The Sea Organ and the Electric Viola: Zadar

Saturday marked the first of our field trip weekends. This one not too far, to the city of Zadar, Croatia. It's in northern Dalmatia on the mainland which required us to get a ferry at 6:30am. 6:00 found us yawning in the dark with breakfast food in hand waiting for our bus to the dock.

The sky started to get light while we were on the ferry, only about a 15 minute journey. Ferries always take me back to family trips to Port Townsend  when I was a kid. The wind in your hair and salt on your face, it's an invigorating feeling. Unless you get seasick.

The sunrise only caught its momentum once we were on the other side of the water and from there we got going on the road to Zadar. 

The plan was simple, arrive at the hostel, get settled in, walk downtown to meet with an architect/ landscape architect for a lecture, then we'd have a free afternoon. But the bus ride, however comfortable was not something I wanted to repeat. Most of the of the journey was along lovely coastline that didn't have a straight line in many miles. It twisted in and out of cove after cove after cove. Compared to even famous carsick roads like the Highway to Hana, this one takes the cake. I spent most of the trip trying to sleep and hold still.

We turned off the devil road into Zadar about 10:00 and had some time to explore the area around the hostel before we took off for our lecture. I found a beach nearby that's a part of a vacation resort; it had courts for every different sport, lawns, sand beach, playgrounds, a water slide, a giant sandbox for kids with sprayers and it was completely empty. Being the only person in a place designed for hundreds feels very creepy; like I was strolling through a post-apocalyptic beach resort just waiting for the zombies to attack. Also, parts of Zadar had flooded due to heavy rain and parts of the courts were broken or flooded out.

After getting settled at our extremely nice hostel we walked as a group along the water downtown. Many of the houses along the water got downright mansiony, with big gardens behind big wrought-iron fences.

The lecture we heard was from architect Nicola Basic who has designed some amazing and monumental pieces in Croatia. He's probably most well known for the Sea Organ on Zadar's waterfront and the light circle nearby it. But more on that later.

After the lecture we dispersed to make the most of our free afternoon. Most of us needed to find food, water and gelato as fast as possible after the lecture and crossed the bridge into the older part of town to find it.

Zadar is a bit like Rab on steroids. The tiny winding alleys and streets are still tiny and winding only much much longer. The main plazas are greater and less intimate, with ruins of old foundations still in place near the churches, but there are still little gems to be found around corners and at the end of alleys. Also, it's dirtier and has many more people than Rab, I'm guessing it doesn't completely shut down at the end of the summer.

After eating, a group of us went down to the water front, taking pictures of the sailboats going by and the wide crushed stone walkways leading in either direction. Soon, most of us made our way to the Sea Organ we had heard so much about.

The human activity around the organ gives away its position before its music is audible. People flock to it.
The organ, as Nicola explained to us is a system by which sound is created by the waves crashing into the sea wall. The water enters a different chamber for each note a few feet below the water line, gets pushed up a pipe into a reverberating chamber and the sound comes up through another pipe to a hole in the walkway. There are wide steps down from the walk to the wall that serve as seating as well as a way to get down to the water to put your feet in.
Soon we were close enough to distinguish the soft sounds coming from the Sea Organ.

I can't quite describe the way that the sea organ sounds or feels, I have a video below that was the best one I can find, but I think it might be another one of those things that you just have to be there. The best way I can describe it is that the ocean has a language of roaring foam and waves. We can understand that it is language but can't comprehend the words, we feel the connection to the sea but can't converse with it. The organ translates the words into music, a language we do understand. Though we still don't know the words we can feel the meaning more easily. Laying back on the steps, feeling the vibrations of the organ, hearing its song as well as the raw waves crashing alongside is a phenomenal experience.

I came back to the organ several times during the day, feeling how it felt through different parts of the afternoon. And though I could have spent an entire afternoon laying there I knew the rest of Zadar awaited, and I would only have this one chance to see as much as I could.

Most of the afternoon I spent doing some really high quality wandering, I entered the church and monastery of St. Francis and made friends with a very nice old nun. The church is also a museum of some religious art, and though generally it doesn't float my boat there was one very large painting in the back chapel that I found moving and was glad I got to see it. 

Later I stumbled across one of my classmates and we had a coffee together, then another church, another twisting alley and that's how it went till sundown when we all met again at the organ as the best place to watch the day end.

When it gets dark enough the light circle (also designed by Nicola Basic) comes on, lighting up large patterns of flickering, flowing and alternating light. We moved over to it and somehow, I'm not exactly sure we started an improptu salsa lesson on the light circle. Everyone present from our class participated and also a few other visitors nearby. A lot of people in the program have been very interested in learning at least a few ballroom dances, a near miracle in itself, but the fact that they have actually wanted to practice and get better after the first lesson is nearly unheard of. I'm so proud of my classmates!

After learning almost an entire salsa line dance a wedding party showed up for pictures on the light circle and we left to go find dinner at a plaza on the other side of the peninsula.

I had a hard time sitting still through dinner. We had had our first little dance session at the apartments a few days before until the land lady came up and asked us to quiet down. Then with this little taste of salsa the crave had gotten going and the only way to sate it is to dance; and dance as much as possible for as long as possible. By the end of dinner I was practically vibrating with anticipation.

A few of us had been talking about going out that night and we asked the restaurant owner after dinner where he would suggest. He gave us the address of a club on the other side of the water but warned us that it was only 9:30, no one would be there. We should wait till midnight, or better yet 1:00 to go out. 

I had forgotten about this part. Blog posts from my friends recounted how they had to wait to go out until at least 11:30 and even then was too early to have fun. To spend some time we went to a bar for a couple of hours and were surprised by the crappy service and rude staff, but at 11:45 we set off into the night for the club. 

I should also mention that in the time between the end of dinner and leaving the bar it had started raining impossibly hard. Water was streaming from every roof down into the alleys. We walked back across the bridge passing girls in short skirts and platform heels teetering their way through the river that had once been the sidewalk to the old town. I had to admire their commitment but was still astounded by the lack of practicality. 

The club we went to "Marischino" was not good. The club itself was cool, laser lights, interesting chandeliers, an ok DJ, but the place was sparsely populated by (no offense) older couples sipping drinks on the outskirts of a completely empty dance floor. Normally I'll be the first one on there, but I held back at this place, feeling the atmosphere was poignantly judgy and not inviting. Maybe it was just too early, but the waitstaff was very rude to us and we wanted to leave asap. 

Two of our group scouted out another club nearby and soon we made our way over there. I admit I was disappointed and a little angry because of the other place. But by the time we reached the second club our scouts were out front saying it was a bunch of kids under 18 (again, no offense). But the bouncer there told them about a further club, this one well known for awesome dancing and occasional live music. 

With this one last hope in our hearts our crew slogged the last of the way to the third club. I'm still not exactly sure where it was - pretty out of the way near a beach somewhere but when we walked in I knew we were in the right place. People around our age were milling about, still an empty dance floor, but crowds were pouring in, especially when the clock hit that magic 1:00 number. 

There were flat screen tvs playing the same five music videos over the bar and we realized they were all of the same guy playing a viola. One of our number said she had seen him on a poster outside the club with Saturday's date, so maybe he was playing? 

After waiting a few minutes we made our way out to the edge of the now full, but almost completely stationary dance floor and started moving. A few minutes later, a very tall person and a very sparkly person got up on the small stage and there he was. The God of Electric Viola. 

His name is Mario Rucner, he plays the electric viola. Nuff said. He also has a very long braid out just the back of his head but we can forgive that for his violas shredding skills. He, accompanied by a DJ and an extremely sparkly GoGo dancer got on stage and performed one of the best live shows I've ever seen. He did some covers of pop songs with beats and other instruments from the sound boards and also some original songs I've never heard. The performance was awesome and we were right up at the stage for dancing. It was also a little weird, like when they played an LMFAO song the dancer would put a box with eye holes cut out over her head and dance with it on. 

Toward the end of their set she pulled me up and I danced with her and The God of Electric Viola for a part of a song before jumping off back to my friends. 

Speaking of, we made a few friends on the dance floor, especially after everyone there had had a few drinks and were inclined to be more friendly. I don't know what the stingy attitude can be, maybe it's the whole competing for mates theory so everyone has to be stoic and perfect. I don't know, but luckily for us that broke down pretty quickly and all that was left were people having a good time.

Dancing felt so good. expelling some of the stress from the previous week, getting some endorphins going, and having a silly and fun time with friends was just what I needed.  

I was ready to dance till the club closed at 6am but a few of my more practical friends wanted to leave around 4:30. We caught a cab back to the hostel and slept for two or so hours before getting up to start the second day in Zadar. 

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.