so we did! about a year ago, we drove all the way to ptuj on a mission. i remember it was unbelievably cold and windy, and yet we sticked around through the folklore and performances, warming our hands on steaming mugs of glühwein (one of the best i’d tried so far!) until finally the kurenti came out. i froze my fingers off making a video of the whole thing, and with the move to berlin, never got around to publish it… so here it is now:

quite something, isn’t it? i don’t think carnival will ever be the same without these big guys and their cowbell cacophony!

and of course, we stopped at the famous trojane krofi house that everyone had told us about, and bought a bunch of them for the road!

i don’t think they were the best we’ve had in slovenia, but there were certainly up there in the top 5, and well worth the short detour on the highway! :)

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 on the head multi-colored ribbons. 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. (more on wikipedia)

they’re very loud, jumping around and ringing their heavy cow bells, yet friendly, stopping by to talk to curious kids. it was a real treat to watch, our timing was quite perfect :)