My name is Pascal Aerssens. I live in Assen, The Netherlands. I wrote the tourist guide from which extracts will be taken for this weblog for my Personal Project at the Maartens College. In the final year of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) of the International Baccalaureate Organisation, each student has to complete a personal project in order to get his certificate, so that includes me. A personal project is an important work that is the result of the own ideas and ingenuity of the student. In addition, Mr. Leon Marc, the Slovenian Ambassador to The Netherlands has written a preface to the guide.
I chose to write this Tourist Guide to Slovenia, because I like writing, travelling and photo shooting. I could combine this with my holidays in Slovenia in 2010. I chose not only to write about the common touristic attractions, but also about the less famous attractions and regions. This wasn’t too difficult, since Slovenia has got lots to offer.
Slovenia is a beautiful country with very hospitable people. I hope you will experience this in the same way I did. In the tourist guide I try to inform you about the food and drinks, sports, the language, the landscape, attractions and more. I also try to give travelling advice where needed. Many things I wrote from experience. I took a lot of photos myself. Some data may be barred because Slovenia is a rapidly growing country, I ask for your understanding. I hope you will enjoy your stay in Slovenia!
A letter from the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia, signed by Ambassador Leon Marc
I was truly impressed by the Tourist Guide to Slovenia prepared by Pascal M. Aerssens from the Maartenscollege - International School of Groningen. Not only has Pascal thoroughly studied dozens and dozens of websites and book on Slovenia, but he also travelled there and spent his holidays in my homeland.
The Guide is well structured and systematic, the country presented by regions, plus there is a general introduction, which deals with every possible aspect of Slovenia. I particularly value the care that Pascal took to spell names correctly and not to omit special characters in our alphabet: č, š and ž. Identity and language are important!
This book is not only a school project well done and a practical tool for travellers to Slovenia - more than 60.000 Dutch tourists visited Slovenia in 2009, making it our 6th most important tourist market! It is much more: I am convinced that Pascal's work will add to the efforts to put Slovenia on the map of Dutch and other people and help dispel stereotypes about the so-called Eastern Europe. It will assist the reader to discover in between Venice and Vienna (actually west of Vienna!) a land of two million people that in area of half of the Netherlands combine Adriatic Sea, Alps, giant Carst caves, vineyards, endless forests and a fantastic cuisine; a country within Schengen and Euro-zone that already surpasses economically some of the "old" EU Member States.
I thank Pascal for his work and I invite the reader to come and visit Slovenia soon.
Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, Leon Marc
Den Haag, 27. 9. 2010
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