On the weekend of arrival many a cheer and hello was to be heard all over the campgrounds as freshmen were being welcomed and old EUGEN mates were welcomed back. It is needless to say that the beer was flowing in streams. The EUGEN-idea has come around a bit in his 19 years history. This reflected well in the great diversity of european nations present at this years Eugen, including: Croatio, Serbia, Macedonia, Italy, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, Finnland and BelgiumAll in all, arround 150 participants recieved their name-tag and welcome pack that consisted of some touristic information brochures about Slovenia, and a EUGEN 2014 program booklet that included welcoming words, general issues of the EUGEN week and extensive descriptions of all the field-trips.
- Monday (4th of August)
– Arrival of Eugeneers, synchronizing watches with UBT (Universal Beer Time) and tent building
– Registration and dinner followed by the presentation of the EUGEN 2014 program, fieldtrips, evening debates, Slovenian regional geology, organizers, lecturers and campsite rules
– “Welcome to rockland” party - Tuesday (5th of August)
– Breakfast and bus departure at 8:00 AM for the fieldtrips (you will have three fieldtrips to choose from) - Wednesday (6th of August)
– Breakfast
– Traditional GEOLYMPICS, let the best geologist win! - Thursday (7th of August)
– Breakfast and bus departure at 8:00 AM for the fieldtrips (you will have three fieldtrips to choose from) - Friday (8th of August)
– Breakfast and bus departure at 8:00 AM for the fieldtrips (you will have three fieldtrips to choose from) - Saturday (9th of August)
– Breakfast and departure of the “cultural and history day bus” for the Slovenian capital city Ljubljana, the really prettiest city in the World (quoted by its major/sheriff Janković).
– Return to the campsite and dinner
– Announcement of the location of EUGEN 2015 - Sunday (10th of August)
– Hugs, kisses and tears, every “to good to be true” experience has to end some day. Luckily the EUGEN meeting takes place every year
– Goodluck and godspeed!
“The Karst from above and below” fieldtrip
There are three different fieldtrips planned for the 2014 EUGEN. One will take us to Škocjanske jame, one of the largest cave systems in Slovenia that is open for tourists. From there we will make a trip over the Karst region of Slovenia and take a look at its geological and geomorphological characteristics.
“Idrija the region of mercury and žlikrofi” fieldtrip
The second trip will take us to Slovenians first Geopark Idrija and into the world’s second biggest mercury mine which is listed on the UNESCO heritage list together with the Spanish Almadén. One of many Idrija’s attractions is also the Idrija fault, the alleged culprit for the 1511 earthquake and also one of the geomorphologically most prominent faults in Slovenia.
“The best view ever” fieldtrip
Our third trip will take us to the heart of the Slovenian Alps (Julian Alps), where we can learn about the structural geology and stratigraphy of the area. In both aspects the Julian Alps are most interesting, since they are a part of Southern Alps and are as such thrusted towards the south instead of the north and because they are composed almost entirely of limestone deposited on the Julian carbonate platform in the Mesozoic.
Sadly, like all nice things in life this week did come to an end quite quickly. But it was not able to get to an end without one last important thing. The “Next-Years-Election” is necessarily to decide where the future Eugen will be. Unfortunately there was no country that really applied for this Job. But since everyone got really excited to go to Poland and since the polish people had been pretty brave by taking life changing decisions during the beer hour, they finally decide on Saturday evening to become a next Eugen host. Again the German Eugen Association is really grateful to our polish friends for these step, cause otherwise it could had become a bit difficult to organized the 20th anniversary. Also a big Thanks goes to all Slovene for their outstanding job during this week especially to Ana und Andrej which probably sacrificed a few years of lifetime to make everything working out that well, again Thank you. We hope to see you all again in 2015 on the 20th Eugen in Poland and maybe some of you earlier during the Eugen new years eve, where ever it will be.
Take care!