Meet the People
Living in Slovenia, working worldwide.
Bring your kid to yoga class.
We sent some questions to the man behind the podcast that introduces the history of the Yugoslavia while you make dinner, take a walk, or whatever else you choose to do while listening, and he was kind enough to reply.
Saglara Mandzhieva came to Slovenia from Russia with her family, and now runs a business selling health and beauty products from a store in the same block as the main library in Ljubljana. I visited her the other day and asked about her life and work here.
Some writing tips from a man who’s published five books so far this year.
The entrepreneur who moved from Moscow to Ljubljana talks about the challenges he faced, and how he’s using what he learned to help firms enter new markets.
Sandi Gorišek is a mechanical engineer by training and profession, working on projects that often take him out of the country. By chance he was working in America just as Melania Trump was entering public consciousness there, and soon grew tired of being asked the same questions again and again.
While others may have just waved off all inquiries, Mr Gorišek, who fizzes with energy and ideas, decided to do something more. So he wrote and published a short book on the woman who was born Melanija Knavs – in Novo mesto, not Sevnica – and the world she grew up in. Having purchased and read a copy I got in touch with the author and arranged to meet him for a drink, record our conversation and type it up to share with you, lightly edited for concision and clarity.
A few weeks ago I attended a meeting at Ziferblat that was part of the training for Migrantour, a project that aims to give migrants in Slovenia the skills and knowledge needed to become tour guides in Ljubljana.
It was there I first met Jana Milovanović, an anthropologist by training who left academia to follow her various interests outside the halls and classrooms of a university setting, working directly with migrants and other marginal groups, a topic that’s only become more interesting, and urgent, in the last few years, with the opening of the Balkan Route to Europe. As such I caught up with Jana a few days later for a coffee and tried to learn more about her life and work in this context.
From the Hyatt Regency Kolkata to the Hotel Park, Ljubljana.
Katja Rogelj is a force of nature, with a ready smile and easy laugh. Wildly enthusiastic about her life and work in the beauty of Triglav National Park, and Soča Valley in particular, I met up with her just as the season was about to begin, and she was kind enough to answer some questions about how she got into the business, what services she offers, and whether it’s all as dangerous as it looks to these eyes.
Continuing our occasional series on people who moved to Slovenia and started a business, we asked some questions of Dan Bendall, who works together with his partner selling and managing properties around the country.
