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MEANINGFUL
INITIATIVE TO LIFE AND WORK
To
be original, new, stimulative. To move one’s feelings for unusual,
unseen, unexperienced. To renew and touch the forgotten smells,
tastes, images, shapes and sounds. To escape the anonymity and
create one’s own experience by active participation. This is only
a small part of our original project.
Let’s
remember the truth from the following sentence for an instant:
TO
BE THE ONE WHO CANNOT BE CHANGED, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE CONSTANTLY –
Coco Chanel
Dilemmas
are eternal.
Diogenes
was looking for a man, Shakespeare was searching for the meaning of
life. Let’s put our thesis this way:
TO
BE OR NOT TO BE INVENTIVE.
The
human intellectual curiosity was always the prime-mover. The life
dialectics leads to constant adaptation, and the adaptation becomes
the way of life. Car driving is definitely one of the most frequent
situations which abounds in necessities for constant adaptation.
Each one of us can imagine quite easily such a situation, either as
a driver, codriver or passenger. At the same time, the American
psychologists have realized a long time ago that driving may have a
therapeutic, tranqulizing effect. The real question is in fact how
to find the right measure, to bind the extremes, and use it in
promotional exploring of Croatia.
Author
of this article is an active driver with approximately 1.5 million
traversed kilometres, and is also the author of the unique tourist
and educational project called
“IDEM,
IDEŠ, IDEMO” (“I go, You go, Let’s go !”).
The
project is being held throughout the roads in Croatia, its goal
being the organized cruising in nature by mostly unknown and not
advertised roads of internal and hinterland Croatia. The project is
connecting the locations accessible only by 4x4 vehicles,
unreachable by buses or passenger cars.
The
organizer is “MORE” d.o.o. firm from Zagreb, and the project’s
logistics is done with “TATA” vehicles (representative: MORE
d.o.o.) and LADA vehicles (representative: ADRIA LADA d.o.o.). This
tourist educational project shows all the diversity and singularity
of Croatia. By stimulating the intellectual curiosity of an average
tourist, the project enables 15 days of completely different
atmosphere. Every day offers a new challenge, and each of the 15
directions is a unity representing equally: natural beauties,
richness of flora and fauna, traditional hospitality, rural tourism,
local gastronomical offer, old handicrafts, cultural and historic
marks, with elements of secure, sporting and off-road driving, and
also with compulsory various enological offer.
The
basis of every project is the human potential, so the thought of the
famous Indian poet, Mr. Rabindranat Tagore, should be quoted:
“THE
CROATS ARE WONDERFUL, AMIABLE PEOPLE”
The
implementation of the project includes driving by (and describing
of) Lonjsko polje, the Napolen’s bridge, the Rudolf’s road, the
once boarder of the Venetian Republic and Austrian-Hungarian empire,
visit to places: Rim (Rome), Beč (Vienna), Velika Mučna,
Lepavina and Carevdar (the three names humorously describing the
sequence of situations after Czar’s drinking the local wine). The
places with names of Turkish origin are quite interesting: Halan,
Turska Vrata, Begovača, Sijaset etc.
We
can also talk of the Velebit endemic plants
(at least 41 species), or about 415 species of birds in
Europe, 172 of which are bound to water and Zagreb surroundings
alone record 150 species of birds. Or, we can talk about the bugs (
eg. 30 species of gadfly on Velebit mountain), and about various
animal species, observe the unique habitation of meat-eating plant,
mention the world unmatched cave sponge. We can also enjoy eating
domestic food: pljukanci, pera, zlevanka or greblica. Old
handicrafts worth seeing: potters, ferry-men, millers, claquers. As
Karst makes approximately 54 % of Croatian territory, stone and
water are inevitable cultural references. There is a “PISANI
KAMEN” (stone script) – the antique script made in a monolith
rock regulating the right of water-well use among the Ortoplin and
Parentin Illyrian tribes. We can stand on the edge of 130 m deep
precipice which found its place in a novel by Jules Verne, or on the
entrance of the world’s ninth deepest cave ( - 1.392 m) or walk
along the European highest waterfall. We mustn’t leave out the
abandoned mining pits of green pyrite bauxite, the mineral for
aluminium production, from which were taken the first samples to be
examined for establishing the physical and chemical qualities of
this newly discovered mineral. These samples had the scientific
priority in relation to the bauxite LES BAUXA found in France,
although in fact the latter gave the name to this important mineral.
We
can try to imagine the world without the Croatian inventions:
kravata (tie), lens, binoculars, rainbow and colour spectrum
analysis, tide research, parachute, propeller, torpedo, tachograph
(speedometer), dactylography, detergent, tooth-paste (Kalodont),
alternating current, ballpoint pen, zeppelin, radar, wireless
communication, wolfram wires – as a prerequisite for the electric
bulb invention, the lamp MAGLIGHT.
When
I speak of rural tourism, I think of people who have been leaving
from times immemorial in harmony with nature, in balance that needs
no searching or inventing. I think about the people who meet you
always with a smile, whether you came announced or just met
spontaneously, about the people who gladly open their heart, soul,
door, wine-cellar…..
Talking
of tourism, let’s remind ourselves of what Mr. Robert Runcie’s,
archbishop of Canterbury said:
“
ONCE PEOPLE BECAME TOURISTS BECAUSE OF THE RELIGION, AND NOW TOURISM
IS THEIR RELIGION.”
The
beginning of tourism in Croatia goes way back to the ancient times,
when the first hotel in Dubrovnik was built from the money collected
during the festivities of Saint Vlah, or when the Saxon king
Friedrich Augusta II climbed the mountain Gola Plješivica (1649 m
high) in year 1845, while the first Mountaineering Association was
founded in London only in 1857.
When
we talk about elements of safe, sporting and off-road driving, we
like to point out that the project IDEM, IDEŠ, IDEMO! means active
partaking, where each potential participant can decide for himself
whether he wants to drive his own vehicle, be a codriver to a
qualified off-road driver, or even take a short course and drive
under the supervision of a qualified driver.
The
author made his first kilometers and took the driving test on a
macadam road – the name coming from the Scot Mr. Mac Adam, the
first engineer to build the road with the gravel base. The author
was fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel on roads all
over Europe, and to compare the natural beauties of European
countries, which enabled him to rightly evaluate each corner of our
beloved Croatia.
As
late as at the end of 19th century, one of our estimated
explorers, scientist and adventurer – Mr. Mirko Seljan said:
“ONE
HAS TO TRAVEL AS FAR FROM HOME AS POSSIBLE, TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
HOW BEAUTIFUL ONE’S HOME IS.”
At
times when the aspiration for proving oneself provokes negative
reactions, and the use of 4x4 off-road vehicles comes down to the
extreme testing of man, engine and nature, the author has already
committed himself to the harmony of man and nature, and to
situations which bring appeasement and relaxation, and are thus
creating a positive attitude and filling “the batteries” for
tribute to technological progress. For the situations directly
stimulating creativity.
After
all the mentioned above, you have to realize that these things are
happening to the people around us every day. It is happening on the
ground that can be yellow clay, blackearth, red soil, grey marl,
sandy soil, muddy soil, the land we drive on: the soil that feeds us
and gives us life. And yet a lot of people think that the asphalt is
the uttermost achievement.
As
the tourism is a specific example of emotional relation, we have to
create a unique experience a tourist seeks.
Perhaps,
if you want to know more about the influence of Split architecture
had on Edinburgh’s, or if you are interested to know where is the
last remaining place in the world where the Croatian saloon dances
from 17th century are still being performed,
join
us in the theme drive - team building, or similar drive on request,
because the project “IDEM, IDEŠ, IDEMO!” is widening end
enriching the body and soul, and also giving the new initiative.
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