Eating in Maribor

Source

Social life in Maribor is great but not in the sense you might expect. Why? Because Slovenia has this very social policy which allows students to benefit from the system to its fullest. Education in Slovenia is not paid but this is not all. Students receive coupons which allow them to eat for two or three Euros. How does it work? The state pays 2. 63 Euros for a student meal and the student pays the rest. Students could not only eat at their university cafeteria but in a range of restaurants as well. The restaurants offer special student menus which would usually include a soup or a salad, a main course, and sometimes a desert. Some restaurants have both a soup and a salad.

Source

By using the coupons you will soon discover that eating outside everyday helps you get a great social life. Erasmus people in Slovenia go out every day because they can eat together at different restaurants. It is one of my favorite experiences in Maribor: the option to go out whenever I wanted just to eat outside. I had never been out as much as in Maribor. In my normal everyday life I cannot afford to eat out every single day. In Slovenia I could. The good thing about coupons is that if you travel or go home, for example, they accumulate. If I remember correctly, you could have them for three months. I, for instance, stayed home for two months and when I came back I could eat for both lunch and dinner. I had more than sixty coupons.

Source

The coupons are “virtual”. You register your phone number (it has to be Slovenian) and you have them. When you are at a restaurant, the waiter brings you a small machine; you call a special number and place your phone next to the machine. After it has connected, the machine gives you information about the number of coupons you have left. It is very comfortable. I have never seen a system like that before. And it seems to work because, at least in Maribor, the restaurants were full at lunchtime, and believe me, it is a lot funnier to be able to go out and eat with friends, instead of staying home and wondering what to cook.

Photo gallery