Sedbergh Singers Visit Zreče - August 2007

Although our group was small - only 7 singers - the fullness of the time we spent in Slovenia made us feel very large - in part due to the wonderful hospitality we enjoyed swelling both our stomachs and our hearts.

English singers and friends join Zreče mayor Boris Podvrsnik and TIC director Zdenka Keysar under the Lipa tree at Medved - Skomarje church is in the background.
Photo by David Burbidge

We stayed as we often do at Joze Kovse's in Skomarje where we ate like kings and sang our hearts out. We had a wonderful concert after mass in Sranic a few miles to the south west of Zreče where our hosts took us to lunch in a restaurant in the village after singing for them.

Zdenka came with us - as she did when we went to Bled and rowed out to the island before singing in the church. We also went to meet our friends the Pevke iz Brinjeve Gore who invited us to their house for a singing picnic where we had a wonderful time in the garden also enjoying the accordian of Jozica's husband.

On another occasion we went to a party near Gorenje where we sang for the guests. I was especially delighted when one of the musicans who were playing in a band came up and greeted me like a long lost friend. At first I was puzzled - and then remembered: this was Kristina who I had met at my neighbour's house in Sedbergh when she was staying as part of the school exchange. Somehow seeing her again here made our two towns seem very close.

We were also very honoured to have a visit from the Mayor who came to lunch with us at Medved in Skomarje with Zdenka and Urska and were able to hear one of his very fine speaches.

The dancers from this little village were due to visit Sedbergh in just a couple of weeks time and we were lucky to get a sneak preview in the village hall of their very energetic dancing. What made it all the more extraordinary was that some of us had joined the dancers earlier in the day for bringing in the hay, which meant raking on the hillside and loading the hay onto a tractor trailer. We knew how hard they had worked and were astonished that they could still do dances which verged on the acrobatic.

We also met up with Barbara Pusnik who I had sent a few books of English customs to after a request for help with her university dissertation. She brought us some delicious examples of Slovene cakes she had made herself, and joined us on our outing to Ljubljana where we sang under the statue of Slovenia's national poet Preseren.

Finally we all flew back from Maribor which must be one of the most delightful airports on the planet. We were able to wait for our plane while sitting on grass under a lime tree, and in just a few short steps travel from check in, through security into the departure room, and then through the back door straight on to the plane.

Like many of the people from Sedbergh who visit Slovenia we were able to revel in a country which has a scale which gives a liftestyle which many of us remember with fondness from 50 years ago in England.

David Burbidge