More than 13,000 people spent the night in the centre of Maribor and some 10,000 celebrated New Years's in the seaside town of Koper. Among them were many out-of-towners, who wanted to see the port town's lavish and controversial light decorations.

While Maribor and Koper, as well as a number of other towns, opted against fireworks this year for environmental reasons, the sky above Ljubljana was illuminated by environmentally-friendly fireworks rockets.

The city authorities said that giving up the main fireworks would lead to more people having their own fireworks, using less environmentally friendly materials.

Moreover, there fireworks tend to stretch out for the better part of the night in residential areas across the city, which is much more disturbing to residents and pets.

Most of the people celebrating in Ljubljana were locals and people from other parts of the country, but the city also attracted many tourists from Italy, Croatia, Germany, Serbia and Austria. According to Turizem Ljubljana, the city attracted about eight million visitors in December.

While many people are nursing hangovers today, the New Year's celebrations are far from over. Hundreds of die-hards will take a jump into icy waters of lake Bled, the Savinja river, the Velenje lake and the sea.

But a special kind of courage will be required of those jumping into Planšarsko lake in the quaint mountain village of Jezersko at nearly 1,000 metres above sea level.