I was full of expectations when I decided to go to Maribor - this year's European Cultural Capital to work with tour operator Slavija turizem, your "personal travel assistent" specialized in group tours and active sport & fun tours in Slovenia and the neighbouring countries. I was a bit disappointed. Maybe I should have come in the summer...Maribor is the second biggest city of Slovenia with approximately 100.000 inhabitants and suffered a lot since the decline of the industry that came with the fall of Yugoslavia. However, I stayed in a really cool hostel in Maribor Tabor on the other side of river Drava ca. 10 min. away from the city centre. Just ignore the ugly socialist blocks and go to the old part Lent (see photo). There you can see the oldest grapevine in the world which was planted ca. 400 years ago. You can still see the remains of the city walls and some medieval towers. "Glavni trg" - the main square with the city hall looks beautiful and German/Austrian. No wonder, Maribor is actually the capital of Slovenian Steiermark. I recommend the restaurant "HappyPek" where you can eat a daily menu (kosilo) for 5 Euro. Also the rest of the pedestrian zone reminds me of Germany especially because of all the chains of German shops (Müller, dm, backwerk, Lidl...).
I talked to Sašo Cosic, the director of Slavija turizem, and he said he really enjoys living here 'cause there is so much more that you can do around Maribor than in Ljubljana. The Pohorje mountains are just a few steps outside the city, where you can do all kinds of sports: from hiking to cycling in the forests to "night skiing" until 9 pm in the wintertime. There must be wine growing hills and some wellness spa hotels here as well, but I didn't have the time to explore them. Sašo wanted me to help him to find partnes in Germany. I did research on German tour operators with a similar programme as Slavija turizem and biking clubs from my area and contacted some of them. I know that many people in Germany have never heard of Slovenia and if they did, they have no idea how beautiful it actually is and are also afraid of communication problems. Even some of my friends think I'm crazy to come back here over and over again. :-)
On the weekend my friend Matej and me went to the nearby castle Štatenberg in the region Makole which is ca. 30 km south of Maribor. It is more like a palace (Slovenian: dvorec) and dates back to 1720. Franc Kociper, volunteer at the local tourist society and highly motivated man welcomed us. He and a bunch of other people founded this tourist society one year ago to bring the baroque castle with its frescoes, old furniture, ethnological collection as well as the restaurant back to life. The actual owner of the castle, a company from Slovenska Bistrica has no real interest in investing. Hard times. The area around is not very spectacular. Franc told us about "the old times" when there existed a hotel in the castle and they offered horse riding and hiking trips in the hilly region around. His son runs the restaurant which is decorated with antique furniture and a hall can be used for special occasions such as weddings or small concerts. It has potential, of course, but when he asked me if German tourists would come here, I couldn't lie. We have so many castles, palaces, fortresses in Germany which are in a much better condition that I think it would be hard to compete. However, if they organized some events and renovated the place, work together with other local tourist societies to offer something else than just the visit of the castle in this area, there might be a chance of attracting Slovene tourists. They think about opening a youth hostel in the future which is a great idea.
On the way back we stopped in Ptuj, the oldest city of Slovenia, again with a caslte. It was 6 o'clock and nobody was on the streets. We couldn't find a descent restaurant, so we returned and had dinner in Maribor.
