Let me start this new post by wishing everyone a very good, healthy, and happy New Year! Hopefully, you all had a great New Year’s Eve with at least one, and hopefully more, loved ones. We celebrated New Year’s Eve quietly but pleasantly with our children, just at home playing games, while enjoying a snack and a drink.

I was happy with the fireworks ban because our dog Ivy is terrified of fireworks. Last year she was panting and shaking for 3 hours. I was really worried she was going to have cardiac arrest. Despite the ban, there was still a bit of fireworks going off in the area, but at least a lot less so Ivy had a much calmer night.

The year 2020 is (finally) over, and we all hope that 2021 will be a better year, especially a year in which we can visit and hug each other again. In which we can do fun things again. Going shopping and going on trips, for example. The shops here have been closed for nearly 2 months now, and I really feel like going shopping again. Hopefully, all mouth masks can soon be thrown in the trash as well.

My New Year starts with plans for starting my own company. For the past four months, I was a participant in a government program (PONI) to stimulate new businesses. I signed up for this because I had no official job and always dreamed of starting my own business. To register, you had to fill out a very extensive form where you had to explain your business idea. To my delight (and surprise) I was selected as one of the twelve participants in this first group. Since I have been »in tourism« in recent years, my business idea was in that area, namely to offer holiday programs that introduce guests to the authentic Slovenian rural life. During the program, we fully developed our business plan under the guidance of various mentors. We had all kinds of workshops and training courses and learned all the ins and outs of starting and running your own company. They were four very educational and also fun months in which I got to know some great people and was able to set up my own website.

At the moment, tourism is still quite flat because of Corona obviously, but I have good hope that this will pick up again this year. And when that happens, I’m ready :). I cordially invite everyone to take a look at my website: www.myauthenticslovenia.com. I would love to hear what you think and feedback is more than welcome. Of course, I would also be very grateful if you would share my website with as many family, friends, and acquaintances as possible :).

After 4 months of working full-time on these plans and having spent 8 hours a day at an office with nice colleagues, it will take some getting used to being back home starting next week :(. But I will keep working on my plans and hope to be able to build something so that I can keep busy offering guests a wonderful holiday. That is where my passion lies and what I enjoy doing a lot, showing my guests the authentic village life of the locals here, having them experience it for themselves, and sharing with them my own experiences and knowledge. Hopefully, I can welcome many more satisfied guests in the future! Please wish me luck!