Ljubljana, Slovenia

Built space vs. open space: Cities have to work hard to get the right balance. The purpose of both spaces is to serve the needs of people. But don't expect every space to be crowded all the time. Expect the market here to be alive with activity on Friday mornings and abandoned on Sunday mornings. Expect just the opposite from the cathedral next door. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

If you take only a quick look at Slovenia on a map, you might conclude it is landlocked. Not so. A finger of Slovenian territory projects south to the Adriatic Sea, where the seaport city of Koper is located. It's only five miles from the Italian border, so don't be surprised if Italian is heard almost as often as Slovenian. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

This is one of the reasons why European cities are "greener" than US cities. People have convenient access to intercity trains and they use them en masse. One engine gets everyone where they are going. In other parts of the world, every person must have a carbon-burning engine of their own. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Few people realize you can follow the dragon trail right across Europe. Here is one of the dragons in the middle of the continent, one of four fire-breathers on Ljubljana's Zmajski Bridge. Could this be the dragon-guardian of the Golden Fleece? Perhaps he followed Jason from Colchis to the site of Ljubljana and founded the city. Colchis was on the Black Sea. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

You might call them futurists. When they appear, you know the future is at hand. Surveyors are the harbingers of landscape change. No matter where you are in the world: when you see their theodolites, activate your coping mechanisms. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

What would you call him? (a) a tonal adjuster, (b) a digital busker, (c) a musical muse, (d) an electronic musician, (e) a synth addict, (e) all of the above. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Statistics behind Šmalčič Organic Farm: (1) Each year 500,000 hectares convert to organic in the European Union; (2) 5.4% of the European Union's agricultural land is devoted to organic; (3) the annual growth rate of organic in the European Union is approaching 10%. (One hectare equals about 2.5 acres.) [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Standup tables are becoming more popular as components of homes, offices, and restaurants. Explanation? Perhaps the fact that we spend so much more of our time (see the clock?) sitting. If this scene were in Prague, we could say that this 'check' needs a mate. Alas, it's in Ljubljana. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

It's a grassy lawn, not a sandy beach. It's a working waterway, not an open ocean. It's a bobbing boy, not a bobbing buoy. Such is reality in geographically disadvantaged states like Slovenia. Not sure what that means? Look at a map. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Exercise used to be built into our everyday lives. We had staircases in our houses; we had staircases in front of our homes and offices; we had staircases lifting students into their schools. Unsafe!  Inconvenient! Slow! Now, we have no exercise built into our everyday lives, and we are paying the price. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Child labor in Ljubljana looks like lots of fun. It's useful work, social skills are being honed, and the environment is pleasant. Don't think of it as a job; think of it as an internship in economics. He's just priced the grapes and is headed for the drupes: 5 euros. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Take a look. Feel like yawning? It's contagious, you know. When you see someone else yawn, you are likely to yawn, too. Peter Monaghan's book Curious Behavior suggests that that yawning may have been the way a tribal group synchronized their sleeping habits. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

All over the world (except for the USA!), youth use down-time August to experience a little freedom by traveling under their own power for weeks at a time. If you can master a continent in shorts and sandals, with only a pack on your back, you can master life. For these Brits seeing Slovenia, a bite for lunch is a bite of independence. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

Gates are passageways, but they are also invitations, transitions, and picture frames. Cities like Koper are lucky to still have some of their medieval walls and gates. This one leads onto Prešeren Square, also with a medieval heritage and an historic fountain. Come evening, it will come alive. [2008]

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Heroic action figures from the 1930s seem at home in the art deco part of town. Classical forms from ancient Greece and Rome have become heavy duty titans of the industrial era. Perhaps they are more akin to ferocious temple guardians of the Near East than the telamons of European antiquity. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

Imagine being able to travel around an entire continent by bus, train, and pedal power (in the original sense of that term). Europeans make travel so easy for everyone. In comparison, the United States looks like a less developed country. Things are changing, though. But, as we become more like Europe, Europe becomes more like US. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

You may not be tuned in to the smell of a thistle, but the smell wasn't made to attract you. It was made to attract pollinators like this moth. Attraction is one of the great forces of nature, but so is repulsion. Both are part of this tableau vivant. See those nasty prickles under the pretty flower? They repulse everything. Eeyore excepted. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

Were it not for Koper, Slovenia would be land-locked. But here, at the head (kop = caput = head) of the Istrian Peninsula, sits the one and only Slovenian port. It looks modern, doesn't it? The container business seems to be booming, but the silos in the distance betray its role in bulk freight handling, too. [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

Koper's problem: the city is on the water but has no beaches. Close to the marina, however, pedestrian causeways with stairs at the end will drop you into the deep. It does look inviting, doesn't it? [2008]

Koper, Slovenia

How many windows have you looked out today? Did any give you a new view of the world? The engineer of this train has seen it all a thousand times, but the young Slovenian boy who joins him for a moment at journey's end gets a chance to frame the world anew. [2008]