Comparison chart: Slovenia - USA
Slovenia USA
Common winter leisure option: Skiing in Austria Week in Florida
Shopping done in: BTC mall, Austria, Italy Local mall; Wal-Mart; Sam's Club (huge discount shopping warehouse featuring 5-gallon mayonnaise jars and 2-pound tuna cans)
Who the workaholics are: Mostly everyone Immigrants and New Yorkers
Movie subtitles seen: Everywhere Art-house moviehouses catering to cinema snobs
McDonald's seen as: Outpost of USA Place to get cheap, bland but reliable food; pseudo-"restaurant" to take kids
Place to get a cappuccino: Any kava bar Starbucks
Place for exotic vacation: Tunisia, Turkey Cancun
Place for more familiar vacation: Dubrovnik Disney World
Disgusting pizza topping option: Fried eggs Pineapple
Objects of prejudice: Serbs, Bosnians, Croatians, etc. Puerto Ricans, blacks, Mexicans, etc.
Abnormal demographic tendency towards: Suicide Homicide
Surface: Politeness "friendliness"
Lurking just beneath surface: Envy, gruffness, chip on shoulder, inferiority complex Hostility, paranoia, aggression
English spoken? Surprisingly well Rather badly, considering

THINGS LJUBLJANA NEEDS

Entrepreneur alert!

  • Self-service laundromats
  • "NY Bagel" franchises (not so farfetched; Budapest and Prague have 'em)
  • A Thai restaurant (would it be asking too much to have real Thais on the premises?)
  • More ATM machines hooked into the Cirrus network (or else issue a Ljubljanska Banka bank card to every tourist on arrival)
  • And why is there no ginger ale in Slovenia?

    THINGS LJUBLJANA HAS AND THE USA COULD USE

  • Reserved seating in movie theaters
  • Cheaper cappuccino
  • A more easygoing, less totally consumer-oriented attitude towards life (though LJ is catching up fast)

    AND WHILE I'M ON THE SUBJECT

    Would the huge hypermarkets in the Ljubljana sub- and exurbs (and the regular supermarkets, too) please introduce: 1) cash-only express lanes for six or eight or 10 items apiece; 2) more visible overhead aisle signs indicating what's been placed where???

    If ya want rampant free-market consumerism, at least do it right. If ya wanna make the Ljubljanchans forgo the old-world charm, eye-soothing sights and personal relationships forged by shopping in the central market, and give 'em gigantic personality-free easy-access boxes stocked with every product available in this country, at least make it a bit easier to find the stuff, OK?

    FURTHER SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! (Click here for the guestbook)