Day 16 -- Split

Charlotte: This morning we took a trip to the Institute of Adriatic Cultures. Currently the University of Georgia’s agriculture department has a grant though the USDA to help Croatia develop their pomegranate and kale farming. We toured their wine lab and their olive oil labs. It was very interesting to learn about wine testing and olive oil testing for the best ones. This institute has olive oil and wine making down to a science and they inform the Croatian people how to better their plants for production. Most of us had never been to a facility like this and it was very beneficial for us because we could taste the Croatian olive oils that we may want to take home as gifts.

We then departed for Split (pronounced SPLEET), where we visited Diocletian’s Palace. Split is a very fascinating town because it is almost all surrounding the palace. The part of the palace we visited was the basement however; many things were built up as it was during the era that it was built. The palace was very beautiful and really gave us an idea of how these people lived. After our tour we went and walked around the palace explored Split, this town’s economy is driven by tourism and has a lot of very cool shops and restaurants. Split also has a university and it was a very vibrant city to visit.

Colin: Our last stop for the day was the gallery, and former home, of the famous Croatian sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic, whose work we had become familiar with during our travels through Croatia. An anti-Communist, he refused to return to Croatia after WWII, however, before his death in 1962, he sent 59 of his works to Croatia and willed his estate in Croatia to the "Croatia people." This site is now a museum of his works.

Day 17 -- Day Off #1

Charlotte: Today we had a free day for excursions and other activities. Several of my classmates and I took a charter boat trip to the islands of Hvar and Brac. We spent an hour on the island of Hvar (pronounced HA-Var) were we saw the small island town and walked around. Then we went to the island of Brac. Brac (pronounced Brach) was the most beautiful island we have been to on the Croatian coast. We spent three hours here in which our group spent almost the whole time sun bathing and enjoying the gorgeous views of the coast and the mountains. Bol (pronounced Bowl), the beach on Brac, was also very interesting for its peninsula/beach. The beaches here are all stones and depending on the time of day and the current the direction of the end of the peninsula/beach can change. We also saw some kind of supermodel photo shoot on the beach while we were laying out. We then took the chartered boat back to Makarska. Our classmates who stayed behind in Makarska enjoyed the day on the beach and rented paddle boats with slides on them.

Day 15 -- Makarska

Charlotte: This morning we went on a walking tour of Makarska where we saw the main square, the Rivera and became acclimated with our city that we will be spending our remaining time in. Upon completion we went to a meeting with the mayor’s office were we discussed local issues.

Currently there have been several protests in recent weeks on a new proposal to close the delivery ward of the hospital here in Makarska. Closing of this hospital will have serious implications for pregnant women in Makarska and the surrounding areas. The nearest hospital is in Split a little over an hour drive with out traffic from Makarska, with tourist travel during the busy summer months this travel time could increase dramatically. Do to country wide budget cuts money has to be cut, but protesters are urging the local and country governments to find money to cut else where. Currently the minister of health has partially withdrawn some of the closings but no definite decisions have been made as to weather or not the delivery ward will be closed for good.

Today we also went to talk to Dr. Ivanda a director of the school health program in Croatia. The school health program is a full scope program that monitors each child in a variety of ways. Every summer each student is evaluated based on an outlined battery of tests. Each grade is generally tested for something different, testes can include things that test their motor skills, cogitative skills, and physical needs, as well as possible learning disabilities. Children that have been identified as learning disabled (i.e. Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, ect.) are then given the modifications and help that they need to be successful in school. This yearly evaluation is also the time when school aged children are given their up to date immunizations.

Dr. Ivanda also explained that Croatia has a very low teen pregnancy rate. She stated that this was because children between the ages of 12 and 13 are given a comprehensive sex education class in school that talks about contraceptive methods and students know where to go to get contraceptives. She also stated that sexually transmitted infections were not a problem in Croatia. I am unsure if she mean that these low STI rates were because of the comprehensive sex education or not but this is not a problem for them.

Overall I think that the United States can learn a lot from Croatia's approach to school health. If we took the time to evaluate students each summer before school starts in the fall we might be able to better identify learning disabilities or other factors that may make success in the classroom difficult and give us time to help children over come or help compensate for the issue.

I also think that we should take not of Croatia's view on comprehensive sex education. they do not have the problem of teen pregnancies and STI's like the United States.

This afternoon we spent the day exploring the city on our own and met for dinner at the Roma Restaurant.

Day 14 -- Off To Dalmacija

Charlotte: Today we departed Mali Losinj, one of the northern islands, and headed south to Makarska (pronounced Mah-CAR-skuh). It is a small, beautiful city on the southern coast of Croatia, just down the road from Split. We spent almost all of the day traveling, but at least the drive was interesting. In order to leave Istria and enter Dalmatia, you have to pass through a tunnel that had to be at least 2 miles long. Those of us that play the "hold your breath until the other side" game didn't last too long. Once we were on the other side though...wow. I am so happy that this is where we will be spending the next 8 days of our trip. The Dalmatian roads we took along the coast offered some breathtaking views of the Adriatic.

After a few more hours of driving, we finally reached Makarska! We unloaded all of our luggage, waved goodbye to our faithful bus driver Franjo, and slowly checked into our apartments on the outskirts of the city. Once everyone was settled in, we regrouped at our new base of opperations, the restaurant Roma, and had a wonderful dinner. I already have a feeling we're going to enjoy this city.

Ben: We did spend the majority of today driving, but aside from the breathtaking views along the roads, we encountered one more thing that I believe is worth mentioning: the Croatian drivers. I've had some pretty close calls in my life while driving, but nothing compared to what I witnessed in Croatia. The coastal roads in Dalmatia are very narrow and very windy (and windy too - sometimes the wind coming off of the mountains is so strong they have to shut the roads down). There were countless cars and motorcycles that zoomed past our bus on these roads at just about the worst possible moments, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic by mere inches. If only we had been filming, we probably could have sold the footage to Hollywood for some new high speed chase action movie. It was very intense.

Day 13 -- Veli Loshinj & Krk

Charlotte: This morning we checked out of the hotel in Mali Losinj, and headed to a Theraputical Facility in Veli Losinj (pronounced VEL-ee Low-Shing) that focused on skin and respiratory diseases where we met Renata Zugic the director of the facility. She explained to us that the main things that they treat there are skin diseases such as psoriasis and other skin conditions and asthma and other related respiratory diseases. Their goal is to treat with natural remedies and not use drugs to control these aliments their main therapies include:

Thalassotherapy - inhalation therapy and respiratory kinesitherapy that helps bronchial asthma.

Heliomarinotherapy - ultra violet light and sea water therapy that helps psoriasis.

Aromatherapy - using herbs and essential oils to heal aliments.

We then went to the Town Museum at Place Fritzy in the town of Meli Losinj. Mrs. Zrinjka Ettinger-Starcic lectured us on the discovery and restoration of a statue of Apoksiomen that was found in the sea off the coast of Mali Losinj.

We then had lunch at Restaurant Leut in Belej, on the island of Cres. This was a very interesting lunch; we were served lamb cooked on a spit fire. It was an interesting new experience and some of our classmates were brave enough to try the delicacy of eating the brains, cheek, tong, eye ball and tail of the lamb. We then took a ferry to the island of Krk (pronounced KIRK), where we had free time for dinner and we proceeded to Njivice where we checked into our hotel.

Day 12-- Mali Losinj

Charlotte: Today we departed our mountain top hotel in Motovun, and headed for the coast! On our way to the coast, the Public Health students met with Helena Valcic, MD from the Medical Center in Labin. I can best describe this Medical Center with an American county health department and an emergency room all in one. This medical center included: primary care physicians, emergency department, OBGYN services, dentists, school heath, a dialysis center, a hospice, epidemiologists and public health inspectors for hotels and restaurants. We surprisingly got to tour every wing and saw several patients in the midst of their care. I did feel a little bit uncomfortable about seeing patients in the midst of their medical care, I felt like we were invading their privacy as comparison to the medical care privacy stands that we receive if we go to a doctor in the United Sates. While the public health students were at the Medical Center, the other students visited an old mine museum.

We then continued our journey by taking a ferry to the island of Cres (pronounced TRESS). Once on the island we stopped at a huge freshwater lake that is heavily protected by the government because it’s the only source of fresh water for the island. They have been very fortunate to have access to drinkable water on the island, many islands have to pipe their freshwater in from the mainland.

Drinkable water is a very important thing to think about when cities were designed. The five key aspects to water access include quality, quantity, proximity, reliability, and cost. All of these aspects must be accounted for when choosing where to live. Fortunately, Cres does have this lake to use as drinking water and the government and the people of Cres take great pride in keeping this water source free of pollutants. We then went to the historic town of Osor which is currently populated by only 68 people.

We then traveled to the city of Mali Losinj (pronounced MAL-ee Low-Shing) where we checked into our hotel. For dinner we went to a near by restaurant to try some local sea food. When we go out in a group we generally have a set menu that we are served and each course is usually some kind of a surprise. Our main course came out and it was whole fish was the heads and everything! I guess I looked a bit scared by the food and a server who spoke no English came over and slapped a fish down on my plate and started cleaning and preparing it for me to eat. The server then had to do the same for several other people on the trip. Once we got past the initial presentation of this food it was delicious.

Day 11 -- Pula

Charlotte: Today we visited the beautiful ocean city of Pula (pronounced Pool-LUH). Upon arrival we went straight to the coliseum, which is the second most intact coliseum in the world taking second to the coliseum in Rome, Italy. The architecture was amazing and to see it almost completely intact over thousands of years was unbelievable. We then went on a walking tour of Pula where we observed other beautiful buildings and arches. On completion of our walking tour we went to a lecture held by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Pula, on tourism. We learned that Croatia has many sites on the World Heritage list under UNESCO Protection a few of these sites include: the city of Dubrovnik, Plitvice Lakes National Park, the Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik, and Diocleation’s Place in Split just to name a few. Their main tourists population is made up of people from Germany 22.7%, Slovenia 11.2%, Italy 10.2%, Austria 8.9%, Czech 8%, Polish 5.4%, Dutch 4.8%, and Slovakia 4.0%. Their main tourist months are June through August and their main tourist locations are located on the Dalmatian coast. At the end of this informational lecture the University of Pula presented each and every one of us with a welcome gift, a leather bound, full size planner and journal, a pen and an informational packet on tourism and the University of Pula.

Our professors like to go to new places every year they do this trip and this year we were the gunnie pigs for probably the most unique experience ever! We went to Vodnjan, where we went to see mummies of the Saints! I truly thought this was a hoax and that it would be some tourist trap on the side of the road but it was actually at the local Catholic Church in Vodnjan. We took a tour of behind the alter, where the mummies are kept. We saw 4 whole mummies and body parts of other saints. This experience was truly eerie and one of my most memorable experiences of this trip. We were told the stories about why each of the 4 mummies was a saint and what made them famous, but it was really interesting to find out that they were not mummified. Their bodies were dug up from the grave and they their bodies were fully in tacked, two of the bodies even had elasticity left in their mummified skin. One of the nuns who was a saint had, an MRI six months ago and it was determined that her internal organs are still fully intact and that she is still giving on an energy. It is also said that she heals people with health aliments who visits. We were told of stories when a blind woman miraculously regained her vision by being there and praying and couples who were having difficulty getting pregnant have said that they were able to get pregnant after going to this site and praying to this saint. Maybe these events are miracles or merely hoaxes but it was defiantly and experience of a life time no matter what higher power you believe in!

After our mummy experience we went on the hunt for vampires! Well kind of… There was a legend of a vampire cursing a near by city for decades and we went to the location of the grave yard where he had been buried and explored. This stop on our trip was a bit disappointing. We could not see his actual grave because they keep building up the grave yard level after level when they get full and his level was near the bottom, so there was nothing really to see except for some really cheesy, Vampire Café Bar signs. After leaving we drove on a very scary, curvy road out to a country farm in the mountains where we had a very traditional dinner that was 7 courses! The food was unbelievable but the food just kept coming!