Thursday
Today was a really great day that started with a visit to the coal mine. Here, we filled the shoes of a miner for the afternoon. This included a traditional miners lunch around 75 meters underground! To also give us the real feel, we were given a little circle coin, just like the coal miners have. The reasoning behind this coin system is to ensure every miner comes out of the miner that day, and if they didn't, the miners would know exactly who didn't make it. For our safety, we were not allowed to bring electronics or anything other than our lunch, coats, and hard hats into the mine shaft. This was an eye opener because though the working conditions of miners is something we've heard about before, it was much different to get a feel for it ourselves. We learned a lot about the miners culture and learned a new Slovenian phrase..."strechno" which means good luck, in a very meaningful way. After the coal mine we met Dr, Emil Strbenk who explained the environmental impact of the coal industry, as well as a history of Slovenia, and of course, Ugoslavia.