• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Slovenia

  
A small country at the crossroads between the Balkans, the Mediterranean and central Europe, bordering Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the far north east, Italy to the west and Austria to the north.  
  
It is also a fairly “young” country, having gained its independence as a nation state in its own right only in 1992. For most of its history, the area that is now Slovenia was ruled by bigger powers around it, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire that it was part of until World War One
  
During that conflict the front line with the enemy Italy ran right down the country's western border, which became intensely fortified. The relics of bloody and ultimately pointless twelve battles on this so-called Isonzo Front between 1915 and 1917 are the main reason Slovenia features on these pages. Two specific places represent this here in separate chapters: 
  
  
  
  
After WWI, parts of Slovenia ended up under Italian rule, others as a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, until the next big war came along. During WWII, Slovenia was occupied by Germany, Italy, Croatia and Hungary. The crimes of the Nazis left their mark here too – and there is one relic of this which deserves a mention, and a separate entry, here: 
  
  
  
Following WWII, Slovenia became part of the new socialist state of Yugoslavia . In 1991, Slovenia was also the first of its constituent parts to break away from the federation. It did so with considerably less chaos and bloodshed compared to that in neighbouring Croatia or Bosnia & Herzegovina that followed over the next few years. The military effort put up by the Yugoslav, i.e. essentially Serbia's army, in Slovenia in 1991 lasted only 10 days and cost as few as 66 lives. Then Slovenia was on its course to independence and economic flourishing. The European Union recognized the new state's independence in January 1992, and a few months later it was admitted to the United Nations. It was also the first of the Balkan countries to join the EU, in 2004.
   
All that history is covered in two museums in the capital city Ljubljana: 
 
   
  
Slovenia's geography is mostly mountainous, especially at its northern and western ends, lying at the south-eastern end of the main Alps chain of mountains – in the east the land flattens out a bit towards the Pannonian Plain. It also has a tiny stretch of coast on the Adriatic, but is other than that practically landlocked. Large parts of the country are still covered by forests. 
  
The capital city Ljubljana is the country's only large conurbation and its cultural, economic and transport hub, so getting there is easy, both by plane and overland.
  
Getting around the rest of the country is a little trickier, even though there is an ageing rail network and buses for regional public transport. But a (hire) car is the best choice for tourists. 
  
In terms of general tourism, most visitors are drawn either to the capital city or the mountains in the north and west. A particular gem, and possibly the best-known single tourist attraction in the country is Lake Bled with its uber-picturesque little island crowned by a white church spire and the cliff-top castle on the northern shores. 
  
While Slovenian is the official national language, the country is de facto multilingual, with practically all the neighbouring languages widely spoken, especially German and Italian, but also English is widely understood and spoken well, which is obviously of great help to many international visitors. 
  
The multicultural influences also find their expression in Slovenia's food & drink. Heavy, stodgy food is widespread, reflecting the Germanic (Austrian) and Hungarian, but also northern-Italian culinary influences, especially in the form of various types of dumplings, pasta and meat-heavy dishes. But the proximity to the Mediterranean provides many fish and seafood alternatives. Truffles are a particular speciality, as in Croatia (and Italy, but unlike in France or Italy, the price tag is often considerably lower in Slovenia). Cheeses can be very good too. For those with a sweet tooth, chocolate is also widely marketed and often comes formed into intricate shapes and sculptures – and especially popular are dried fruits covered in chocolate (the figs are the best!). 
  
What is largely unknown in the rest of the world is the fact that Slovenia produces some excellent wine too, including some rare indigenous grape varieties as well as international standards. In recent years, the craft beer revolution has also reached particularly noteworthy heights in Slovenia too.   
  
  
   
  • Slovenia 1 - spiky mountainsSlovenia 1 - spiky mountains
  • Slovenia 2 - mountaineer Julius Kugy monument in the mountainsSlovenia 2 - mountaineer Julius Kugy monument in the mountains
  • Slovenia 3 - war cemeterySlovenia 3 - war cemetery
  • Slovenia 4 - Soca RiverSlovenia 4 - Soca River
  • Slovenia 5 - ruralSlovenia 5 - rural
  • Slovenia 6 - AlpineSlovenia 6 - Alpine
  • Slovenia 7 - mountain passSlovenia 7 - mountain pass
  • Slovenia 8a - BledSlovenia 8a - Bled
  • Slovenia 8b - Lake BledSlovenia 8b - Lake Bled
  • Slovenia 9 - trufflesSlovenia 9 - truffles
    
  
  
  
  
 
 
  

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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