By IBIP students Benjamin and David

              We started the morning at breakfast at Hostel Link with pastries, coffee and a pepper, egg and ham dish before making our way to the University of Rijeka Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Once there, we were greeted by professors and deans with presentations on on the many facets of tourism that are found in Croatia such as sustainable tourism, green committees, cultural tourism, marina tourism and ending with a guest lecture from the director of Amadria Park on hospitality management and development of the long-haul customer base. Overall, the program was very educational in demonstrating the various dimensions of tourism and the importance of communication and cooperation from a personal to a business level. Afterwards, we headed to lunch at the university cafeteria for a mid-day meal. 

              After lunch, we went on out way to Opatija to take a tour of the Milenij Choco World.  Originally, we were supposed to go on a boat tour around Lovran.  However, the high winds prevented that from happening.  We had to come up with an alternative in order to finish the day.  Even though this experience was impromptu, I am very glad it happened (who can say no to chocolate)!  After the decision, we left from the university and started walking to the nearest bus stop. 

              Once we arrived, we walked into the building’s basement where they had a large assortment of chocolates ready for us.  There were many different chocolates with liquors, chocolate morsels, chocolate coffee cups, chocolate fountains, and a large slate of chocolate that said “Welcome.”  We were able to listen to a brief history of the factory and the goods they produced while eating their delicious chocolate.  It was definitely hard to stop as it was so good!  While there, we were also able to have some Croatian champagne with our chocolate, which was an excellent pairing.  Once the tour was finished, we were free to do anything in the area. 

              Our group (Ben, David, Tyler, Allison, Madilyn, and Alex) decided to stay around the city and explore all it had to offer.  While walking around, we decided that it would be a good day for a quick swim in the Adriatic Sea.  At the time, it was about 65 degrees, overcast, breezy, and, according to Google, the water temperature was 60 degrees.  Nonetheless, we found a beach and decided to jump in.  We quickly realized how cold it was, but still had a lot of fun doing it.  Almost immediately, we jumped out and sat on the beach to dry off.  We started to walk back to Lovran only to run into our faculty advisors, Dr. Endres and Ms. Karplus, having coffee in the city.  We decided to sit down and chit-chat with them for a while.  We left a couple of hours later to head back only to get distracted by another opportunity to jump into the sea.  This time, the water was deeper and the ledge was higher, making it more fun.  Despite the lessons we learned last time, we jumped in again.  This time it was a little more bearable as the sun was beating down on us and the winds were calm.  Once we were semi-dry, we walked back to the hostel, changed for dinner, and went to Pub Lovran for amazing pizza and drinks. 

Overall, today was a great day! “