High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Vitomil Zupan was born in Ljubljana, then part of Austro-Hungary. After finishing grammar school, he entered the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ljubljana. Due to his restless spirit he was able to finish his studies only in 1958. Already before the outbreak of World War II, he travelled all across the Mediterranean, the Near East and Northern Africa earning his money as a sailor, a ship's stoker, a house painter in France, a skiing instructor, a professional boxer and other. After his return to Slovenia in the late 1930s, he became active in the Sokol athletic movement, which also had a strong political nature.