Postcard from Slovenia no. 3

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When we were returning from our holiday in Croatia this June, we spent a few hours in and around the Predjama Castle in Slovenia. A really impressive building set against a huge rock cavity, part castle, part rock hideout, it's a great place to visit especially since one is free to roam the premises and does not have to follow a guide. At the entrance, in a souvenir shop, we bough a few cards and a few copies of the only stamp available which, as I only later learned, is custom made/personalised and sold only at the castle and at the Postojnska Jama Cave some ten kilometers away (the castle and the cave are connected by an underground passage and also as tourist attractions). The C-rate personalised stamp was issued in 2008 to commemorate the 190th anniversary of the factual discovery of the cave system at Postojna.

We had also a great lunch at a medieval restaurant there with typical Slovenian dishes, and left a baby sweater lying on a bench there:)

Cover from Slovenia no. 1.

Cover sent from Maribor, Slovenia on 14 May 2009 featuring two wintery stamps: a chimneysweep with pigs, horseshoes and lucky four leaf clovers (New Year stamp issued on 23/11/2007) and a snowman with a magpie bringing it a glittery ball (self-adhesive Christmas stamp issued on 17/11/06 - one of two, the other bearing the "C" of the higher rate). The third 0.13 eurocent stamp commemorating the Red Cross Week of 8 - 15 May 2009 is a bit of a mystery for me, since it is not shown on the Slovenian post office website as a stamp in the 2009 catalogue, and the value is also a bit small. Therefore, if I am not mistaken, I think that the stamp is part of a series of postage due stamps (doplačilnice) issued in Slovenia every year, usually connected with red cross or fire prevention (maybe that is also why it is not cancelled), and that would make it in this case not a proper stamp, but only a label. Well, thank you, Polona!

Postcard from Slovenia no. 2

Another nice postcard from Slovenia, sent from Ljubljana on 5 February 2009 and received 4 days later. The picture shows the oldest Slovenian town of Ptuj (23,000 inhabitants), situated in the north-east of the country, with a castle from mid-12th century overlooking the Drava River.

The 23 eurocent stamp is part of an ongoing series dedicated to national costumes. The 2009 addition was issued on 30 January and features wedding costumes from the Bela Krajina region, used in the first half of the 19th century. The two nice definitives were introduced on 1/1/2007 with the appearance of euro, and show "Flowers of Slovenia", in this case: 2 eurocent - Moehringia tommasinii, and 10 eurocent - Pulsatilla grandis. Interestingly, all the stamps were printed in Prague.

Thank you, Leonardo:-)

Postcard from Slovenia

On 3 January 2009 Leonardo from Ljubljana sent me this lovely postcard of the town of Škofja Loka in the northwest of Slovenia (population 22,000), the most beautifully preserved Slovenian medieval town.

Not only the picture is beatiful, the stamp is great too! It was issued on 27 Noveber 2008 with a print-run of 70,000, and is part of an ongoing series dedicated to gastronomy, my favourite topic.

Well, the dish itself is called Zgornjesavinjski želodec, which is "Upper Savinja Valley Stomach Sausage" and is a traditional dry-meat dish. The Slovenian Post page adds: "It had a strong ceremonial importance during the time of Eastern, when the maturity of this product was at the level, which enabled the determination whether the procedure of production, ripening and drying had been correct. Even on weddings the guests waited with anticipation to receive slices of »želodec«. The circle of lovers of this extremely high quality meat product has spread through the development of tourism in this part of Slovenia since the second half of the 19th century. Even the English king George VI. was among the enthusiasts of zgornjesavinjski želodec; namely, he tried it in Plesnik in Logarska dolina. Nowadays, the »želodec« is a protected food with a »recognized geographical mark«, while its quality is to an important extent co-shaped by the annual competition in Rečica ob Savinji."

The other stamp in the 2008 gastronomy se-tenant issue is ubrnjenik (also referred to as »ubrnjenk, obrnek, obrnenk«), which is "a filling warm or cold mealy dish in the form of a dumpling, made of roasted wheat, buckwheat or corn flour, poured over by salted boiling milk, in which they stir whipped cream and butter or buttermilk." It really makes me salivate:-)

And a note aside, what a nice price for sending a postcard to Europe! 45 eurocent! Here in the Czech Republic we have to pay some 20 eurocent more (applying the current rate of exchange).