Living in Ljubljana can indeed have some advantages. For example, you can choose between buying vegetables in a commercial center or in one of some marketplaces you can find around town. Or even better, you can go to buy them in one of the just-a-couple organic groceries you can find in this country.

But there are quite some disadvantages, too. Forget about finding a parking space, expect higher prices on goods, delight yourself with the police/ambulance/firemen sirens instead of birds singing… to name just few of them. Despite all that, there is another thing disturbing me even more. If you take a walk down the Ljubljana’s streets, you will be able to understand what I mean.

Our capital is not a good example of a clean town. Almost everywhere you look, with the exception of the old part of town -and that being permissive-, there is something lying on the ground, bottles, cans, paper… trash of all kinds you can imagine. Regarding cleanliness, Slovenes are still not much conscious of actions and their effects on the surrounding environment. Once you see with your own eyes the local garbage dumps, created in the middle of some communities, the understanding of ecology as a conception seems  to be still pretty much on the pre-historic level in Slovenia.

And like this, you can spend your days watching how drivers park along your street, have a snack in the morning and throw the wrapping out of the car into the grass/pavement; this soon becomes a daily routine. Having the pleasure to live next to one of such “dumps”, I can observe people depositing various stuff. It turns out to be quite a simple thing to do: you load your car with everything you no longer need/want to get rid of, drive to the nearest deposit, unload and drive off. The funny part of it is, other people come regularly to check out whether there is something useful to be carried away! And so it might happen one day you witness someone bringing an old ironing board, and next day someone else comes by, observes his surroundings -calm down, no one will sue you- for a moment and carries it away. A kind of flea market or cash-and-carry variant (without the “cash” part, of course). Not bad, but I prefer eBay. Unfortunately, the depositors outnumber the takers, so the place is filling up and becoming a famous place for this purpose.

How come some nations have such a great sense of care for cleanliness and some none at all? Does it have to do anything with our genes or is it all about the educational system of each individual country? And HOW to make these ignorant people understand that they should throw an empty bottle into the bin and not in the lawn? It’s difficult for me to imagine what is in these people’s mind, why don’t they care. Obviously, it’s not difficult to figure out they have not much remorse, given that it’s perfectly known there will be no punishment for them. At least till election time comes.

Daily routine: bring - unload - leave in the dump - go. This guy on the photo is getting rid of his old windows...

... in order to upgrade to Vista, maybe?

In the meantime, you can go outside for a nice walk in the woods

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