Speaking Cymraeg in Slovenia

Helo pawb
if you wondered, with whom Tatjana visited the Postojnska jama, it was me.
I visited Slovenia for only five days, but Tatjana and her husband showed me so many things, that I think I was there for weeks. Diolch o waelod galon i chi. Slovenia really is a beautiful country. There are high mountains, exciting gorges and caves, forests, old towns, castles and a really gorgeus landscape.
And yes, Tatjana and I spoke Cymraeg apart from the time when Toni (Tatjanas husband) was with us. And I tried to use the bits of Sloveneg, that Tatjanas had tought me on our weekly Skype chats. (Sometimes I came out with “Bore da” instead of “Dober dan” but Slovenian people are nice and just greeted back.)
I’m still busy with sorting my photos and memories of this week, but I listened already twice to Tatjanas song. I can confirm, that she sang the whole first verse and the refrain and it was beautiful.

19 Likes

Awesome!!!

2 Likes

Never knew that when I decided to try to learn Welsh that it would lead to such a wonderful worldwide community.:blush:

5 Likes

So now you know. @brigitte and I cruised around Slovenia a bit by car, a bit by bus and, of course, we’ve spoken a lot of Cymraeg and Slovene also. Brigitte ordered coffee in Slovene several times, bought bus tickets, had a nice little chat with a kind man in Ljubljana Tourist Center and bought the tickets to Ljubljana and Bled Castle all in Slovene.

We, of course, tried to teach my husband some Cymraeg and in a way we succeeded so he now officially can say some things like “Hoffi Coffi”, “bore da”, “Nos da” and similar short things.

Well, but while Brigitte is sorting her pictures and memories I’ll put just some of them on here to wet your apetites a bit.


A walk through my birth city Kranj - the capital of Gorenjsko region. The statue of our greatest poet France Prešeren who we borrowed our anthem lyrics from stays in front of the theatre named after him also.


Ljubljana - our capital city - the view from the stairs of Franciscan church on the Prešeren’s square and 3 bridges.


We visited Ljubljana castle also and this is the view from the viewing point of the castle walls to the castle yard but if you turn arond for 180°…

It was raining all the time so the view is not as magnificent as it would be in the sunny weather, but anyway.


Those who are on Clecs might already see this picture there but yes. Brigitte always amazes me with her Cymraeg but she showed that she also can’t get tired that easily. She climbed up and down this World’s famous Ski Jump in Planica - the Bloudek giant one! To my shame I only came to the first bench and sat down there taking some pictures while waiting for Brigitte and my husband to join me.


Gorge of Blejski vintgar is the next jewel we’ve visited. The weather just suited us thjis time so the views of all that sparkling water were just magnificent and … well … we were a bit wet too. :slight_smile: As there were a lot of tourists from all over the World we hoped to hear some Cymraeg too, but there was no one except us speaking it. But, yes, the Cymraeg was heard as we spoke it quite some. :slight_smile:


.

Bled … some rain, a lot of clouds and a bit of sun on the way there. We visited Bled castle from where the view all around is just magnificent. Afterwards we (of course) tried famous Bled “kremšnita” (cream slice) while waiting for my husband to pick us up and drive us “home”. To be honest I’ve encountered for the first time there that one would moan about someone speaking Welsh, but we just didn’t let to be disturbed by this (rather occassional) man moaning.


.

Postojna cave and Expo were the last thins we’ve visited. No, @margaretnock, we didn’t let the poor staff to prolonge their shift … we went out of Expo just in time to see some rays of sun before it started to rain heavily again.

We hoped we’d be able to walk along the sea in Piran - the old Slovenian coast city - and take some photos however the rain didn’t want to stop anymore so this was only a breef visit to this old city before going home.

So Brigitte didn’t just come to visit me in Slovenia but she also spoke Slovene and we both spoke a lot of Cymraeg and a bit of English too. We had magnificent and unforgetable time despite all week of mostly raining in deed.

Diolch o galon i ti Brigitte. Thank you from all of my heart that you traveled to my little country where i could share its beauties with you speaking Cymraeg and Slofeneg and having a great time together.

Diolch yn fawr iawn!
Tatjana

10 Likes

Slovenia looks like a beautiful country @tatjana and almost as rainy as Wales :wink:

1 Like

It is beautiful (this I can say) but it usually isn’t that rainy, however it looks like the rain just concored us. It still rains today and tomorrow it will be no different.

1 Like

Well, it was raining when I came home yesterday in the afternoon and it is raining now, so I won’t blame the weather in Slovenia.

1 Like

Tatjana fach, I believe Bled does actually mean bleed. Is that true? And is there any connection to Vampire myths? I can’t help wondering if the name Vladimir is someway derived from Bled? The castle looks gorgeous!

1 Like

I had the pleasure of driving across Slovenia a few times when it was still a brand new country (again). I must say that I rate it amongst any of its alpine or Mediterranean neighbours.

I was travelling with parties mainly from the S. Wales area. So although there was only some Welsh spoken, there was plenty of it in song.

1 Like

Thanks for sharing those gorgeous photos, @tatjana! Slovenia is beautiful. It sounds like you all have a wonderful time!

1 Like

Well, obviously it rains everywhere …

Well, @henddraig, you’re not right I’m afraid. It is only little mentioned about where name Bled actually comes from but the site about the etimology of names in this area says that the most believable would be that the name derives from German word Fels, what means The rock (so says that site which is unfortunatelly in Slovene language). The people in that area didn’t say to Bled “Bled” but rather “Bles” so the name Fels became Bles. They say that people in that area tend to say things a bit their own way so even today the old people say to Bled Bles and the people living in Bled are Blesci.

The name has no connection to some vampiers or bleeding at all. Many Slovenian words seam to derive from English worda however they actually don’t. Many derive from German or are truely Slavic or they are of ancient origin.

No. I believe Vladimir is Russian name and has no connection to Bled whatsoever.

Yes it is. It has nice museum inside and great two terraces outside where on one you can enjoy the view, coffee or something to eat and on the other the magnificent view.


.

Thank you. I’m glad to hear this all.

You’re welcome. And yes, we all had a great time.

1 Like

Vampires do live in my country, too, in Romania…at least Count Dracula does! :candle::waxing_crescent_moon::sparkles:

4 Likes

Lucky @brigitte, lucky @tatjana, lucky Toni, lucky me. Slovenia is beautiful and Toni and Tatjana are great hosts. And in the caves, it isn’t raining!

1 Like

Thank you @margaretnock!

Noo, it isn’t. It just happened that a bit more water dripped from the ceilling. :slight_smile: The half of the Concert hall was “closed”, what means subdevided with the tape because the water dripped down there just strong enough to wet one unpleasantly.

That is, if the “undead” can be said to “live” :wink:

1 Like

I thought you were Swiss? If you were raised speaking Romanian, which I found not unlike Latin, but certainly not the same, you have learned more languages than I realised and are certainly NOT lacking intelligence!! Badly taught is what you are, not foolish! :thumbsup: :sunny:

2 Likes

I really think we need to organise some kind of SSiW excursion to Slovenia!

3 Likes

Bootcamp Slovenia?!

2 Likes

But you know how tempted I would be to learn Slovenian before that!

1 Like

Oh, that’s a fascinating and philosophical thought! Maybe I should say Count Dracula exists in Romania…a wanderer in the shadows between the worlds…:wink:

1 Like