I will be in Slovenia next week as I am taking a group of South African business people on a fact-finding mission to this uber-beautiful country. I am leading the delegation in my capacity as Honorary Consul of Slovenia for South Africa. (Click here for the Consulate’s website, including photographs of some of the most beautiful spots in the world.)
If you happen to be in Ljubljana on Monday, September 7, let’s get together at a special day the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and JAPTI have organized to facilitate interaction between our delegation and Slovenian business people. Numbers are filling up quickly, so please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining us. You can reach me via the “Contact” button in the top-right hand corner of the Investment Postcards site.
Blog posting will be slow (and totally absent on some days) while I am on the road and “Words from the Wise” will take a break for the next two Sundays (September 6 and 13). The normal blogging service will be resumed on my return to Cape Town on September 14.
However, I will be “tweeting” regularly throughout my trip. A Twitter feed has been added to the sidebar of Investment Postcards where I post short comments (maximum 140 characters) on topical market issues, and also on my personal whereabouts. You can also “follow me” direct on Twitter by clicking here.
For those not familiar with Slovenia, the country has been dubbed many things – “Europe in Miniature”, “The Sunny Side of the Alps”, “The Green Piece of Europe” – and they’re all true. It is a compact country, around half the size of Switzerland, and is situated between Austria (280 km from Salzburg and 370 km from Vienna), Croatia (135 km from Zagreb), Hungary (440 km from Budapest) and Italy (220 km from Venice and 470 km from Milan), in the very centre of Europe.
Although it is a small country of only 20 273 km2, it is very diverse with areas of outstanding natural beauty ranging from rugged Alpine mountains to tranquil lakes to fairytale forests to valleys with lush vineyards and even a stretch of beautiful coastline on the Adriatic. The country’s “wooded” area amounts to 63% of the total, making it a clear leader in this category among all European countries (even beating Sweden).
Add a historic capital like Ljubljana with unsurpassed architecture, museums and numerous cafés along the river banks and you have a cross-section of Europe indeed. Moreover, all this can be experienced in a single day – after all, it only takes three to four hours to drive across the entire country.
