Croatia

Take a perfect coastal town and put it between the sea and a mountain. Now add steps. Lots of them, and there you have Dubrovnik. At first the people can seem kind of off-putting, especially if you arrive at the end of tourist season just because it is the end of the season and everyone wants all these strangers to leave and not come back for a while. Being here In Dubrovnik from September to December allows one to see the change of the city itself from a popular tourist destination to an empty town with only the locals to keep you company.

Saunders College of Business students embarked on yet another study abroad trip this summer to Croatia and Dubrovnik! Earning six credits in just four weeks,students explored the Adriatic cities while learning about ecotourism, sustainability, small business enterprises and more, all at the local level. Happy travels!

Well, it’s just about time for our group of RIT road warriors to pack it in and return home from our Footsteps Through the Adriatic summer program.  The past two weeks have been filled with our continuing bus tour around the beautiful Croatian countryside, visits to islands, mountains, cities, and more hotels. One of our stops was the island of Pag, where the tradition of making sheep milk cheese has been practiced for almost 2,000 years. 

(Tuesday June 10, 2014) Our traveling band of gypsies arrived in the beautiful seaside town of Makarska, a very popular tourist destination that sits under the massive cliffs of Biokovo National Park, our next hiking destination.  Makarska is known for its bustling palm-lined promenade, filled with restaurants, ice cream stands, souvenir stands, and (importantly) many cafes with ice cold beer to help battle the 95°F heat.

Dobro Dan (Good Day) from Dubrovnik and “Footsteps Through the Adriatic” summer program. It has been a busy week for our group of students as they discover more about Croatia and continue to gain more insight and knowledge about sustainable business practices, environmental science, local culture and, most importantly, about themselves!

Our intrepid group arrived in sunny Dubrovnik Croatia on Friday May 30th for the second installment of Footsteps Through the Adriatic, a multidisciplinary program sponsored by RIT Study Abroad.  This unique program consists of two separate courses: Sustainable Small Business taught by Rob Vlosky, Adjunct Professor in the Saunders College of Business, and Environmental Science taught by Dr. Stasa Puskaric, Professor of Science at RIT Croatia. 

Well, there definitely is something nice to be said about making footsteps along the Adriatic Sea.  Since Split, where we saw the Palace of Diocletian and hung around this cosmopolitan city for a couple of days, sipping cappuccinos on the promenade or sampling some of the locale fare, we have moved on for wilder and more primitive attractions.

Just a bit more on Split; for our “free day” on Monday the 17th, I walked for seven hours around Marjan Peninsula – – here is the map: