Slovenia, something brand new

Hellooo. Been a few days since the last post. We have been having my parents here in Graz as guests and that has taken most of our time. I will post about those adventures next week, but now I want to look back to last week and our trip to Maribor, Slovenia. 

The trip was arranged by the ESN student organization for exchange students. They do a bunch of great events in Graz and some trips too. Neither of us had ever been to Slovenia before so it was a new country and experience for us both. Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia, but still only around 100,000 inhabitants. Maribor is quite near Graz, being only an hour on bus straight south across the border. It was a nice little change to travel with a group and at Maribor there were local ESN students to give us a guided tour of the town. The tour was a fun quick run through the town. There wasn’t really massive surprises or special things around. The weather was really great, so it was just fun being outside and walking around the town and especially the riverside. There was some water rescue training at the river so there were folks with scuba gear and different kinds of boats and other rescue gear around. There was a 400-year-old wine tree at a winery near the river. Wine made from the trees grapes is highly regarded and a tradition for the new presidents of Slovenia is to get a bottle of that on their first visits to Maribor. They also said that the wines from that time are made “differently”, that they are closer to ethanol and somewhere in history people used to get blind and deaf when they got old, so the particular type of wine is no longer supported.

Main square

Maribor's largest church

In the main square there was a monument to remember the people who died in the plagues

Weather was nice and the river side very pretty

Here's the old wine tree

After the city tour, we got to eat some traditional food at a local restaurant and after that we had a tour of a winery followed by some wine tasting. I mentioned in an earlier post that traditionally me and wine don’t go well together, but on occasion I can make exceptions. It was fun to get a tour of the wine cellars where it was cool and humid after being in the sun most of the day. The huge barrels where the wine is aged were interesting. There was a room they called the “cathedral” where they kept the “altar” which was a cabin holding some really old and fine wine. Only way you would get to taste it would be by being the Pope, Dalai Lama or the President of the United States. An interesting set up. I wonder how many of them will visit the winery tho. Also, is there much of a separation between me and Trump. I just need some carrot juice to dye my hair and a lemon to suck on and I would totally look like Trump. Unfortunately. After the tour we got to taste some wines. This was fun. I’ll add a picture of the bottles, cause I can’t remember in detail what they were. First was a prosecco which I’m not fond of since it gives me heartburn. Rest were a nice Muskat wine and something sweeter to the end. This was fun since they were all white wines and I have not tasted a good red wine in my life.

The "altar"

The rare and reserved bottles of wine

Map of the wine zones in Slovenia

The cellar was cool and refreshing after a day in the sun

Tastings

After the tours we had a little bit of free time and we decided to head to the local park. The park seemed nice since it had three small ponds and there was supposedly over a hundred different tree types in the park. It was nice to just catch the last few rays of sun before heading back to the bus stop. On our way back we did stop for one bucket list item. On the tour the local students pointed out a bar where you can get Slovenian green beer. This I had to try. I was suspicious since I had tried a “green” beer in Finland which contained some fruits and it tasted blasphemous. It is hard to describe the Slovenian green beer but, in the end, I think it was nice. They do something different with the hops for it to make it green. Definitely suggest you try it if you are passing by, but just beware it might not be for everyone. I might go for another pint if we ever head back there.

White trees

yeah this thing

Gotta give it a try