We visited the Budinjak Eco-Centre where the MYP0 and MYP1 students participated in the ‘Treasure hunt’ outdoor activity practising their orientation skills using a compass and a map within an educational program ‘A Young Park Ranger’ under an expert guidance in the English language. The MYP2 and MYP3 students took a 4.2 km hiking tour along the educational ‘Trail of Princes’, while learning about the archaeological and biological particularities of Žumberak area. We had lunch at the beautiful estate Kršlinov mlin. We also visited the St. Barbara's Mine in the village of Rude. We walked through 350 metres of the underground centuries-old tunnels Saint Trinity and Kokel, searching for the Bergmans. According to local legends the Bergmans were yellow-skinned dwarfs with snake eyes, long beards dressed in green, who were digging for gold and distracted miners in everyday jobs. A tour of the mine would be incomplete without tasting the most famous mining cake ‘rudarska greblica’ that used to be the only meal of miners and now is listed in the Croatian Intangible Cultural Heritage. We rounded off our trip with a short walking tour of the town of Samobor where we had a delicious treat with ‘kremšnita’ that has received the status of an intangible cultural property as of January 18th, 2021.

We sincerely hope we will see each other next year!

Stay well and healthy,
Matija Gubec MYP Students and Teachers

Another thing that I learnt during this experience was about the higher class of people that were buried in the nature park Budinjak and most of the had very small tombs but the most important ones had bigger and better designed ones and this I found very interesting since it is very connected and very similar to the pyramids in Egypt.

The last thing I learnt on this field trip was about the mine in Rude and how the miners treated the mine like it was there home, and also saying “sretno” before they entered the mine which was also something that I didn’t think I would hear but it was very interesting to hear how they all cared about each other and wished each other the best and this really shows how dedicated about the mine and about their findings.

 

Nature park was the only thing about this field trip that I actually knew something about since I have been in a few different nature parks with our school and this really helped me know and understand the nature park better and helped me understand more about what have happened there and what is actually happening there now.

 

Fun, since I enjoyed the trip and we actually had some interesting things to see and this made the trip fun in my opinion. Interesting, since we were able to see a lot of different and new interesting stuff that we weren’t able to see before and we actually got to learn something about these interesting places. Adventurous, since we were able to walk around and explore through the nature park and also have a little trip around Samobor and also in Samobor and we also had the opportunity to see a lot of different things. Dirty, since we got into a lot of mess in the mine and also when we were exploring around the nature park, but this made the field trip more interesting and a little bit messier.

 

Yes, since we were able to see a lot of different things and also learn about new things that we maybe didn’t know about and it was also very interesting how the whole trip was presented and also how the organizing was done and in general it was a pretty good time for me and I would definitely recommend it to some friends since I enjoyed it and I think that some of my friends would enjoy it as well as I did.

 

The one thing I would want to know more about is the people and the royalty that were buried in the nature park Budinjak and I would want to know more since I wanted to hear about their life and more about them in general, but in the end I thing that I got a pretty good view about who they really were, but it would be really nice if we could’ve got a little bit more.

●       When entering the mine, workers would say ‘Sretno!’ because they’d never know if their colleagues would never come out again.

●       The “prince”, instead of having a crown on his head like most people would presume, wore a helmet!

●       The nature park was home to people in prehistory, and were likely driven out as the area used to be a trading hotspot.

 

2.      Write one thing that is connected to your previous knowledge.

●       Multiple societies, such as the people who lived on Žumberak, believed that in the afterlife they’d go through many grueling tasks, such as the Egyptians, who sometimes left papyri of important spells they think they’d need to get to the afterlife, these ones left tools and wine in the underground chambers.

 

3. Write four adjectives to describe this trip

●       Engaging

●       Interesting

●       Fun

●       Helpful

 

4. Would you recommend this trip to your friends? Why?

●       I would recommend this trip to my friends as it was an interesting experience, and there’s something for everyone. Simple strolling in Samobor, adventuring in the mine, and hiking on the Trail of Princes, it is an inclusive experience!

 

5. Write one thing you would like to know more about.

●       I would’ve liked there to be more detail on the species of plants and animals that live in Žumberak because they’re a bit contributing factor to the fact that the forested mountain even exists in the first place.

 

2)    I believe it was sixth grade when we learned about the Iron Age in Croatia, in Host Country Studies. With this field trip, I got to connect that knowledge to what I was seeing and where I was. 

 

3)    I would describe this trip as fun, beautiful, interesting and tiring.

 

4)    I would definitely recommend this trip to a friend. Though it is tiring, I would say it was definitely worth it. You get to learn a lot, and I found myself constantly in awe of the sights I was seeing, so yes, it was definitely worth it. 

 

5)    I would like to know more about ‘The Trail of Princes.’

1.       The savory pastry rudarska greblica was made by men's wives and were brought to them in mines so they could get the amount of energy they needed to be able to work for the rest of the day.

2.       In the Trail of Princes, you can see small hills/bumps that present the graves of the people who lived and worked there. There is a large hill situated near the smaller ones, and that bigger one was for the more royal nd higher level people.

3.       The people who lived in or near the Trail of Princes were not burried as a whole body, but were burnt and put into small vases nd then burried under the ground.

I knew from before that the pastry kremšnite or samoborske kremšnite are not just a regular random pastry, but it is a pastry which basically represents teh city Samobor, Samobor is mainly known for samoborske kremšnite till this day and on.

1.       Adventurous

2.       Refreshing

3.       Outstanding

4.       Spontaneous

 

I would definitely recommend this trip to not just one friend, but many of my friends and family members. I would want them to experience the amount of fun I had and to get them out of the house more, to get some fresh air and to experience something they might have never heard before or tried before. I also want them to try the new foods and drinks I could try.

 Write one thing that you would like to know more about or had a question about...

I would like to know many things about the places we visited, but one of my main questions is: Since you found so many of these old architectures, places (mines, grasslands...), arts etc. do you think there can be more out there near or further away and what do you think you could find?

3 facts I have learnt
- that the St. Barbara mine was used for mining copper and iron.

- that the famous “rudarska Greblica” is names after a tool of the same name 

- that Samobor is very famous for its special cake called “Samoborska kremšnita “

3) Would you recommend this trip to your friends?

I would definitely recommend this trip to my friends because it was very enjoyable to spend the day in the nature, the food we got to try and experience was also really good. Overall I would say the trip is very worth it and I would recommend it to anyone. 

- How to use a map and a compass

- St. Barbara's mine is on of the oldest copper and iron ore mines

- St. Barbara’s mine was closed because there was no more copper and iron in it

  

 - long, interesting, scary (because in St. Barbara’s mine was dark) and nice

I would recommend this field trip to my friend's because it is nice in Samobor and Budinjak Eco- Centre is an interesting place to visit

- how the St. Babara's Mine looks like

- ancient Roman items were found in Budinjak

- how the tracks of some animals looks like

 

- interesting, funny, delicious, relaxing

 

I would recommend this trip to my friends, because there is a very nice biking way and a knowlegabe tour.