Evin blog: Beautiful Slovenia

Because of all the studying (I know it might sound like I was kidding...but I'm not...really! :)) I only had time for 1 day trips, but they were nice :).

Veliki Draški vrh, 2243 m
A peak with a great view from the top. And there was still snow in the middle of the summer.

Soline, Salt-pans

We were really lucky to get the chance to go to Sečoveljske soline and harvest salt from salt evaporation ponds. In these artificially made ponds sea water evaporates, leaving the salt behind. On the bottom of the ponds is so-called petola, a special bio-sediment, microbial mat that prevents the mixing of the sea mud with crystallised salt and also prevents some undesired ions (iron, manganese) from incorporating into the salt crystals. Petola is a really thin mat, so when you harvest salt you have to be very careful not to hurt it, because it takes a long time to grow again. To walk on it you have to wear special shoes. :) But even after just 1.5h of working there you realize that this is not an easy job. Good for your feet though :).