The Poet's Statue in Ljublijana and his words for a toast from Slovenia

 

Statue of poet Frances Preserenin the square named after him in Ljublijana, capital of Slovenia. Photo from Wikipedia.

I was looking for a visual of a statue of  somebody in each of the similar sounding capitals, of Sovenia, Slovakia and Serbia. 

In Slovenie I found that statue of the poet Frances Preseren with his poetry book in his hand. He statue is in the square named after him.

I hunted for a brief quotation. I found a longer poem, and two verses. I have adapted a translation and highlighted a possible quotation.

First

may good fortune bless all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When on all earth's habitations
No war, nor strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
All men are free
Forget foes, fears and tears,,act neighbourly .

Second

 to our reunion -
To us, let's toast! Let cheers resound,
In our joyful gathering
Let shared thoughts of friendship be found.
May happy cheer
Never disappear
From good hearts of good friends gathered here.

I searched in Google for Wikiquote for an out of copyright translation. Instead I found a translation of one of the poet's poems. I adapted it. How?

1 I have removed the word God to include the atheists and agnostics. It also sounds more like a jolly toast for a celebration and less like a patriotic prayer for army cadets.

2 I have updated the old fashioned language  and abbreviations such as o'er. 

3 I changed sentence constructions,such as sentences ending in the verb be which are not modern English, which is hard to say and not easily recognixed by foreign readers.

How else could you translate good bless? One UK atheist told me he had no problem with using God bless. 

Alternatives could be, I bless (from the reader, the most snior person in the room), ancestors bless, our fathers bless, may fortune bless, goodness bless, may the stars bless, may the sun bless, sunshine bless, 

The first of these two verses is the Slovenian national anthem, of course in the original Slovenian.

Useful Websites

poemhunter.com

wikiquote

wikivoyage Slovenia

Wikivoyage Ljulijana

Slovenian undersea bottles growing bubbles

Visit Slovenia and see these amazing under sea bottles. Take a tour in a boat and the driver will bring up a bottle. Then go to the stud farms to see the famous Lippizaner horses. End up enjoying the local layer cake, made with apples and custard.its local name is prekmurska Gibanica. More details from www.maresanto.com

Slovenian bottles of wine are stored underwater. You can take a tour and a diver will bring up a bottle for you. Every bottle is different with bits of shell Mare Santo, sparkling wine.

The next Vinexpo Asia is in 2024 in Hong Kong, May 28-30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)

https://vinexpoasia.com/newfront/marketplace/

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Slovenia and sites in the capital, Ljubljana

Slovenia 

Slovenia is surrounded by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia. The Slovenians speak more languages than residents of other European countries.  

To the west are the cave complexes of Postojna and Skocjan. The letter j is pronounced like an i or y. 

Towards the centre, Central Slovenia, is the capital city, Ljubljana. 

The capital is Ljubljana.

One landmark is the triple bridge.

A notable landmark is the Valentin Volnik square. See the statue of the poet, his house, and his tombstone. The tombstone and a coin bear his words

Collections[edit]

The Academy holds more than 13 million objects including costumes, costume sketches, film reels, posters, props, and screenplays dating back to 1927.^[1] In May 2020, the museum purchased the May Queen dress worn by Florence Pugh in Midsommar (2019) for $65,000, as part of a charity auction held by A24 to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts.^[16]

Some key objects in the Museum's collection include:^{[citation needed]}

• Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Shirley Temple's tap shoes from The Little Colonel (1935)
• Typewriter used to write the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)
• The only surviving shark mold from Jaws (1975)^[17]
• Tablets from The Ten Commandments (1956)
• The Aries 1B spaceship model and a space suit worn by Keir Dullea from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The costume of the amphibian man from the Guillermo del Toro’s’The Shape of Water (2017)’’
• From the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial an E.T. Prop is displayed.
• A cape used by Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)^[18]
• The yellow dress worn by Emma Stone in La La Land (2016)
• Pillars named for historical significance in motion picture history including Rita Moreno, Cher, Barbra Streisand, and Hattie McDaniel.

Exhibitions[edit]

The second and third floors of the museum will feature the opening exhibition "Stories of Cinema".^[19] The inaugural temporary collection of the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery is devoted to Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.^[2][20] The exhibition opened on September 30, 2021, and was on view until June 5, 2022. This was the first time Miyazaki’s work was featured in a major retrospective in the United States. The collection also displayed pieces on public view for the first time outside of Japan.^[21] The 11,000-square-foot exhibition features more than 300 objects, including original image boards, character designs, storyboards, layouts, backgrounds, posters, and cels. The exhibition’s curators, Jessica Niebel and assistant curator J. Raúl Guzmán worked with Studio Ghibli and the Ghibli Museum in Japan to gather all the materials. There are also interactive installations displayed throughout the exhibit, the “Mother Tree,” Skyview, and Magical Forest, to name a few, each inspired by a different Miyazaki Film.^[22]

Following that will be an exploration of the history of black cinema through 1971.^[1]

Galleries in the museum will be dedicated to a variety of topics. Inaugural galleries will cover:^[1]

• Pedro Almodóvar
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Climate change
• Black Lives Matter
• Blackface, redface, and yellowface
• Labor relations
• Bruce Lee
• Spike Lee
• #MeToo
• Oscar Micheaux
• Racism and sexism in animation
• Real Women Have Curves (2002)
• Thelma Schoonmakeroet

Valentin Volnik, 

Statue of Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Ljublina, Slovenia.

Hryhoriy Skovoroda also has a statue in Washington DC outside Ukraine House. His statue in Ukraine remained when the museum surrounding it was destroyed by Russian warfare recently. He wrote an epitaph for his grave, They wanted to capture me but could not. 

Food and Drink

The country has the oldest vine, 400 years old.

Useful Websites

Slovenia

Ljubljana

Poet Valentin Vodnik

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Vodnik

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Albania, etc Update - longer version

 Countries of Europe

Map from Nations Online Project.

ALBANIA

You can arrive at Mother Teresa airport near the capital. 

The capital is Tirana. 

1 The central, focal point is Skandenbeg Square, named after the national hero shown in a statue on horseback. Like Trafalgar Square in London which has the 

2 National Gallery at the top or north, the main square has a main museum so you can do both together. The capital has museums on 

3 National History, from Skandenbeg's battle to life under communism, 

5 and the home of a writer, Ismail Kadare, whose books are about the grim Communist times, but his language is excellent. Read quotations. 

6 Sky club rotating bar is in the trendy area, 

7 Mosque - Et'hem Bey mosque - with murals of scenery including waterfalls

8 BunkArt1 and BunkArt2

9 Tirana Castle

10 Clock Tower (on square) small fee to climb. 66 stairs.

Cable car up the mountain for a view.

Walking tour about 80 Euros. Cookery class tour.

Eat in these places

1 Bioku, meaning the Block, trendy area.

2 Yogurteria for yogurts

3 Sky club rotating bar

Nearest winery

Drink plum brandy. Also red, white, rose wine.

The west coast is on the Adriatic, which has beaches. 

(Greece is to the south. To look at it another way, Albania is north of Greece.) 

Driving north to the mountains, in summer, you find hiking and wineries.

BOSNIA & Herzegovina

The name Bosnia probably, at least most memorably, comes from the river Bosna. The origin of the name Herzegovina is Herzog's land. Note the spelling. The letter e is repeated at the start of the name. Then o. The letter i separated the o and the a. Finally a. Both Bosnia and Herzegovina have the three vowels o,i,a.

I have abbreviated Wikipedia's entry.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnian) Босна и Херцеговина (Serbian) Bosna i Hercegovina (Croatian)
Flag
Official languages	Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian
Writing system	Latin, Cyrillic
Ethnic groups  (2013)[2]	50.1% Bosniaks 30.8% Serbs 15.4% Croats 3.7% Others
Religion  (2013 census)[3]	51% Islam 46% Christianity —31% Serbian Orthodox Church —15% Roman Catholicism 3% No Religion / Others

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина, pronounced [bôsna i xěrtseɡoʋina]), abbreviated BiH (БиХ) or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest.

 In the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean, which is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) long and surrounds the town of Neum. 

Bosnia, which is the inland region of the country, has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions of the country, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat.

 Herzegovina, which is the smaller, southern region of the country, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous. 

Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city of the country

CROATIA

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

Capital

Places to visit: Sventi Stefan 'island' hotel

Mount, cliffside monastery

NORTH MACEDONIA

GREECE

Capital Athens has the Acropolis and the hillside old city full of restaurants called La Plaka. Eat rice in vine leaves. Drink ouzo. Greek coffee and baklava. 

Second city Thessalonika has the tomb of the family of Alexander the Great and a museum and amphitheatre.

This post is being compiled and saved as I write. Come back or stay logged on to read more.

MONTENEGRO

Map of Montenegro showing the capital Padgorica to the East of the central region.

Montenegro (/ˌmɒntɪˈniːɡroʊ, -ˈneɪɡroʊ, -ˈnɛɡroʊ/ (listen)^] Montenegrin: Crna Gora, Црна Гора, lit. 'Black Mountain') is a country in Southeastern Europe.^[11] It is a part of the Balkans and is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the northwest, and the Adriatic Sea to the west with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica, the capital and largest city, 

SERBIA

Serbia's Capital is Belgrade.

The second city is Novi Sad.

Winery.

SLOVENIA

Slovenia - capital Ljubljana.

Places To See

Skocjan Caves

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia is East of the Czech Republic (capital Prague, notable personality, author Kafka). Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia.

Useful Websites

ALBANIA

http://www.visit-tirana.com/things-to-do/museums-in-tirana/322/ismail-kadare-house-museum-tirana

https://www.azquotes.com/author/18556-Ismail_Kadare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians

http://www.visit-tirana.com/eat-drink/desserts/79/yogurteri-tirana

https://www.tirana-airport.com/

https://www.roughguides.com/articles/why-visit-tirana-albania/

BOSNIA

GREECE

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro

SERBIA

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(More will be added shortly.)

Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, which is which, what is where?

Countries of Europe

Map from Nations Online Project.

ALBANIA

You can arrive at Mother Teresa airport near the capital. 

The capital is Tirana. The central, focal poing is Skandenbeg Square, named after the national hero shown in a statue on horseback. Like Trafalgar Square in London which has the national Gallery at the top or north, the main square has a main museum so you can do both together. The capital has museums on history, life under communism, and the home of a writer whose books are about those times. 

The west coast is on the Adriatic, which has beaches. 

(Greece is to the south. To look at it another way, Albania is north of Greece.) 

Driving north to the mountains, in summer, you find hiking and wineries.

BOSNIA & Herzegovina

The name Bosnia probably, at least most memorably, comes from the river Bosna. The origin of the name Herzegovina is Herzog's land. Note the spelling. The letter e is repeated at the start of the name. Then o. The letter i separated the o and the a. Finally a. Both Bosnia and Herzegovina have the three vowels o,i,a.

I have abbreviated Wikipedia's entry.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnian) Босна и Херцеговина (Serbian) Bosna i Hercegovina (Croatian)
Flag
Official languages	Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian
Writing system	Latin, Cyrillic
Ethnic groups  (2013)[2]	50.1% Bosniaks 30.8% Serbs 15.4% Croats 3.7% Others
Religion  (2013 census)[3]	51% Islam 46% Christianity —31% Serbian Orthodox Church —15% Roman Catholicism 3% No Religion / Others

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина, pronounced [bôsna i xěrtseɡoʋina]), abbreviated BiH (БиХ) or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest.

 In the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean, which is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) long and surrounds the town of Neum. 

Bosnia, which is the inland region of the country, has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions of the country, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat.

 Herzegovina, which is the smaller, southern region of the country, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous. 

Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city of the country

CROATIA

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

Capital

Places to visit: Sventi Stefan 'island' hotel

Mount, cliffside monastery

NORTH MACEDONIA

GREECE

Capital Athens has the Acropolis and the hillside old city full of restaurants called La Plaka. Eat rice in vine leaves. Drink ouzo. Greek coffee and baklava. 

Second city Thessalonika has the tomb of the family of Alexander the Great and a museum and amphitheatre.

This post is being compiled and saved as I write. Come back or stay logged on to read more.

MONTENEGRO

Map of Montenegro showing the capital Padgorica to the East of the central region.

Montenegro (/ˌmɒntɪˈniːɡroʊ, -ˈneɪɡroʊ, -ˈnɛɡroʊ/ (listen)^] Montenegrin: Crna Gora, Црна Гора, lit. 'Black Mountain') is a country in Southeastern Europe.^[11] It is a part of the Balkans and is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the northwest, and the Adriatic Sea to the west with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica, the capital and largest city, 

SERBIA

SLOVENIA

Slovenia - capital Ljubljana.

Places To See

Skocjan Caves

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia is East of the Czech Republic (capital Prague, notable personality, author Kafka). Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia.

Useful Websites

ALBANIA

http://www.visit-tirana.com/things-to-do/museums-in-tirana/322/ismail-kadare-house-museum-tirana

https://www.azquotes.com/author/18556-Ismail_Kadare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians

http://www.visit-tirana.com/eat-drink/desserts/79/yogurteri-tirana

https://www.tirana-airport.com/

BOSNIA

GREECE

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro

SERBIA

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