Pot ob Vici: Celebration of Liberation

Each year on May 9th, is the Pot ob Vici, the annual walk around the city, enclosed by barbed wire and guard houses from 1941 - 1944.  Here's an abbreviated history, from a translated pamphlet:
The Germans invaded the former Yugoslavia on Palm Sunday, 1941, and the Italians took Ljubljana on Good Friday, later that week.
Various groups in Ljubljana, including the Communist Party, the Christian Socialists, and the Liberation Front,  organized to work together for the first time, against the occupying army.   This threatened the Italian Fascists enough to enclose the city with a barbed wire barrier, to prevent anyone from the countryside from entering, and vice-verso.

By the end of 1942, the fence was almost 30 kms long, with watch-towers and bunkers along the way - 206 fortifications of various sizes.  The citizens were unable to leave the city to walk in the countryside, as is their tradition and part of typical weekend activity.

The Liberation Army came on May 9, 1945, and opened the city.  The citizens celebrated their freedom by going to the countryside for walks and picnics en masse.  Now this tradition of "walking the wire" is done every year, on May 9.

My Fulbright buddy, Rachel Aumiller, Bella, and I picked up the path here, joining hundred of walkers at this point.  We walked through Golovec forest, towards Rudnic, and back to Ljbuljana,  just over 18 km.  That was enough for us!  We were three tired walkers!

But what a wonderful tradition for families and friends to celebrate the day...Feeling the love in Slovenia~

April 27, Day of Uprising Against the Occupation - May Day

This week is a holiday from classes, starting with Monday, April 27th, which is Day of Uprising Against the Occupation.  Formerly Liberation Front Day (dan Osvobodilne fronte), marks the establishment in 1941 of the Anti-Imperialist Front to fight the German, Italian, Hungarian, and Croatian partition and annexation of Slovenia.

There is an excellent exhibit about this time in Ljubljana during WW2, now at a Gallery at the end of our street.   Local writer and curator, Blaz Vurnik, and artist, Zoran Smiljanic, collaborated on Memories and Dreams of Kristina B, a graphic novel of a girl and her family living behind the barbed wire that surrounded Ljubljana from 1941 - 1945

 http://www.mgml.si/en/vzigalica-gallery/news-and-events-445/events-1295/memories-and-dreams-of-kristina-b
Here is an image from the novel.



 
May 1st is also an important day in much of the world, to celebrate the workers. Slovenia takes this seriously, and everything is closed except for a few cafes (how could we live without our cafes....?)

We took a short trip to Budapest, between these two holidays.  Just an eight hour train ride, for 49 Euros, it was a beautiful way to see the Slovenian and Hungarian countryside.  Bella was an excellent traveler, and made many friends on all leg of the trip.  On this train line, dogs are welcome for the fare of a child's ticket.

Aside from Bella's diplomatic skills, we enjoyed all the renown sites of Budapest:  the Parliament, the castle compound over the Buda Hills, Saint Mathias Church....all magnificent. 

I'll have to admit though, after all the hustle and bustle of a busy urban center, with sirens and taxis and trolleys and buses, traffic and congestion, returning to Ljubljana is a dream.  So quiet to walk home at night at 10:00 p.m., along the river.  The chestnuts are all leafed out and the air is spring fragrant.  It sounds like a cliche, but it doesn't get much better than Ljubljana.....

Happy May Day ~

Here are photos of my street and neighborhood now that Spring has settled in and all the trees have leafed out - And Bella has had her inaugural dip in the Ljubljanca River.

Happy Spring Everyone!