"Small European countries often visit the country's main attractions in a day, and the price is relatively higher"
I nodded in agreement with my guide Nina' statement: "The industrial system of small countries is not perfect, most goods can only be imported, and the cost of living is naturally higher." However, Nina shook her head and smiled: "Slovenia is different, although the price is maintained at the eu average, a little higher than the average country, but the cost of living for the people in the country is not high, because there is a tax refund."
On the way from Austria to Slovenia to the cave castle, Nina gave me a detailed introduction to the social welfare and tax refund policies of Sri Lanka, which can be summarized simply: medical education is completely free, the unemployed can receive a minimum security fund of 650 euros (including 300 euros of relief), retirement implements a pension superposition system (that is, 76.5% of the average monthly salary + pension), and the disabled receive an extra subsidy. The tax refund is assessed from multiple angles such as the size of the family and social contribution, and the tax can be exempted from up to 100% of the taxes on consumption and transactions.
However, the potential benefits of Slovenia are the biggest, according to the existing legal provisions, the sum of maternity leave for women in Sri Lanka is not less than 365 days, the husband has another 90 days of paternity leave, the parents of the child are sick have 7-15 days of paternity leave (unlimited times), the pre-school age receives a child fund of 50-200 euros per month, the meal fee for enrolment until university graduation is all-inclusive by the state, and the parents only have to pay the first registration fee of 2.5 euros, after which the tuition is free.
Seeing my look of disbelief, Nina turned the car into the path to take me to visit the home of her friends Harvey and Linda, and then there was an incredible scene: the young couple who graduated from higher education actually resigned and ran to live in seclusion in the mountains and forests for 5 years.
Are you not adapting to the high pace of city life, or are you tired of the intrigues of the workplace? However, neither of them, they did not want to be kept in captivity by the state, but after putting forward their opinions, they were ostracized in various ways, so they gave up their high-paying jobs and ran to the mountains to live for the elderly.
After a few hours of small talk, it was learned that Slovenia's high welfare system has been criticized by many citizens, the biggest contradiction is the aging of the population, the ratio of labor force to retirement population has been close to 3:1, equivalent to 3 young people to feed 1 retired elderly, which also makes the Country's economic growth rate continue to slow down after 2007, and even the phenomenon of per capita GDP falling by 8% (2009), several banks have to borrow money from the EU since 2013 to maintain.
From the perspective of industrial structure, two-thirds of Sri Lanka's jobs are from the service industry, and less than 10% of industrial jobs, which shows that Slovenia's market competitiveness is far from that of other EU countries. Harvey and his wife, who are very dissatisfied with the practice of "aging population and uncompetitive industry, but on the other hand, they are throwing money to increase welfare", and have also publicly expressed their opposition, but they have been evaluated by neighbors as "nosy", and they sold their houses and ran back to their hometown to raise chickens in a huff.
Of course, life in the mountains and forests does not prevent Harvey and his wife from enjoying Slovenian social welfare, and it is a dignified way to receive unemployment benefits, including the income of raising chickens and sheep, in addition to the lack of some convenience, it is also safe and worry-free.
About 15 kilometres from Harvey's hometown to the Cave Castle, it passes through a meadow of about 30 acres, which Nina says once housed thousands of Habsburg cavalry who assembled here to strangle erasmus knights, the owners of the cave castle.
Erasmus was originally a noble baron who enjoyed all the glory and wealth, because he witnessed the Habsburg high taxation and enslaving civilians, he built a castle at the mountainside cave to shelter the commoners, and was deposed by the royal family and demanded the surrender of the civilians, Erasmus simply moved into the castle to fight to the death, and in the following year or so, with the strength of more than 200 civilians and more than 30 knights to escort the force, he repelled countless regular attacks, until a servant defected and assassinated him in the toilet.
In the 15th century, "Baron the Robber", which was banned by the European royal families, restored the tragic situation of the scene, the entrance and exit at the bottom of the castle was destroyed more than 30 times, the soldiers outside used various methods to break the stone door, and the guards inside kept digging stalactites to seal the gap, so that the passage that was less than one meter wide was dug into a wide space of 7 meters wide and 15 meters high.
According to Nina, if the servant had not betrayed, Erasmus would not have died at all, and even if the castle had been broken, it would have been able to hide in dozens of tunnels underground. Archaeologists, however, believe that the castle has at least 200 underground tunnels, 7 of which lead to the meadow at the foot of the mountain, and 2 directly to the top of the mountain, if Erasmus has enough physical strength, it is not difficult to climb to the top of the mountain to escape.
Today, the cave castle is one of the few paid attractions in Slovenia, with an adult ticket price of 13.8 euros to enter the interior, and the internal living room, meeting room, and part of the underground tunnel are open for visits, the most popular of which is the Knight's Room, which displays a range of knightly equipment weapons and household items.
Although Nina believes that "every European has a chivalrous dream", I feel that the visit to the cave castle is of little significance, the interior decoration is all replicas, and it is far from the actual situation during the 15th century, and friends who read my articles can not go.
On the way back, because it was too late, Nina decided to stay in Harvey's small house, and when we arrived they were preparing dinner, and I took the opportunity to visit the decorations in the Slovenian rural house.
Perhaps because of the harvey couple's big grinning personality, their room was cluttered and old, and if it weren't for the neat knives hanging from the walls, I might have thought it was the kitchen of a septuagenarian couple. This shows that no matter how high the income and education level of Slovenians, the life will also be chaotic.
The next day at dawn, they set off for the next stop, Kranj, passing through the largest outdoor park in Slovenia, where a very interesting thing happened: since 2001, the country has repeatedly ordered that "no one is prohibited from destroying any facilities in the outdoor park for any purpose, including flowers and plants", but many foreign tourists do not know, so in 2009, when a member of the British royal family was playing here, he saw wildflowers everywhere and could not help but reach out to pick one, and then was sentenced to 500 euros + 10 hours of social service.
This is perhaps the biggest difference between Eurasian cultures, and many European countries, including Slovenia, have basically zero tolerance in the face of such public violations, and there is no human feeling to speak of.
Kranj was hailed by World Geography as "the best-preserved medieval ancient city in Europe", according to Renaissance historical records, a Hungarian hussar captured Kranj when the outbreak of the Great Plague in Europe, Krany escaped a disaster but also became a "ghost town", until Yugoslavia set up a logistics base here during World War I to rebuild, it is said that tens of thousands of workers worked in leather, textile, shoes and hats and bread factories, providing hundreds of thousands of sets of equipment for Yugoslav front soldiers.
Compared with the capital, Clarney has a richer content to visit, the most popular of which is the Church of San Cantianus, which, although built for more than 300 years, displays thousands of skeletons from the end of the 14th century to 1789, all of which died from war and plague.
Originally the church was not open on Tuesdays, a pastor heard that we wanted to visit and simply took us inside, which was also my first private tour of a European attraction, and after permission I took two pictures with my mobile phone. The shepherd told us that the church has a collection of more than 3,700 skeletons, of which only 15% are named and surnamed, but it is certain that they are all Slovenians.
So, how did these skeletons come out?
The shepherd explained while taking us to the church basement, it turned out that the bones collected by the church were not dug out of the ground, but the people who hid in the underground fortifications of the old city of Krany during the war and the plague, some of them were suffocated alive in the tunnel, some were starved to death, and during the plague they were used to detain infected patients, after round after round of death and cleaning, the church pastor only collected the last batch of 3700 skeletons.
Bidding farewell to the shepherds and returning to the ground, Kranj is already covered in darkness, and the whole old town has entered a quiet state from the hustle and bustle of the day, and only the sound of the open-air theater and small stage a hundred meters away can be heard.
Nina said: The Slovenian government as early as 2013 wanted to emulate Croatia's implementation of the ticket system for the ancient city, as a result, a large number of old people in the old city came out to oppose, hundreds of elderly people did not hesitate to find people along the street day and night to sign against, seeing these old people so stubborn, the government not only gave up the fee, but set up a lot of performance and activity areas for tourists, open-air cinema and the stage of the central square are only two of them, as well as theaters, galleries, museums, musical fountains, etc., all free.
I thought Nina was to save money for me, but how to ask her how to believe it or not, and finally learned through the waiter: this restaurant does rank in the top ten in Krani, and the low pricing is because the government subsidizes tourism, so a small city like Krani will be so popular with European tourists.
With the Chinese mentality that "the price of tourist cities cannot be so low", the next day I tried Slavic restaurants and seafood restaurants, and finally had to admit: Slovenia is really friendly to tourists, at least in terms of scenic pricing, impeccable, single Slavic meals can not be eaten by one person, 11 euros; the baked seafood platter composed of clams, prawns, yaozhu and grilled fish at dinner is the most expensive, that is, 17.5 euros, this portion is changed to Italy or Germany, how to start from 40 euros.
With the mentality of breaking the casserole and asking the end, I turned into a bakery, and finally found a little European price feeling, a small sandwich of 2.3 euros, Konina said while rushing to pay the bill: Swipe my bank card can get a tax refund.
After going out, I learned that Slovenia is divided into two categories of tax calculation methods, one is the untaxed parity store, mainly selling goods containing imported materials, such as this bakery that imports wheat flour, butter and other materials from Italy, because the price fluctuates with imports and exports, the tax amount needs to be paid to the tax department statistics, Nina will automatically deduct the tax refund amount from the system after swiping the card. Another type of tax-denominated shops that are mainly domestic goods will record the consumption tax to be paid in real time on the bill, such as 17.5 euros for seafood restaurants, and have actually completed various calculations such as tax calculation and government subsidies at the time of payment.
After this complicated explanation, I finally have a little understanding of What Nina said before that "Slovenian consumption is not high", and I seem to have a different view of the statement that "small European countries are good mountains and waters are boring", and the current price consumption in Slovenia is about half lower than rumored, at least compared with Italy and Germany.
The next stop is Lake Bled, the most famous place in Slovenia, and one of the few places I've been once and want to go again.
(Documentary travel is not easy, I hope you can not hesitate to like and pay attention)