10 facts about Slovenia (Slovenija) chosen by me

1. There are only about 2 million people living in Slovenia.
2. I heard that Slovenia is the only country in the world which has a word LOVE in its name (perhaps this is a good way to distinguish it from Slovakia which is located more to the NE of Europe and has no sea coast). I haven’t checked this by myself, so is this really a fact?
3. The language we speak is Slovenian and it is one of the most difficult European languages to learn. Slovenian language doesn’t only have a singular and a plural but also a dual which makes it also a bit special and even more difficult to learn.
4. Until 1991 we have always been a part of another country (well, except once in the 7^th century A.D. when Slovenians were united under, so called, Samo’s country (lead by a man named Samo)). We gained our independence by the war which fortunately lasted only 10 days but unfortunately cost lives of some people.
5. The first book in Slovenian was printed in 1550 A.D. but the first written document in our own language had been written about 500 years before.
6. There are 12 statistical regions in Slovenia and each of them has many different dialects as well as characteristic customs and food.
7. More than half of Slovenia (some say 70% of it) is covered by woods. That’s why we are proud to have bears, wolves and lynx living in them (sure, some would like to shoot them all).
8. We are a part of the European Union since 1st May 2004 and our currency since the beginning of this year is Euro. Our currency used to be Tolar.
9. Slovenia has 46 km :) of the coast on the western part of the country, Alps on the N-NW, flatlands on the E. All in one, that’s why we love it! :)
10. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is the wettest capital in Europe. We get the highest amount of rain of all the capitals in Europe. This doesn’t mean that we have lots of rainy days but the rains are usually very heavy. Ljubljana was first mentioned in the documents as a city in 1243 A.D.

Saturday morning in the old part of Ljubljana. The river is called Ljubljanica. No one exactly knows where Ljubljana got its name from.