So many new people, so many new languages but everybody interested in music...fantastic! I learned all the partner songs and got to know the country and culture of Slovenia. New friends were found and all in all it was really fun!

Laura Schmidt-Thomée

Italian students‟impressions On 18th February I left from Tortolì to Cagliari airport with my teachers Mrs Zedde Caterina and Melis Cinzia and my classmates Manuela, Valeria and Siria.

We went from Cagliari to Venice by plane and in the evening at 9 o‟clock we left by train to Lubiana ,the capital city of Slovenia, where we arrived after 5 hours .

In Lubiana we had the possibility to sleep in a very peculiar hostel ….

a prison!

it used to be

But the atmosphere there was very warm and relaxing

It was

very nice and original hostel in fact every cell was unique as have been planned by different artists .

details of the cellsâ€&#x; walls

a

The following day we met Mrs Tatiana and reached our destination “ Slovenske Konjce2 by bus . There I met Katja and my host family .

On 20h January in the morning Katya and me went to school. I liked it very much I have been particularly impressed by the gym which was really big.

At school we met our partners from England, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Czech Republic.

We immediately realized that they could speak English better than us ‌.anyway we managed to communicate with our friends who have been very kind and friendly .

We took part in a lot of activities : we created some posters with our friendship dictionary, we learned and sang the songs of each country.

At about 1 0â€&#x;clock we had lunch in a primary school canteen.

In the afternoon we visited the old town centre, the church, the monastery of Carthusian .I liked it very much

at 7 0â€&#x; clock p.m. we went back at Katiaâ€&#x;s place and had a pizza altogether. on 21st January we visited Maribor ,a town on the Austrian border and I have been impressed by its beauty, we walked around the town in the rain.

Then we visited a wine cellar and tasted some excellent wine When we went back to Konjce we practiced for the concert .

The following day we left very early in the morning and reached the castle Predjamski grad

Then we visited The Postojna caves ,they were really very big and impressive ! I liked them very much

I have also been impressed by the animals who live there especially by the human fish the unique specimen in the world both the castle and the caves are the places that I like best

In the aftern oon we left to Lubiana where we saw some churches ,the city centre, the bridges.

At about 5 30 our partners returned to Slovenske Konijce and we remained in Lubiana and had dinner in a traditional Slovenian restaurant.

three

The following morning at 2 o‟clock we took the train to Venice where we arrived at about 7 o‟clock in the morning From Venice we took off to Cagliari and then to Tortolì by taxi

Bulgarian Students` impressions from Slovenia Stanislav Arabadjiev : In Slovenia I was impressed most of all by the people. There is some peculiar unity among them and they are extremely hospitable. But the strongest impression was the fact that the Slovenians have strong nationalistic spirit and respect for their culture, language and music.

Everywhere we were listening to Slovenian music and everybody was singing Slovenian songs.

My host mother was listening to Slovenian music while she was cooking. At school and when we were out in the evenings ,all the students were singing Slovenian songs. That impressed me a lot.

I will always remember this meeting because of the people I met, the new friendships, the amazing girls from all the school partners . It was very interesting for me to see Ljubljana, the castle….. and Maribor

Nanyu Lazarov In Slovenia I was very impressed by the organization of the meeting. The people in Slovenia are very nice ,kind and hospitable. One of the most beautiful places we visited was the Postoina cave.

It was a great experience which I had never had before in my life. It was a great pleasure to meet so many new friends and different people.

Nikolet Cholakova Slovenia is a small European country which can impress anyone with its culture. The distance between Bulgaria and Slovenia is so small , but Slovenia is too different.

My first impression was that everywhere you see beautiful and neat houses, streets, gardens.

I liked the churches here and interesting museums in Maribor.

The typical drink is the wine traditionally prepared for centuries. We saw the well –known wine – cellar in Maribor.

The meeting was perfectly organized. We had group work to practice our project Friendship dictionary.

It was so funny and nice to make exercises trying to speak one and the same words in 8 different languages.

Music lessons were just great! Each music teacher from each partner school was teaching us to sing their national song.

We were singing together and it was a magic –different nations to sing national songs in their national languages. The music lessons created a strong friendship spirit and I was so proud to be part of it!

The concert was a small picture of our common European home.

We are totally different , but everyone is important and together we can create a great things!

At the end I want to say that if you want to know Slovenia well ,you have to live in Slovenian family for a couple days. It is the best way. I am thankful that I had this chance.

Slovenia is a proof that “in small packing are hidden the best presents�.

Czech Students` impressions from Slovenia Our Stay in Slovenia (by Jitka PospĂ­ĹĄilovĂĄ) I had heard that Slovenia is a nice country but when I came there I was surprised: there was a beautiful countryside and very nice people...

Especially the nature amazed me. Everyday when my Slovenian friend Kornelija, her mum and I went to school and back with her dad, I was looking from the window from car and simply felt amazed. The scenery there was so beautiful. There were many hills and almost on each of them there was a little chapel. There were not many villages but a lot of detached houses. I really liked it and I think this is one of the most beautiful things about Slovenia.

And I have not mentioned the Postojna cave yet! It is one of the greatest things I have ever seen! In the caves there was a lot of free space! I took so many pictures that I had to delete some. :-) There were many amazing things that I wanted to take a picture of; I just could not help it.

And also that castle in the rock was very good. It is so unusual!

And another thing that surprised me - the people. You know, wherever I came, people were polite but in Slovenia they were extremely nice to me. They kept asking me if I needed something and if they could help me somehow. I was shocked! Not even in the Czech Republic people are so polite!

I am very grateful that I could visit Slovenia, meet so many nice people, see so many interesting things and above all have a very funny time with my friends.

It was great and I hope that I will be able to come to Slovenia and see my friends again...

Beautiful Scenery of Slovenia (by Květa Kaláčková) When we came to Slovenske Konjice and I saw the valley I was really surprised. Since the first moment I knew I liked it there thanks to the beautiful environment. I think that the local people wanted to have nice scenery and they took care about it. Also, there were no big villages or towns, just houses surrounded by nature. The hills with castles and churches are very beautiful.

When I was out at night I felt like in a fairytale. There was silence everywhere and the castle was so nice in limelights. And there was real darkness and no sounds of cars and people. When you are in Brno there is not real darkness anywhere and you always hear the noise of the city.

I fell in love with a park there. I mean a lake with an island and bridge. When I was there it was raining. Small drops were falling into the dark water making sounds. Light through trees made a nice atmosphere. It was so romantic! I wish we had something like that in Brno.

The local people were polite and nice, all of them smiling almost all the time. There was unbelievably good-fellowship everywhere. I want to go to Slovenia again!

Czech Republic vs. Slovenia (by Karolína Šimková) When we arrived to Slovenia we were really excited about our host families. Later on, we went to the school, which was really beautiful and big (our school is also beautiful but not big), and then the host families were coming. Every host family with the host children was really nice, I think. There are nice people in our school, too, but we cannot host other countries as our school is small. In our school, we have got three artistic branches: music, drama and fine arts. However, the Slovenian school was a “normal“, nonspecialised school, I think, so it was an interesting change. The students could sing, so it was OK. Slovenia has got very old historic places like Žička Kartuzija but the Czech Republic similar ones, too. And the city, where we were, Slovinske Konjice, was surrounded by mountains so it was very interesting too: our city, Brno, has not got any mountains around. The Slovenian city was small which was fine as Brno is bigger – again, a pleasant change. There is also a lovely nature in Slovenske Konjice while in Brno you can find more buildings than trees. The school was colourful and there was a very good atmosphere but the studies in Slovenia are harder than we have, I think. What is also very interesting is that our best mark is 1 while theirs

is 5 so it was a little bit confusing. Finally, we had a big concert in the hall: it was cool. We learnt the Slovenian song Pobelelo polewhich was very funny and nice. The trip to Slovenia was really exciting.

Slovenia and Its People (by Zuzana Damborská) My week in Slovenia was one of the best school trips ever. Not only because of the school in Slovenske Konjice, friendly people, the countryside and monuments but also thanks to my host family which was my strongest Slovenian experience.

My host family was the type of host family which will do everything for you, always give you what you want and the best they have. When I saw them first I was surprised how generous they were. They were something like my own family. I “had” a very clever, handsome, little and funny brother called Jan, who was always smiling at me and trying to say something in English. Also the parents were always polite and behaved as if I were their own child, especially mum, I want to thank her for cooking, her dinners were delicious. And then Lavra my host-sister girl was very cheerful, pretty, intelligent and great. We could speak about everything and there were no problems with talking to each other in English. I am glad that I was living with such a good family and that I had the possibility to spend such great time with them.

The countryside was also beautiful. Green forests and fields with sheep. The most beautiful monument was Žička Kartuzja. The energy in this place was magical and soothing. I would like to go there again some day. The day in Ljublanja was also nice but we were there only for two hours which was less than most of us wanted. But it looked like a beautiful city with lively and romantic atmosphere.

The school was well equipped and modern with young teachers (or maybe I saw only young teachers). Mostly, the people were nice but not everybody was as friendly as our host girls and boys.  So I can say this week in Slovenia was successful – as for our relationships, singing in the big concert, food, people and sightseeing. I am glad that you organisers gave me this opportunity to learn about Slovenian culture and get new experiences. Thank you very much. is 5 so it was a little bit confusing. Finally, we had a big concert in the hall: it was cool. We learnt the Slovenian song Pobelelo pole which was very funny and nice.

The trip to Slovenia was really exciting.

Polish impressions from Slovenia ( Poniatowa ) Slovenia - the most valuable experience of my life It was a cold and windy day when we started our journey. Warsaw was fully covered with snow and there was no hope that something could change it.

We were sitting in the bus without any word. We took the plane and started our journey. After nearly 1,5 hours of the flight we arrived in Ljubljana. And guess what! There was much more snow than in Warsaw. At the airport we caught a sight of the smiling group from Cyprus. And all bad thoughts disappeared in a moment. Since then we knew that nothing could ruin this trip.

During the stay we learnt many songs from different parts of the world and met so many fantastic people that I can‟t count them now. I‟ll never forget the smell of the „Vinag‟ cellar and the stunning views of Maribor. Before I visited Slovenia, to be honest, I had known nothing about it. Instead of Ljubljana and Primoz Peterka of course. I found Slovenia a very friendly and open country with fantastic people and wonderful landscapes. Special thanks to the teachers, students and all the people who helped with organization of the meeting.

The stay in Slovenia was one of the most delightful and valuable experiences of my life.

It was a great chance to improve our language skills and to discover other cultures. I‟m sure that if only I have the opportunity to participate in such a program again I‟ll do that.

Undoubtedly.