From 23-26 May, secondary school students and members of the Association of Slovenians “Triglav” from Banja Luka visited Šentrupert, Kranj, Vrba, Radovljica, Dovje, Planica, Vrsno pri Kobaridu, Most na Soči, Nova Gorica, Postojna and Predjama fortress. Despite the rainy and cold weather throughout the four days on the path of our ancestors we experienced many beautiful things.
On Thursday, 23 May we headed towards Novo mesto where we were welcomed by Branka Bukovec from Society for the Development of Voluntary Work, who always prepares interesting programme for us. We went to Šentrupert, where we visited the land of hayracks and gothic church, Elementary School dr. Pavla Lunačka as well as an exhibition Slovenian picture books for children of the world (442 picture books in 26 different languages) and Original illustrations of youth works (430 originals). History of the town and church was presented by Jože Zupan, former principal of the school and initiator of collecting illustrations and picture books. We spent the evening in Novo mesto, the adults slept in a very nice students' dormitory whereas secondary school students stayed at their peers’ from Novo mesto, who had already visited us in Banja Luka this year.
In the morning, we went to Kranj, where Mr. Lado Kraljič waited for us. He showed us the town: Prešeren's grove, where France Prešeren was buried, Prešeren's street, Prešeren's theatre with the statue of France Prešeren, Main Square with fountain, Layer's home… His speech was very imagery and he told us a lot about the life in town then and now. We visited the grand library, one of the most modern ones in Europe, which became a true living room of the town. In the afternoon we went to Vrba. We all know verses of France Prešeren O, Vrba, srečna draga vas domača, kjer hiša mojega stoji očeta, so we were able to visit that house as well. On Friday afternoon, we remembered yet another Slovenian artist: Anton Tomaž Linhart. We visited Linhart's town – Radovljica. On a baroque estate in the old part of Radovljica, where life and work of the first Slovenian dramatist were presented, there is also an Apicultural Museum. Having seen the exhibitions, we learned quite a lot of new things. In Radovljica we were hosted by Božena Kolman Finžgar, director of the Anton Tomaž Linhart Library. They hosted us well in the library and presented programmes organised to inspire young people to read. They also had a nice surprise for us: they collected many books for our Association, we took them to Banja Luka and in autumn we will also take part in the programmes Library – a universe of wealth, A Night with Andersen and That Jolly World of Books.
On Saturday, 25 May, we stopped at Dovje at Jakob Aljaž's monument. Weather was not very nice so we were unable to see the Triglav Mt. We could not even go over Vršič as the road was closed due to heavy snow. That is why we had to take the road via Predel to get to the valley of Soča. We knew in advance that we would stop at Planica where we saw ski jumping hills. Over Predel we reached Bovec and Kobarid, and then headed to a village of Vrsno, the location of the house where Simon Gregorčič was born. Students of Supply Teaching Lessons of Slovenian Language said something about his life and work and we also heard some of his most popular poems: Ti meni svetlo sonce, Nazaj v planinski raj and Soči. We altogether sang Veseli pastir. The Soča River was an admiration to poet Gregorčič, and we also admired it. We stopped at Most na Soči and took a boat to cross the river. In Solkan we saw the Bridge of Solkan, which is the biggest stone bridge in the world.
We stayed overnight at Nova Gorica and on Sunday went to Postojna. We decided not to visit the famous Postojna cave but Predjama fortress. Since it is located high on a rock the fortress is hidden and unassailable. We heard a legend on knight Erazmo Predjamski /Erazem Lueger/ and took a walk in the halls of the castle. The fortress was first mentioned in 1202 and still is an attractive tourist spot. In Postojna we were accompanied by Franko Pleško and Stojan Kuret.
Since we are always welcomed by people who live in the places we visit and know a lot about it the excursion was all the more interesting. We learned a lot which we could not find in tourist books.
The four-day journey in Slovenia ended by visiting the Predjama fortress. Programme of excursion was full, we visited a lot of interesting spots which are hiding stories about times past as well as historical sightseeing spots and libraries.
