Money shot #1
France Prešeren, 1000 SIT.
I missed a day of work this week due to illness. How I hate this. Any shred of that excitement I used to have as a kid getting to stay home from school is long gone. The novelty of being in a different place from what routine dictates is no match for the depressing feeling that my own body won’t let me stick to a plan. What’s more, as I am paid by the hour I tend to get obsessed with the money I am not earning while lying on the sofa under Odeja Dormeo and sweating like a pig wrapped in pure merino wool. On top of this, I never seem to get sick during Shark Week on Discovery Channel.
So since I spent yesterday obsessing about money I wasn’t earning, I thought this would be a good time, as recently promised, to introduce a new sub-category here, contained within Random Picture Stream. I have always liked money, including the different styles of money to be found and to me one of the great tragedies of the Euro-zone is the demise of the Dutch guilder. Etc. Slovenia is not slated to go over to the Euro for a few years yet, so there’s still time to amass a collection of tolars. I begin that collection here.
France Prešeren is Slovenia’s poet laureate, and a national hero/tragic figure along the lines of Dante when Beatrice is factored in, but with less brimstone. Like Dante and Robert Burns (with whom he has been linked regarding Burns Night), he is much beloved for championing the local language at a time when it was not the lingua franca–Prešeren was writing when Slovenia was Hapsburg, and the Man was keeping Slovene down. Slovenia’s national anthem is Prešeren’s poem Zdravljica (essentially a toast for drinking with friends) set to music. Prešeren adorns the 1000 SIT (Slovenian tolar) note, and well should he. The 1000 SIT note is extremely useful. Yes, there are more valuable notes (the 5000 and 10,000 for example), but I have noticed that Slovenes as a group are not keen to give change. If you try to pay for a beer, for example, at 400 SIT with a 5000 you are likely to get attitude. The 1000, in quantities, is useful walking-around cash. At today’s rate it equals € 4.17, or $5.27. As you can see, there is a wide gulf in paper money between this note and the next-larger 5000 (€ 20.87 or $26.36 today). This reminds me that I had a dream last night that the Euro system introduced some very strange new coins*, but that’s another story.
Nearly every Slovenian town has its Prešeren Street or Square, most notably Ljubljana, where Prešernov Trg is a beautiful and centrally located meeting place by the river with a dramatic bronze statue of the poet where the youf meet up.
There’s a wealth of (bilingual) information about Prešeren, his life and work here. Slovenia’s top blogger and official Strongest Man contest winner (Helsinki 2004) recently wrote about his (Prešeren’s) poetry here.
*in a truly bizarre coincidence, in finding the above link I have just found that the body-builder mentioned above has only today posted a piece similar in theme. He speculates about Slovenia’s possible entries for their country-specific Euro coins. I cannot prove that this is a coincidence, more’s the pity.
Maybe we’re on some kind of similar wavelength that only foreigners in Slovenia can pick up — like when women’s menstrual cycles start to converge when they live together. I think I mentioned this theory to you already back in Helsinki. I don’t think you could hear me well because I was pulling that big 18-wheeler with my teeth and you were doing something or other with tires. :)
Great post!
Comment by Michael M. — Wednesday 18 May 05 @ 22.09 MDT+2.00
Yeah, yeah, great post, but you don’t post nearly often enough. You really need to post at least once a day, if not three or four times. I need more. MORE!
Comment by julie — Thursday 19 May 05 @ 22.55 MDT+2.00
Agreed!
Comment by Michael M. — Friday 20 May 05 @ 14.37 MDT+2.00
I quite like this fellow’s hairstyle. It reminds me of John Taylor of Duran Duran, circa 1985.
Given DD’s relative staying power, perhaps they should be commemorated on currency. Surely the UK’s 10 pound note needs a design overhaul by now.
Comment by Emily — Thursday 26 May 05 @ 01.16 MDT+2.00
[...] gis Another great Scottish holiday Recipes without the word ‘windpipe‘ in them Slovenia’s version of Burns A lesser-known but funnier Scottish poet
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Pingback by isoglossia — main » Let’s not even go into what it’s made of Mk. II (aka The groaning trencher…) — Sunday 20 August 06 @ 16.26 MDT+2.00