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Day 1 – Zagreb

September 11, 2016 by Sanja Martic Leave a Comment

Journey starts in the garden! First stop is Zagreb. But not before we load up the van.

We are lucky to have these lovely fresh veggies from Sandra’s mom garden. Most popular vegetable garden plants in Croatia are tomatoes, green beans that come in many varieties, onions, carrots, collard greens, Swiss chard, spinach, kale, beets, scallions and peppers. Climate in Zagreb is very similar to New Jersey’s climate with 4 seasons, hot summers and cold winters, but less humid.

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Loaded up and going now.

I am secretly hoping to get my turn driving, and I do!
As the day progresses it is getting colder and a heavy rain starts in the early afternoon. Thermometer reading is 12 degrees Celsius (54F), unusually low for August. I am wearing all of the clothes that I packed in layers and I am still cold. August heat that I was worried about will clearly not be an issue during our trip. I hear on the news that other parts of Europe are also experiencing a cold spell.

After a few phone calls and some navigating through the city streets, we arrived at our very first community garden!!

Our host is Vanja, a long time community organizer and a blogger of all things Zagreb related. He is also one of the editors of the web-page Mapiranje Tresnjevke (Tresnjevka Mapping). The page is an example of collaborative exploration of one of Zagreb’s neighborhoods (Tresnjevka) by its own inhabitants and sharing of the information with the world at:
http://www.mapiranjetresnjevke.com/tresnjevka-mapping-croatian-mapiranje-tresnjevke/

To take a look at Vanja’s blog – Unknown Zagreb (in Croatian language only, but with some interesting pictures of the city) – please go to:
http://blog.dnevnik.hr/nepoznatizagreb/2016/07/index.html

Eko Ekipa Precko (Eko Team Precko) is the name of this community garden as well as the community group whose members see themselves as an alternative urban community.

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Mex, Sanja, Goran, Vanja

Garden in the early stage

(Image used by Vanja’s permission)

It was great to see all of he things that a community can do when connected. There is an old Croatian saying that comes to mind, “all of the people posses all of the knowledge”. Therefore knowledge will only be complete when all people are connected.

August 2016 Packing Planning Thinking

September 11, 2016 by Sanja Martic Leave a Comment

I will be traveling to Croatia as a recipient of the DeBoer Prize from the Department of Landscape Architecture here at Rutgers, as well as the SEBS Study Abroad Program. My goal is to explore different ways that local communities are dealing with a post war trauma.

Croatian War for Independence ended in August 1995, over 15 years ago but country still faces issues like high unemployment rate, many cases of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), political instability and a negative migration rate (many people are migrating to Western Europe, US, Canada and Australia). I am especially interested in the role that community gardens play in the process of community recovery. My plan is to take a look at community gardens in three distinct areas of Croatia: central part with it’s capital Zagreb, border-line (towns of Sisak and Gospic) and sea-side (Island of Rab and city of Rijeka).

I know that Croatian landscapes will be stunning, but am nervous about documenting everyday lives of everyday people as this requires a bit of invading other people’s privacy; not my favorite thing to do.

While packing for the trip many thoughts are racing through my mind.
I am starting to get nervous about Croatian gardens in August. August is the best harvest time in NJ gardens, while in Croatia I run a chance of looking at a handful of dried up plants and the gardeners away on vacation by the Adriatic sea or visiting family in another town. August is traditionally a vacation month, when most Croatians take off of work and head down to the sea. Large companies close for the “Collective Summer Vacation”. Some of my contacts are now referring me to other people who will replace them while they are on vacation, and some of “other people” are leaving on vacations too.

On the other hand, I have received news of my friend Mex joining me and Sandra (his girlfriend) with his Volkswagen bus, and now we have an “official driver”. Volkswagen will be our transportation and our home for the ten days that it will take us to travel around Croatia in search of community gardens and community binds.

I am looking at my packed suitcase now and know that I must keep on going and hope for the best.

Day 4: Snorkeling between 2 tectonic plates!!

September 8, 2016 by Jennifer Mendez Leave a Comment

Today was a very exciting day in Silfra at Thingvellir National Park. As we walked around the national park I saw some of the clearest water I’ve ever seen in my life. You could see right through it straight down to the bottom, it was beautiful. As we got in our dry suits to dive into the water, we were practicing using the equipment that we were wearing to minimize any accidents. Everything had to be super skin tight so that water wouldn’t leak into our dry suits and cause us to catch hypothermia. After 30 or so minutes of prepping with the gear, we were ready to jump in! I remember how the freezing cold water felt the minute I jumped into the water, it was a little hard to breathe at first but after a few strokes in the water its not so bad. We snorkeled for about 40 minutes between the Eurasian and the North American Tectonic Plates, and even swam against glacial currents!

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Day 3: Class Continues/Natural Hot Springs

September 8, 2016 by Jennifer Mendez Leave a Comment

As I was learning about the history of energy in Iceland, I found it very interesting that Iceland has always used their hot springs as a source of water to bathe and wash their clothes in. I found this early custom to be a very convenient way of utilizing the geothermal activity and available resources for the benefit of the people. After class, we drove towards Reykjadalur (which was about 30 minutes away from Reykjavik). Once in Reykjadalur, we hiked about 3 miles into the mountains towards the hot springs to experience them for ourselves! Bathing in them was truly awesome! The springs become hotter as we walked up the mountains. Finding the perfect hot spring to tolerate is a little tedious but once found, it’s a great place to relax after a long hike!!

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Week 2: traveling, palaces and traveling..

September 8, 2016 by Tereza Marshyti Leave a Comment

Week 2 consisted of much traveling from point A’s to point B’s. When we left Tuanan we spent a night in Palankarya then back to Jakarta and finally Bogor. In Palankaraya we visited the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center (a part of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation). There were over 400 orphaned or displaced orangutans who were rescued due to habitat loss or maternal death. To my surprise many had also been given up after their folks would realize a wild animal is not a very good domestic pet. I couldn’t help feel disgusted at human’s desire to possess every and all things, especially animals, for personal entertainment. Because many of these orangutans are blind or injured, they cannot be released back into the wild safely, so the project aims to re-establish a viable orangutan population in the forest and hopefully reverse the trend of population loss that has made the Borneo orangutan critically endangered. I attempted to make a small contribution by adopting an orangutan named Hope who had come into the center in critical condition. After a few weeks, I received an email in the States that he is now ready to be introduced into the Kehje Sewen Forest in East Kalimantan. How lovely! After a few hours in the rehabilitation center we made our way back to the homestay and that night went karaoking in the city! What a much needed night out.

Bogor, a beautiful cultural town in the island of Java was significantly cooler than other areas we’d been to thus far because of its location in the mountains. When we arrived we were taken to a lovely guest house within the Bogor Botanical Gardens. It looked like one out of a story book. And goodness were we being spoiled with these shower heads and queen beds! The first day was spent freely, with no actual activities planned so we relaxed and walked around the city, trying out food trucks, dodging vehicles, and stepping foot in the surprisingly Western-style mall. Along the way we spotted this field amidst the Bogor Palace filled with an innumerable amount of deer grazing. They were originally brought by the Dutch for sport but have multiplied ever since. The following day we were toured through the botanical gardens. Originally founded by the Dutch in 1817 for the cultivation of plants from all over the archipelago as potential for economic profit, it has since been inclusive of thousands of species of plants and I was amazed at how many there were from all over the globe! The gardens also provided refuge for certain species of bats and birds!