Dubrovnik
We’re more than half-way through our international study. Today started with a tour of the HE Dubrovnik Hydro power Plant led by Mr. Teo Sekondo a department head at the plant. The HE Dubrovnik Hydro power Plant has been open for 53 years and provides power to the 120,000 residents of the Dubrovnik region and to residents in Bosnia where the water is collected in the biggest reservoir in Europe. With the snowy winter weather the plant is running at 100% capacity producing 250 MW of electricity through 2 turbines using 1.6 million gallons of water per minute. Today the hydro power plant employs 50 employees and the reservoir holds a 6-month supply of water for the regions it supports.
Mr. Sekonda is a veteran of the Homeland War also known as the Croatian War of Independence and shared his emotional story of working at the plant and coming back from clinical death with our group in a very personal touching moment.
After our tour of the hydro power plant we headed over to the Dubrovnik Fish Market. The Dubrovnik Fish Market is owned by the City of Dubrovnik but managed by Sanitat. The Dubrovnik Fish Market is next door to Green Market. The Fish Market is opened every day of the week except for Sunday and extremely popular on Friday and Saturday when most residents of Dubrovnik eat fish. Fisherman fish today for the fish they will sell at the market tomorrow. In Croatia fishing is a family business with all family members working the business.
We then headed back to Old Town Dubrovnik for lunch at Poklisar were we had meal that Croatians eat on a frigid day like today: Green-pea soup with sour cream, baked pork belly with crispy skin, potatoes, cabbage and chocolate brownie with fruit fro dessert. We also presented our wonderful tour guide, Ines with a special THANK YOU at lunch.
A few members of our class skipped dessert to walk the walls of Old Town Dubrovnik. They described walking the walls as an exhilarating site that won’t be forgotten.
After lunch and walk around the walls we met with the Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik, Jelko Tepic and two members of her team, Jelena Loncaric and Mario Miljanic at City Hall. They provided us with an overview of tourism in Dubrovnik and their roles at City Hall and shared some of their advice for being a good leader.
- Leaders use their intuition and emotional intelligence
- As a leader it’s important to find a way to stay calm and avoid bursting out when stressed
- Leaders remain calm
- Leaders don’t take things personally
- Leaders take the time to review, process and consider all the facts before making a decision
- Leaders look ahead…they’re futuristic in their thoughts
- Leaders give respect first
- Leaders make a decision…a bad decision is better than no decision at all
Our afternoon programming ended at the City of Dubrovnik Development Agency (DURA). DURA is a NGO or non-profit organization established by the City of Dubrovnik. DURA’s primary objective is to support and achieve balance among the economy, culture, social and technological development for the City of Dubrovnik. They’ve initiated a SLOWFOOD project based on SLOWFOOD Italy that focuses on the vaporization of food as cultural heritage. They also support rural Dubrovnik with agribusiness and funding.
We spent a few hours shopping for souvenirs in Old Town before heading back to our hotel. Tomorrow we’re headed back north to Zagreb. The weather has been terrible and the road conditions are not the best but we’re crossing our fingers and toes we get to visit Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Night Night
SMT – Brent Krohn, Jasmine Brett Stringer Moore, Ryan Wendland
Comments