By IBIP student Tyler

The initial day of our cohort’s trip to Croatia started with the necessity of travel. For me, this day began by waking up at 7:30 in the morning with the terrific realization that

in less than 24 hours I would be walking around in a country halfway around the world. My appreciation for the modern marvel of flight kept my spirits afloat all the way to O’Hare airport, where our cohort would convene for our 8.5 hour flight to Vienna, Austria that would connect us to Zagreb, where we had an exciting walking tour and dinner awaiting us. The flight itself was normal and enjoyable, I sat next to Neil, a Junior in our cohort majoring in Food Science, Neil and I chatted over our dinner about what we most looked forward to about our time in Croatia, we both agreed that it was the food that excited us the most! I mostly spent the flight reading, but I did take time to enjoy the view of the horizon. It was fun watching the bright, sunny sky quickly turn to dusk followed by a pitch blackness before returning to a bright sunny morning in only a few short hours. We quite literally flew through the night! This was my first time eating a meal on an airplane, and it was an interesting experience, I had chicken and mashed potatoes with peas and carrots, salad, a bread roll, and chocolate mousse. Coffee was provided as a dessert after the meal was cleared. Toward the end of the flight, the attendants gave out sweet muffins as a small breakfast as it was now 7 in the morning. Everyone enjoyed the food, which provided us with some extra energy as hardly any of us got even a few minutes of sleep on the overnight flight.

Before landing in Vienna, we descended through a thick layer of cloud cover for several minutes. Finally, I was able to catch a quick glimpse of land, my first time seeing the European continent with my own eyes. Then, we broke through the clouds completely and I saw endless fields of green and brown farmland dotted with wind turbines. The view was familiar, but still distinctly different from the United States, I think it was the small villages that dotted the landscape in a way that American towns and villages do not. The villages all had clay tiled roofs that gave a very classic feel to them, and the streets seemed to wind and curve  to fit the village, a stark difference from grid-oriented American cities.

When we landed in Vienna, it was 8:22 local time and we needed to get to a different terminal to be prepared to board by 9:30. When boarding, I was surprised that we did not immediately board the plane via a walking bridge after scanning our boarding passes. Instead, we walked onto the tarmac, where a shuttle took us to our plane, and we climbed the stairs to board. I learned that this is a fairly common practice in airports outside of the United States, one of many small differences I am sure to experience over the coming days.

Finally, after an one more short flight, we landed on Zagreb. I was immediately struck by the greenery of the landscape as we made our final descent. While Vienna’s landscape appeared heavily Agricultural in the sense that I saw many rolling fields that seemed to be intended for row crops, Zagreb’s greenery appeared to be comprised more of trees and vineyards, although there were small tracts of farmland around some of the houses that we flew over.

The airport was newly constructed and quite beautiful, but it was evident that we had arrived before the true beginning of the tourist season, as our flight seemed to be the only one that had arrived at the airport for the moment. Once we had gathered our bags, we met our tour guide, a very kind woman named Iva, who led us to our bus and began giving us advice on tipping in Croatia and told us some spots that we could visit near the hotel. It was 12 pm, and our walking tour of Zagreb wasn’t scheduled until 4, so there was time for us to relax and recuperate from our long travel.

The airport was about 30 minutes from the Zagreb city center where we would be staying, so the drive gave us plenty of opportunity to view the landscape. I was very intrigued by the city as we began to enter Zagreb. It felt as though several time periods were all coming together in one place. The traditional red roofed houses with white stone walls looked similar to what I saw in Austria as we flew over Vienna, and again gave me an impression of traditional architecture for the region we were visiting. As we drove closer to the city center, individually standing houses were replaced by apartment buildings standing not too tall but very clustered together. The apartments varied in their appearance much like apartments in the United States, with some that looked like they were built in the styles of the 1970s or 80s and others that looked like they were built or renovated more recently.

In addition to the style of the buildings two more features appeared to me very distinctly: graffiti and construction. The latter was completely understandable, Croatia was struck by two earthquakes in 2020, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in March that centered in Zagreb, and a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in December that originated in Petrinja. The earthquakes damaged countless buildings throughout Zagreb, and construction appeared to be beginning now that the threats of the COVID pandemic were subsiding. It was impressive to see that scale of the city’s effort to rebuild from the damage of  the earthquake, as every other building seemed to be covered by scaffolding for repairs. The other distinctive feature, graffiti, was more surprising to me. In the United States, it has become common for the city to allow graffiti in certain areas or to commission artists to paint large murals on the sides of buildings or on large sections of wall. In Zagreb, graffiti was on the face of every building we passed. While some of the pieces were quite beautiful and interesting, many of the instances of graffiti I saw were just tags of the artists name or alias. I was surprised at how prevalent the tags were throughout the city, and it presented a unique clash with the older, traditional architecture of the buildings that I found to be very intriguing.

Finally, we arrived at a park about a block away from the hotel, and walked the rest of the way to the Hotel Dubrovnik where we were staying. The front desk was able to check our group in very quickly, and I headed up to my room with my roommate Neil to see what our rooms were like. The design of the room looked like something I could see at any hotel in the United States, but the biggest difference was that I had to put my room key in a slot in the wall for the lights to turn on, something which I had not experienced before. After a quick shower, I changed into a pair of fresh clothes and decided to go explore the area around the hotel starting with Pekara Dubravica, a bakery that served sandwiches, pizza, and salad. I had a fresh salami sandwich for a mere 1.7 euros. I was very surprised at how cheap things were within the city center! After my brief snack, I met up with my friends Allison, Ben, David, Lindsey, and Madilyn. We walked around Jelačič square and stopped for coffee at a restaurant, then walked through the town market and stopped at a souvenir shop.

After the brief but exciting exploration, our group decided to disband for a couple of hours so we could all rest before the walking tour at 4. I returned to my room and inadvertently fell right to sleep, needing to be woken up by Lauren, our trip instructor, a couple of hours later because I hadn’t planned to fall asleep, and because I was about to make the group late for the walking tour.

The walking tour was excellent, and Iva was a wonderful tour guide. We began at one of the city’s main parks and worked our way to uptown, where we took a sort of carriage lift up a hill to arrive outside one of the towers that was used to defend the city when jt was under Austro-Hungarian rule. Walking deeper into uptown, we saw the baroque architecture of a beautiful historic church, and learned the history of Teo noble families who fell to ruin after members of the families began to advocate for more Croatian independence when the country was under Austro-Hungarian rule. Croatian independence, and advocates for it, are a mainstay of Zagreb’s statues and its history.

Walking through the city, I was taken by the beautiful architecture of the buildings and the winding layout of the city streets. Downtown Zagreb, where we started, was a planned design, and thus the streets were laid out in a grid pattern; conversely, uptown Zagreb contains the area within the original city walls, and was thus not designed according to a particular layout, rather, it grew within the needs of the city and the space that was available, resulting in beautiful winding narrow streets and building fronts not more than a few stories tall. I also noted the high number of souvenir shops present throughout uptown. It seemed that every other store sold souvenirs such as magnets, traditional clothing, or other mementos for tourists to take home with them, a testament ti the importance of tourism within the city.

After concluding our walking tour, our cohort ate at Vinodol, a very nice restaurant near the hotel. We were provided with an excellent three-course meal consisting of an initial plate of cheese, bread, and prosciutto that tasted delicious, a main course of veal and layered potatoes with green beans and salad, and a lava cake for dessert. It was great to chat with friends about the experiences of the day while enjoying a nice meal, but when we all finished the general opinion of most of the cohort was that it was time to get a good night’s rest. Many of our members hadn’t slept more than an hour in the past 30 or so hours, and exhaustion was prevalent. I went to bed at 8:00 P.M. to prepare for a busy day of experiential learning in the morning.

Second perspective: By IBIP student Donovan

 I started my day by waking up at 8:00am to take a 2 ½ hour drive to O’Hare airport. Once I got to the airport, it was smooth sailing through the security and customs. Next, I had to prepare for the 9-hour flight from Chicago to Vienna, Austria. The flight was difficult for me because I did not have much leg space for my long legs. The food tasted surprisingly good. For dinner on the plane, I had chicken, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. I only slept for about an hour total on the plane ride so when we arrived in Vienna, I was exhausted. My legs were sore, and I needed sleep. Luckily on our next flight I had an emergency exit seat. It was a 1-hour flight from Vienna to Zagreb, Croatia.

When we arrived in Zagreb the airport, we landed in seemed pretty small and easy to navigate. We got off the plane and made our way to baggage claim. I was very nervous about this part because there is always a small chance that your luggage could be in a completely different place than where you are. Next, we got on a charter bus to head to our hotel in the city center area of Zagreb. It is almost like the downtown area of Zagreb even though it is not the oldest part of the city. After we dropped off our things at Hotel Dubrovnik, I went to a small bakery called Pekara Dubravica to get a sandwich there. This was my first purchase while being in Croatia and I was very surprised how cheap it was. After a power nap to attempt to feel rested, It was time for our tour of the city.

I enjoyed the walking tour a lot. We had a tour guide that was born in Zagreb, and she was very knowledgeable about the city. The tour lasted about 2 hours and we went all over. The first place we went was to one of the main parks in Zagreb. We then made our way to uptown which was my favorite place. The architecture was a lot different in the older part of town. It was obvious that religion was a big part of their history because of the beautiful churches and the big Cathedral. The stories of trying to gain independence and the historical figures were all very interesting to hear about. After our tour we ate at a restaurant called Vinodol. The restaurant was very nice and the 3-course meal was amazing. After dinner, I had a drink with some fellow classmates and got some rest to prepare for the next day.