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June 2021

The untouched nature and beneficial energy of Dobrovnik

Prekmurje is full of great surprises, and although known to be remote is really not that far
from the great time you can get when you are there. And this time might just have been one
of our best. Our two- day testing weekend in Dobrovnik started on a Saturday early morning.
We were all looking forward to some relaxation in nature. After a 2h drive we reached
our first destination, the Lake Bukovnik and …oh boy, what a nice, heart-warming welcome
was waiting for us there!

Ms. Elizabeta and her colleagues from the Tourist information office welcomed us with a
traditional bread and a welcome drink, and home-made elderflower (bezeg) syrup for our
kids. They provided us with a map of the lake and suggested us what to see and do there.
We walked through the forest to find the wooden statues of magical creatures strategically
placed around the lake, a great joy to our children. The award was promised to them if we
would find all 4 of them. While searching for them we passed the energetic points (if you
stand on each for ca 15min and max on 3 points/day it should do you a lot of good)
towards a water source that is believed to have healing powers. The water was cold and
tasted good, fresh. And we were lucky enough to meet there another visitor that new how
to measure those energies and showed us how it works. We continued our hike, during
which the kids were picking up wild berries. We found the wooden statues of fairies and
dwarfs living by the lake, and the kids played on the playground near the lake shore. Later
on, we had a delicious lunch in the Brunarica prekmurskih dobrot near the Information office.
We ate the savoury meat dish from the area, Bograč, accompanied with dodole, ajdova kaša
with mushrooms and gibanica for dessert. We were surprised with the size of the portions,
as even a half portion would be enough for 2 adults.

Happy and satisfied we said our goodbyes. Our next destination point, the Island of Love
was just a few minutes’ drive from the lake in the village of Ižakovci. Soon after we got to
the Island, it started to rain. We waited a bit under the trees and observed the fast currents
of the river Mura, but as it didn’t seem the rain would stop soon, we ran quickly to reach the mill and Büjraški museum that were 100 m up the river. There was a museum guide waiting
for us and he told us a bit about the Island of Love and its name. It was popular among
couples in love to arrange to meet here or come to swim here. And the mill is actually the
only floating mill in Slovenia. It floats on a platform made from the two boats and is tied
to the mainland with iron ropes. Even though it was raining cats and dogs, and the river was
pretty wild, the mill was holding still and didn’t move, not even for a tiny bit. In the Museum
of Büjraštvo we have seen the video explaining büjraštvo, which means the process of
building dams on river Mura and afterwards we went out to make ourselves the typical
büjraška snack on the fire – bread with zaseka and garlic. We enjoyed very much the
experience of roasting the bread on a stick over an open fire. As we almost burned our bread,
the guide shared with us a few tricks on how to roast your bread to be nicely crunchy.
The busy afternoon was coming to an end and we headed towards our accommodation. Ideally, we would have stayed in Dobrovnik, but coincidentally this weekend everything was booked, so we agreed to stay in the next village, in Filovci. The holiday house Gönc was located right at the top of the hill and in between vineyards. The hosts awaited us with a huge smile. This was already very good  Minutes later they showed us to the first floor, which has an entrance from the upper terrace, and we were blown away with the view, with the huge terrace that was all at our disposal and with the comfort of the accommodation. The hosts have in fact just recently finished the renovation works and we were the first ones to stay there after the renovation.

After a few hours of rest, it was time to have dinner at the restaurant Pri Lüjzi. As we were not that hungry, we had a simple meal in a lovely courtyard overlooking a beautiful garden. The restaurant has actually become well-known recently thanks to its wine fountain. At any given time one can taste and choose among five different wines. After the dinner, while the kids were playing in the garden, the manager introduced us to his wines and wine production. We have also bought some wines to bring back home.
The night was calm and after a full day in the outdoors we were all tired and we all slept like
babies ☺ Our youngest is up early, so we woke up early on a Sunday morning. This gave us plenty of time to play outside on the lawn before continuing with the Sunday program. Around 9.30 we delivered the keys to our host and drove to see the Ocean Orchids and its tropical garden. Ocean Orchids grow orchids and sell them all over Europe. We all enjoyed the tropical garden and took lots of Instagram worthy photos. In front of the Ocean Orchids there is a great kids’ playground and a coffee garden where we recovered our energies with the locally made ice-cream by Passero.

Our last stop was the House of Crafts in Dobrovnik. This was a 4-minute drive from the Ocean
Orchids. The guide showed us first the Ethnographic museum and its collections. We particularly liked to see how the rooms looked like back in the past: the bedroom, kitchen etc and we enjoyed comparing the furniture from the past with today’s furniture. However what kids loved the most was the workshop that followed. From the corn leaves and with the help of the pedagogue we created beautiful flowers. As it turns out this type of workshops are one of the main activities of the House of Crafts, that attracts school kids and other visitors.
We truly enjoyed our stay in Dobrovnik and were pleasantly surprised to see how much
Dobrovnik has to offer. One could easily stay here a week and would not be bored at all. It offers a perfect combination of nature, sports, culture, and cuisine. We will for sure come back soon.

Dijana & Joao Pita da Costa

 Photos by: Dijana &Joao