Starting the Project in Paradise: Rab, Croatia

When the boat pulled into the marina it was raining in Rab. Hard. We schlepped our luggage off the boat and into our awaiting...ambulances. The hospital sent them as the only cars big enough to carry all 17 of us. Because of the rain and exhaustion my scope of sensory input was pretty small. I paid attention to getting as little water on my clothing as possible as we got into the vans. The marina was misty and I didn't see much out of the foggy windows, but there were palm trees and many boats tied up to the dock. 

Even during the ride to the apartments I didn't notice much of the landscape because I was too busy being scared for my life. I was sitting in the front seat and was able to bear witness to our driver speeding the cumbersome van around blind corners on a tiny two lane road. He barely stayed in his own lane and passed other cars at every opportunity even around corners. Luckily our apartments are only three miles from the town and we arrived in a matter of minutes. With the rain still drizzling down we heafted our luggage out one last time, the boys were sent to their apartment, a random decision was made for which two girls would get the 1 bedroom apartment, and the rest of us hauled our luggage up three flights of stairs around the back of the building to the main apartment. 

The apartment is the entire top floor of a small three story apartment building, the central hallway has the highest ceiling and the bedrooms on either side have sloping ceilings which are cute and kind of fun but many of us have hit our heads already. There are three bedrooms, one with a queen and a cot, one with a queen and three twin beds and the last with just a queen bed. Without much drama we picked bedrooms, I ended up in the room with just the queen and a bathroom attached. For those of you counting we've got 9 girls using 2 bathrooms and one kitchen. Surprisingly thus far it's working out though and we're all getting along and figuring out the bumps along the way.

After we got our bedrooms and freshened up a bit we went out to visit the hospital for the first time. The rain had stopped and without my pack on my back I took the time to look around and figure out my surroundings. Our apartments are in two buildings that share a courtyard and driveway. They also have a little weird looking dog that we always give a pet when we go out. Also, there are cats absolutely everywhere, no one gets the feral cats neutered or spade so they all just have more and more kittens they wander around looking for places where people will feed them. We have one that sticks close to the apartments who will practically dance with happiness when you pet her. But I don't want to buy her food because what will she do when we leave and is used to getting fed? The people here certainly won't feed her and it will attract more stray cats to their home. For now I can only give her short pets on the head then wash my hands thoroughly. It's pretty heartbreaking.

Our area is pretty rural, we are in a small collection of buildings and houses with big gardens outside the little town of Kampor. The landscape is mostly fields with tall grasses and scrubby bushes or olive, pomegranate, persimmon or fig orchards in the back yards of the houses. Nicer houses have designated front yards and usually a big veranda with Roman columns and grape arbors above. Nearby also are a few sheep pastures, and the sheep will come right up to the fence asking for treats. And in the distance the fields slope up into the big wooded hills of the island. Some people would call them mountains. 

The hospital is literally across the street from our apartment building, the commute is less than three minutes from the door of our apartment. We got extremely lucky with this, we were almost going to live in the psychiatric hospital in 8 person dorm rooms. Not fun. Our nearby accommodations are much better.

My first impression of the hospital is that it is definitely not "Shutter Island" the first thing everyone sites once they heard I was going to a psychiatric hospital on an island in eastern Europe. The landscaping and grounds are nice, modern, well maintained and clean. Patients walk around and talk, smoke, and joke with one another. 

There we met Vesna, the director of the hospital and our host for the project. She told us a bit about the history of the hospital, when she took it over and started making improvements and some of the demographics of the hospital. Most of the patients are here for addiction rehab, there is also a hospice for the very elderly who need care. A smaller percentage have social disorders and there are smaller numbers of other problems. Most of the people there are there voluntarily and as such there are fences but not huge stone walls with watch towers.

After the orientation she walked us around the campus. By the entrance is the game area, they have a large size chess board, boccie ball, ping pong etc. the Main square where all the main buildings face in on is the primary social space for patients. They sit on the veranda, smoke, talk, and take walks around the garden. Our site for the design/build is at what I would call the back of the campus. It's the entire length of one side and includes a wooded grove area, an open meadow with wildflowers, then terracing left over from when the site was a vineyard who knows how many years ago. that part is now just a dirt mound with trees on it.

We ate dinner at the hospital and it was very pleasant besides my almost getting hit by a car while we were waiting for the building to open. It was coming down the main way and sped around the corner into the alley we were standing in, nearly hit us with squealing breaks then backed up and sped away. I do NOT like the way people drive here.

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Wednesday morning the sun was shining through the skylight and I was welcomed to a lovely view off the balcony of our apartment. It was deliciously warm out and not too hot and it felt wonderful to be comfortable. I met with my group for site analysis. The part of the landscape design process that is just figuring out what's there, who uses the site when, what goes on there. What are the sun patterns, where does the water go, what plants are there etc. Getting to know the site as well as we can before we start proposing how to massively change it.

My group and I walked around the site, up to the top of the mound, down the terraces through the woods and the meadow and into the grove taking notes and making sketches. When we thought we had enough information for now we walked through the grounds of the hospital to get a better sense for it. We are a bit of a spectacle an were approached several times by patients. I realized that I didn't know a single word of Croatian and quickly picked up "good afternoon" (dobar dan) "good evening" (dobra vecer) and "thank you"  (hvala). 

Vesna had told us that all of the patients who approach us would probably be friendly. They are just curious and interested in something new in their worlds. She said if they ask us for cigarettes to just say sorry, no. A very friendly older guy tried to tell us about every experience he'd ever had involving the U.S. Before we started to insistently say "ciao!" and ended the conversation. The most common question we got was "Where are you from?"



That afternoon a group of us decided to walk into town. The clouds and rain of the night before were a distant memory and a hot, sunny day beamed down on us. Unfortunately about half the way to town we had to walk on the road (that has no shoulder and certainly no sidewalk), but with a big group we were more visible and didn't have any close calls, but people still went around us at 70mph or so. 

After a mile and half we reached the beach trail. It thankfully turned away off the road and straight to the water, which is as the Adriatic tends to be, perfectly blue and clear. The walk first took us through fields of grass sparsely populated by the occasional bird yard or sheep pasture. 

The section along the water is the best part, it becomes a formal walk, with places for boats to pull up, little marinas, and stairs down into the water for bathers. In the distance we could see a tower and the gleaming white buildings of the little seaside city. I'm pretty sure Rab must have been the inspiration for "The Little Mermaid"'s seaside kingdom for all it's picturesqueness and perfection.

The walk ended at a sheer wall with a staircase up to the city. At the top was a stone courtyard overlooking the water with live tree growing in the center. The city is almost entirely stone, and since it is so small and on a hill cars can't drive up most of the tiny, twisting streets so the whole city is pedestrian friendly, most of the streets connecting by steep alleyways or small staircases lit by wrought iron lamps on sconces. The houses are behind walls with metal gates and in most cases their plants and flowers spill over the walls, draping vines and colorful star bursts of color down into the streets and alleys. 

Everywhere I looked there was evidence of some kind of loving detail, in the door knockers and hinges, to the flagstones set in the streets, to the window panes and gardens. 

Ann and I walked around together, looking into the shops remaining open after the exodus of the tourists at the end of the season. We got a gelato, walked around a bit, bought a few things, got another gelato, found more people, shopped around and generally enjoyed the day.

Rab is definitely a tourist destination, practically becoming a ghost town by this time of year. Which means we almost had the place to ourselves. Running up and down the steps to different levels and views of the city, each one a little different and special. Discovering new nooks, crannies, stairwells and courtyards at every turn made for a wonderful afternoon of exploration until the sun set. So far I'm very, very happy with our study abroad destination.