Part II Chapter I - Dayton to Dubrovnik

Our journey begins in Dayton on June 2, 2017

Part II of our internship program with INTERA Technology Park involves my students heading over to Bosnia and Herzegovina for their own international internship experience. On June 2, 2017, Victoria Cockrell, Bethany Wilson (a DRSS alumna), Gloria Campos, Bri Perkins, and Austin Davis left for Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we would stay for a night before traveling the final leg to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina to begin our experience.

Getting lunch in Charlotte, NC en route to Dubrovnik

After saying goodbye to the parents, the students and I left for Charlotte, our first of three connections. We got a bite to eat before heading to our third stop: Madrid, Spain. I got some tapas and about four espressos while I was there, so I'm counting that as a visit! Look forward to going there some day a bit longer, and preferably without Gloria bringing her scissors with her through security... apparently they frown on that!

Some day I'll be back to visit you, Spain!

After Spain we boarded a shuttle for a final three-hour journey to Dubrovnik. Once there, we met up with the taxi that Ana had arranged for us (thanks Ana!) and headed to our apartment in the heart of the Old Town.

It was a tight fit, but we made it to our apartment!

The ride there was beautiful, and it looked familiar to people like me who are fans of Game of Thrones. This is "King's Landing" in the show, and many of the shops and tour guides embrace that fact.

King's Land - er... I mean... Dubronik! I kept annoying the kids by humming the theme song...

You can't drive into the Old Town where we are staying, so we had to get dropped off and hike a little ways...

The hike up wasn't that fun...

But the apartment is pretty cool! Home sweet home... for tonight.

From there, we got changed pretty quickly so we could head out and explore the downtown a bit before heading to the beach. I think when I asked originally almost no one was that excited about going to the beach, but after a 20-hour trip and the hot sun in Dubrovnik, the water felt really good and I think it was the highlight of the day.

The Clock Tower was a really cool thing to see and dates back to the 15th century.

The Church of Saint Blaise, which you can see from our front doorstep. He's the Patron Saint of Dubrovnik and throat illnesses. There was a wedding going on there today so we got a peak inside for a bit. Learn more about the church here.

Swimming in the Adriatic

Can't complain about the view inland...

Or the water...

Posing on the rocks... the beach was nice too because it wasn't sand, it was all rocks, so your toes don't feel gross when you leave the beach.

A nice artistic shot that Victoria took.

On the way over we stopped at a little museum and art gallery right across from the Church of Saint Blaise.

There were some really nice water colors by a local artist.

On a more somber note, there was also a memorial to those 200+ men who died in Croatia during the seige of the city during the Bosnian War. It was a reminder of why and how we eventually ended up becoming sister cities with Sarajevo and how this partnership started out of that relationship.

A video playing on loop showed much of the destruction of the city. This one shows relatively little damage, but you can still see many of the scars of war in the local architecture. Still, it retains its beauty.

After swimming and exploring some more we decided to get dinner. Thankfully, there was a really nice little restaurant called "Rozario," which is actually a part of the same building as our apartment. They had pretty reasonable prices and really good food. People were even a little adventurous... two of us got squid! Neither of those people were me, but I tried it.

Ordering at Rozario (right beneath our apartment).

One of my favorites: mussels!

Truffels on pasta... I think it may be the first time I've had truffels and they were really good. Apparently I really like them with pasta.

Austin got stuffed mushrooms. They were great too!

One of the more adventurous things we tried... Bethany's squid. Can't say I liked the texture, but the taste was OK.

 Bri's shrimp scampi provided lots of entertainment...

I think Victoria had the best choice with the shrimp rissoto.

After dinner we ventured back out into the city to take in the sights, after getting some gelato first, of course.

Pistachio gelato... my favorite.

There were at least three of these unique candy store chains throughout the city (that I found). They have some weird candy...

Including these teeth gummies.

We decided to try to figure out how to get up on top of the wall, but getting there (the wrong way) was a bit exhausting for all of us.

The view at the top was worth it though!

And we stopped to pet just about any cats we could find...

We made it to the city gate at the opposite end of the Old City from the one we came into and saw some of the guards there.

Got a little shopping in as well.

And of course we saw lots of Game of Thrones stuff!

Even found Jon Snow!

The city lights up at night.

The clock and the church are really beautiful at night.

Stopped by the cafe at night and saw them "changing the guard," or at least I think that's what they were doing.

The next morning some of the students went for a quick dip into the Adriatic again. I just got a pastry and espresso though and took in the view of the seaside. After that, we packed up and got some breakfast at a small baker and La Bodega next to the church and waited for Ana and Mateo to pick us up. Next stop: Mostar!

Bri, Bethany, and Gloria were the adventurous ones who jumped in.

Austin and Victoria and I were the smart ones... it was freezing!

The bakery we stopped at... delicious!

Everyone together at La Bodego before heading to Mostar!