Cerkniško jezero - Lake Cerknica

Around Cerkniško jezero
Originally uploaded by Crt Ahlin

This photo is from a trip to Cerkniško jezero (Lake Cerknica) this summer. The funny thing about the lake is, it a "periodic" or "intermittent" lake (the term my dictionary offers). What does that mean? Well, the lake has periods of high and periods of low water. That is, it dries up (not completely) when there is no rain and fills up to the point of flooding some nearby villages in heavy rains.
How can that be? The lake resides on a limestone basis, which easily absorbs water through, among other things, sinkholes - like the one on the photograph. They sure look surreal to me ...

Ljubljana in august

Lots is happening in Ljubljana these days. There is the Trnfest festival in Trnovo part Ljubljana with a bunch of daily evening events (ending on the 1st of September). We went there for a stand-up comedy evening, but there were too many people there and we couldn't hear the comedians, so we quickly went on.
Then there is the sixth annual festival Sanje in the center of Ljubljana, dedicated to poetry and music with events at the Zvezda park, Pločnik coffee shop and other places in Ljubljana and around (ending on 31st of August). The picture is from Festival sanje, the concert of the group Ankaran. They were playing old songs of Frane Milčinski - Ježek and it was nice and relaxing to listen to them for a while.


And there is the "Dipping of the cheating bread baker" every (?) Saturday at 10:30 on Šuštarski bridge, where they symbolically reproduce the event, that was considered punishment for bakers whose loafs where lighter than claimed. Didn't see that one yet, but I will keep it in mind and hopefully do that sometime.

Anti-smoking law

The novel of the Anti-smoking law declares that from this day forward (Avgust 5, 2007) smoking in Slovenia is banned in all public and working places. Special smoking rooms can be installed in hotels, restaurants and bars if the owner/tenant decides to set it up, where smoking will be allowed. Though there will be no eating and drinking allowed.
Among other novelites are also:
- selling/buying of tobacco products to adolescents under 18 is banned;
- phone number for help with curing smoking addictions have to be placed on the tobacco product packages.