Via Slovencia - Celje and Ptuj

Información

Celje is the third-largest town in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje (in Slovene, Mestna obcina Celje). The town of Celje is located below Upper Celje Castle (407 m or 1,335 ft) at the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley, and at the crossing of the roads connecting Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje, and the Central Sava Valley. It lies 238 m (781 ft) above mean sea level (MSL). The Celje region is frequently shaken by minor earthquakes.

Ptuj is a town in northeastern Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Styria region. Ptuj is the center place of a ten-day-long carnival in the spring, an ancient Slavic pagan rite of spring and fertility, called Kurentovanje or Korantovanje.

Kurent is believed to be the name of an ancient god of hedonism - the Slavic counterpart of the Greek Priapos, although there are no written records. Kurenti or Koranti (singular, Kurent or Korant) are figures dressed in sheep skin who go about the town wearing masks, a long red tongue, cow bells, and multi-colored ribbons on the head. The Kurenti from Ptuj and the adjoining villages also wear feathers, while those from the Haloze and Lancova vas wear horns. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with their bells and wooden sticks, to symbolically scare off evil spirits and the winter.

Meeting/pick-up point: Pick-up from the hotel.
Duration: 10 hours.
Start/opening time: At 9am.
End/closing time: At 7pm.
Languages: English.