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Triglav
In Slovenia you can hike in the Julian Alps, the Karavanke
Mountains, the Kamniško-Savinjske Alps, the Pohorje mountain
range, and in many solitary peaks. According to an ancient
Slavic legend, Mount Triglav Slovenia's highest peak (2864 m),
is a three-headed god who keeps a watchful eye over the earth,
the sky, and the underworld. Triglav is also our national
symbol. On the top of it there is Aljaz’s tower, made of
iron. Visiting Triglav is now a kind of Slovene pilgrimage so
each year well-known mountain-climbings are organised.
 Below
the mountain there is our Triglav National Park
covering 84,805 hectares, it is among the largest natural
parks in Europe. The sources of the Sava and the Soča rivers
are here as well as the Valley of Seven Lakes. Chamois,
mountain sheep, wild roosters, grouse, eagles, and marmots
live here among unique plant species.
About
caves
Behind
the Slovene coast there is the karst region. There we
can find many interesting caves like Postojna Cave, the
Skocjan Caves and other ones that are a great tourist
attraction. Postojna Cave was first mentioned in 1213 and is
the most popular cave in Europe with more than twenty-six
million visitors so far. The Škocjan Caves, which are on
UNESCO's list of natural and cultural world heritage sites are
1400-meter long and 150-meter deep underground. There is also
the oldest tourist cave in the world: Vilenica near
Divača(17th century).
In
Slovenian caves we can find  the
Proteus anguinus or "human fish" which is the only
cave vertebrate in Europe and also the largest known cave
animal in the world.
Slovenian
national costume
Although
Slovenia is a small country it offers a wide range of national
costumes. We can't talk about one national costume, but each
region or even some towns had their special way of clothing in
the past.
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Most
of the costumes were in use in 17th and 18th century, later
the dressing became more or less the same in all parts of
Slovenia.
Some
recipe of nationaly food
Potica
/ Walnut-Cake
We
need:
Ingredients:
60 dag
warmed, fine-grain dry wheat flour
6 dag
fresh yeast
2.5--3 dl
warm milk
10 dag
softened butter
3 egg yolks
10 dag
sugar
2 Tbsp
dark rum
grated peel of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
Instructions:
1. Sift the flour and put it in a warm place.
2. First prepare the leaven: put the crumbled leaven, 2-3
tablespoons of flour, one table spoone of sugar, a bit of
milk in a bowl and mix it till it is a compact mashey
mixture. Put it in a warm place to rise.
3. Add the whiped milk, the yolks, the sugar, the salt, the
butter, the rum and chopped orange or lemon peel.
4. Make the pastry and cover it with a warm cloth and put it
in a warm place to rise
5. Roll out the risen pastry and spread on the optional
stuffing. Roll up the pastry and put it in a greased model
for Potica. Put that model in the oven.
6. Bake it for an hour.
NUTSTUFFING
Ingredients:
1/4 kg sugar
2 dl water
40-60 dkg nut kernels
8 dkg butter
1dl warm milk
2-3 yolks
1 teaspoon rum and 2-3 tablespoons cream
INSTRUCTIONS:
Pour the water over the sugar and boil it.
Add the ground nut kernels and other ingredients.
Spread the nut stuffing over the pastry and roll it up.
Cultural background
Potica is a Slovene national meal. We find that delicious
dessert also in Istria and Croatia. We always bake Potica on
Christmas and Easter day.
Roast
Duck
We
need:
Ingredients :
1 young, not too greasy duck ( approximately 2 kg) salt
green parsley or marjoram
INSTRUCTIONS:
Clean the duck carefully, remove all the hard tubes from the
skin, pluck it with your fingers and with a knife. Open the
duck , remove the guts and the gall, remove the fat parts
from the legs. Wash the duck inside and outside. Cut off the
wings and the neck .Lard its chest with some smoked bacon.
Rub it with salt and put it into a baking tin. Put some
twigs of green parsley or marjoram into the duck. Put it
into the oven, often pour water on it, for the start stew it
and then roast it nice and crunchy. Add some water, so the
grease wouldn't burn. Roast it for approximately 1 to 2
hours. The duck can be served with the red wine.
SUMMARY:
We make the roast duck for St. Martin. This holiday is in
November. At that time must becomes wine and we make big
celebrations where we drink only young wine and we eat roast
duck.
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