I realize it's been oh...about 4 days since the last blog, but like I said before, we don't exactly have the best internet access here. So, we will be piecing together the blog the next two days or so, and fill you in the best we can!
As for the title of the blog...I don't know how to put a video up yet, but we got a kick out of Ben's response about his Croatian corn flakes and milk...
CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THE ENTIRE COLLAGE...AND A BETTER VIEW!!!!
As I promised...here is the pictures of the fantastic apartments we are staying in...don't mind the mess:
These are the Sumarski Fakultet (Forestry College) apartments
Wednesday night, we took in a few of the beautiful sights in the city of Zagreb. We learned how to take the metro system here, and headed down the the city center, where "old town" is. Old town is where the original part of Zagreb is...filled with shops, cathedrals/churches, restaurants, cafes, bars, and a big market. The architecture is beautiful...from Austrian/Hungarian influence...I still can't get over how old and awesome all of these buildings look! For our evening meal, we went to Nokturno, a pizzeria and spaghetteria, and ate pizza and drank Stella Artois pivo (beer)...which were delicious!!!
Thursday morning we met up in the Ag Fakultet and drank lots of coffee (imagine that), and split up into our American-Croatian student groups for our tours.
Piec Farm Tour:
Ben & Jon went with Ivon (John) and Martina to Melan's farm, here is a little about their visit:
- Relatively poor rural farm area southeast of Zagreb, but Melan is better off than most.
- Primarily a cattle operation with 80 beef cows that are a Holstein-Simmental cross with a little bit of Hereford (they don't raise straight Hereford or Angus cows, because they are too fat with not enough meat...selling livestock is completely different here).
- They said inputs were very expensive, and prices were low, so they are not very profitable...they are excited to join the EU for better markets and prices.
- They also have 60 Holstein dairy cows with 8 modern milking stations, and produce around the national average of 5,000 metric tons per cow per year.
- Have a small horse herd that is used for slaughter and meat consumption in Italy.
- Melan's primary challenges are bad prices, high inputs, poor labor resources, diseases in the livestock, and expensive vaccinations.
- As you will hear plenty of, conversation, food, and drink are VERY important here, they had an excellent lunch of walleye, potato salad, and local sausage (which apparently wasn't very good...)
- They tried a red wine mixed with coke, which is popular here, and they both enjoyed it!
Erin, Nikki, and Brooke went to Matija's family's dairy which is very much on the opposite side of the scale as Melan's. We will be putting together a summary tomorrow and posting it later!
Eastern Croatia
Friday, we traveled to Osijek, which is in the Northeastern part of Croatia, where they have another college of agriculture. Their university is located in an old fort so, again, there is a lot of beautiful buildings. In a lot of ways, their university is similar to Montana State, with the number of students, divisions of colleges, and educational structure. We walked around the city, to the city center, cathedral, and of course...stopped to refresh ourselves!
After our visit to Osijek, we travelled further east to Vukovar, center of conflict on the Danube when Serbia and Croatia were at war (Croatian War of Independence). It was amazing to see what they had left of the city to remind everyone of the tragedy that war can bring, and how they came together to rebuild the city.
Friday, we traveled to Osijek, which is in the Northeastern part of Croatia, where they have another college of agriculture. Their university is located in an old fort so, again, there is a lot of beautiful buildings. In a lot of ways, their university is similar to Montana State, with the number of students, divisions of colleges, and educational structure. We walked around the city, to the city center, cathedral, and of course...stopped to refresh ourselves!
After our visit to Osijek, we travelled further east to Vukovar, center of conflict on the Danube when Serbia and Croatia were at war (Croatian War of Independence). It was amazing to see what they had left of the city to remind everyone of the tragedy that war can bring, and how they came together to rebuild the city.
After our short visit in Vukovar, we drove up the road to an AMAZING new agrotourism facility that a couple of friends are putting together in the farthest Eastern part of Croatia, near Ilok. Vlado and his wife, Donna bought some land with a damaged home (from the war) right on the Danube river, and began a vinyard, orchard, and built a winery (work in progress on rest of facility) with 5 apartments upstairs in the attic where we stayed...they basically treated us like royalty!. Upon entering the property, Vlado and Vinco greeted us, and invited us inside for a welcome drink...homemade brandy...(it burned all the way down!)

After our meet and greet, we drove a few kilometers (sooo not used to the metric system!!!) up the road to the furthest East town of Ilok for dinner on the Danube in a fine restaurant. We had a wonderful white wine (which they usually mix with mineral water and call it Grashina), along with a chili-ish fish soup, and a platter of walleye, sturgeon, and catfish...MMMMMM!! They also had a mariachi-esque local band which came over after dinner and found out we were from America...they sang "...Oh Susanna, don't you cry for me..." in a very Croatian accent!!! We finished off the evening with pancakes (crepes pretty much) with walnut or chocolate filling...absolutely fantastic!

After our meet and greet, we drove a few kilometers (sooo not used to the metric system!!!) up the road to the furthest East town of Ilok for dinner on the Danube in a fine restaurant. We had a wonderful white wine (which they usually mix with mineral water and call it Grashina), along with a chili-ish fish soup, and a platter of walleye, sturgeon, and catfish...MMMMMM!! They also had a mariachi-esque local band which came over after dinner and found out we were from America...they sang "...Oh Susanna, don't you cry for me..." in a very Croatian accent!!! We finished off the evening with pancakes (crepes pretty much) with walnut or chocolate filling...absolutely fantastic!
After staying the night at the bed and breakfast, we had a traditional breakfast of vegetables, Hungarian peppers, dried meats, cheese, and a pasta-potato-onion dish...definitely not what we're used to for a Montana breakfast, but it was still great! After we talked with Vlado (who used to be the Minister of Agriculture in Croatia, and is now a manager for MaltEurope) about his beautiful operation, we hit the road back to Ilok. We briefly visited with the manager of a very large winery that works with producers in the area for good wine grapes. We didn't go into much detail or get to see much since it began raining that morning.
This is all we have for now...we will finish updating the last couple of days on our trip to Maribor, Slovenia and Porec, Croatia the next two days...hope you enjoyed!!!
HI ERIN, MY GOSH IT LOOKS LIKE ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY. WAS IT WORTH THE TRIP? HA HA. WE SURELY ENJOYED THE BLOG ENTRY AND IT WAS SO GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU ON THE PHONE. I WILL SHARE THIS WITH DG TONIGHT AS HE IS PUTTING ON NH3 AS WE SPEAK AT THE K. PLACE. LOVE M&D
ReplyDeleteAwesome pics Erin! Sounds like you are busy! No takers on the house yet. :( Hopefully soon. Love ya, The Johnson's
ReplyDeleteLoretta says: oi8eoei38383838383838uea