Katherine
Today we said farewell to Zagreb and headed out early this morning towards Istria. It is the first day that we have woken up to bad weather; which is fine by me because we were traveling most of the day. I know I have mentioned our amazing bus driver before, but he needs a shout out for his driving skills once again. Instead of making us walk to our usual meeting place in the rain he parallel parked the charter bus in front of the hotel. Yes, I did write parallel parked, as you can see in the photo above. He did it with such grace you would think this is a normal daily activity. What an incredible man!
We had to turn in our journals for check-ins and a written assignment. Since we had no access to work, everyone relaxed and most fell asleep. During our travels we made a few stops through out Istria before arriving to our final destination of Motovun.
Our first stop was a city called Labin. While in Labin we visited a Medical Center and had an intensive tour from Dr. Helena Vlacic. It definitely opened my eyes to the differences between how private we are in the United States about our health care and how Croatia has no regulations about privacy in their health care system. We went into every room regardless if there was a patient in there and saw a lot more than we would have been allowed to see in the U.S. They even told us what the patient was diagnosed with. It was an interesting experience to say the least. What I thought was great about this medical center, however, was that they offer all primary and preventative care in one place. You could hypothetically get your teeth cleaned and then get a mammogram done on the same day. This is beneficial for people who do not have cars or the elderly who have trouble moving around. They have access to it all in one place. Although they can perform minor emergencies like stitches and setting a broken finger, they cannot handle anything major. The nearest trauma hospital is about a thirty-minute ambulance ride if speeding, so I would argue about forty-five minutes away. Visiting the medical center today, the optical medical center yesterday, and lectures have given us a unique perspective of what social health care versus private health care looks like. I do not think I could have gained the knowledge I have now with out these experiences in Croatia.
After leaving the medical center went traveled further into Labin and had a boxed lunch and grabbed some gelato in the main square. We also visited a museum that showed us what it was like to work in a mine. It had an interactive mine section where we put on hard hats and went through like actual miners, as seen in the photo above. A littler later into our travels we stopped in Beram and visited a Gothic Church. It was off the beaten path and it did not look like much on the outside. Once on the inside though, we saw these beautiful frescos (pictured above) that had been preserved for centuries. It is amazing to see the amount of time and effort Croatia has put in to preserving their heritage.
As we got closer to our final destination we saw what looked like an old fortress with walls around it. It sits on top of a hill and is the major focal point in the area. Another member of our trip, Eric, had to remind me that this sight was Motovun. I had to do a double take to realize that this is where we would be staying for the next few days. The hotel we are staying in is in fact an old castle, hence the name Hotel Kastle! I do not know what to expect because it is so different from Zagreb. I can promise that the group is really excited for what will be thrown our way!
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