On the Road again....

Morning at Rastoke

Tuesday morning was the time to say goodbye to Rastoke, Croatia and return to Budapest.  Our European tour was coming to a quick end.  Into the van we go and off to the land of HUNGARY.

The drive was uneventful, thank the good Lord, and we were making fabulous time on the autobahn.  A little town called Varaždin began calling our name as a good side trip.  It was only a couple of "clicks" off the highway and promised a beautiful view of an ancient castle.

We had NO map, NO GPS, and NO smart phones to help us find said castle.  We were going purely on sight, signs, and our gut instincts.  Only a couple of wrong turns and a full parking lot detoured us from finding the place.  We parked the short bus in a metered parking spot, figured out HOW to put money in the Croatian speaking meter box (thank the Lord for a LITTLE English!) and were off to find "Old Town"  otherwise known as the castle of Varazdan.  After just a short walk, there was the castle steeple in view.  Complete with a draw bridge, moat and large ancient wall.  It was truly a beautiful site to behold.



The castle at Varaždin



Dustin LOVED walking around Old Town.  The signs were in English as well as Croatian and one other language I didn't recognize, so we had a mini-history lesson while we were there.  The building was began in the 1200's, but not finished until the 1300's.  WOW, to put this into perspective, this was during the times of COLUMBUS....yes, the explorer Columbus.  Truly an awe-struck moment when we thought about that!!  Just inside the gate was a large, deep well, a covered cement coffin and a large trough of some kind.  The boys, Kelsie and I enjoyed meandering around the grounds and learning as much about the people that built the castle and other buildings on the property as possible.  We did not go inside the castle, the admission fee was a little much for the five of us, and we truly enjoyed taking in the outside sites just as much as seeing the empty inside of the building.  It was a wonderful stop for all 5 of us and something we will not soon forget doing together as a family.  Oh....if you're wondering about where Randy was....He was photographing the place, of course.  I'm sure he will upload some pictures for everyone to see!

The only other thing worth really mentioning that happened on Tuesday was the border check point leaving Croatia and entering Hungary.  The line was not that long, but we waited for over 30 minutes while the guards checked ALL passports, and then checked inside every vehicle.  I wouldn't really call it SEARCHING the vehicles, but they were definitely peeking around to make sure you weren't smuggling anyone or anything in to the country.  It was a little unnerving, but it could have been worse.  At least they weren't carrying LARGE guns, right??  Just small ones.  :)

We arrived in Budapest about 3:45, met up with a young man (Zoli) from Melba Tours to return the van.  He was so kind to us and drove us all the way across town to our hotel, the Marmara.  I was so thankful for this, and Randy was doubly thankful that he didn't have to drive in that traffic and strange  city with no map or even directions.  Since we didn't have any internet access the night before, we weren't even able to print or look-up directions to our hotel or anything else.    The Lord had worked out EVERY detail for us and we were blessed beyond measure.  If you ever visit Budapest, please give Melba Tours your business.  Wonderful christian people and great to work with you!!!

Hotel check-in went great.  2 rooms, of course, since a family of 5 is not the "norm" in Europe.  The kids were happy to have a little freedom from the parents, and we were thrilled to let them.  Interesting note about checking in to foreign hotels, you have to show your passport for EVERY person in the room.  I thought that was odd, but we did both hotels we stayed in, so it must be that way in most countries.

After getting settled we met up with Ivonne and went for a walk on the streets of Budapest and had a nice dinner with her.  Ed was visiting with the staff and administration at Word of Life.  He also arranged for us to get a van and driver/interpreter for our sightseeing day on Wednesday,  another answer to prayer.  God is good, all the time!!!

Kim

Notes from Randy:

I got up a little early and had a great time photographing the nearby waterfalls.  Actually, the sun gave me problems and I regretted sleeping in too long.    I thought we were in a valley that would stay shaded for a few hours - wrong.  Nevertheless it was a good time.

I could've spent all day in Varaždin.  It was a great place to photograph and experience.  The clouds rolled away and game me some super blue skies above the castle just before we left.  Getting there was a little tricky but we managed.  It was really a fun adventure, along with the one-way streets and lack of parking.

I must echo Kim's thoughts and give Zoli with Melba Tours a huge thanks for meeting us on the south end of Budapest and giving us a lift to the Marmara.

Supper was really good.  We stopped at another cafe on a busy street and had some local food.  All of the plates were delicious.  The boys both got a fried meat of some sort and loved it.

Time to plan for tomorrow -  a one day whirlwind tour of Budapest.

Randy

European Vacation

After all of the craziness and busyness we experienced over our weekend, we decided to take a much needed VACATION break on Monday.  Off to the wonderful National Park in Croatia called Plitvice.  The park is approximately 3-4 hours from Kim's house in Nova Gradiska and is FULL of waterfalls.  We discussed Sunday what time we thought would be a good time to leave on Monday morning.  The Edge team was going there as well for their debrief trip, and their planned departure was around 8AM.  Randy and I discussed things, talked with Kim H. a little more about her thoughts, and well, we left a little after 6AM Monday morning....just to be sure we had PLENTY of time for my waterfall, photography-loving husband to absorb as much as he could of the beautiful park.

yep, the original color
(no digital processing)

Plitvice National Park is rated as one of the top if not THE top waterfall spots in the WORLD.  Once we arrived, it was clear why it received this honor.  My goodness, it was simply breathtaking in so many ways.  The waterfalls pouring into the 16 lakes in every direction, the crystal clear water, and the indescribable color of the water.  It was and is truly one of Gods most creative creations!!!

Back to the drive to the park.  August 1 was the date, and it was indeed bright and early on this Monday morning.  However, August 1 is a particularly interesting day in Europe.  Apparently, unlike the United States, most Europeans begin "Holiday" on August 1.  EVERYONE it seemed in Central and Eastern Europe was heading to the Croatian coast for their holiday.  Traffic was ATROCIOUS!!!  Apparently not only was traffic very heavy, but there had been a wreck on the autobahn as well.  We were stuck in traffic for at least an hour.  This did not do anything good for my husband's jitters or anxiousness to arrive at the destination.  But, it was the path God chose for us this day, and we endured the traffic and when we could, made a slight detour on back roads.

We arrived safe and sound at Plitvice lakes National Park at 10:30.  The weather was damp and cool, but very comfortable.  It was around 60 degrees upon arrival.  Thankfully, it didn't ever get stifling hot because we ended up walking between 5 and 6 miles by the end of the day.  What a day it was.  We spent 7 hours at the park and probably could have spent longer, but just had to call it a day.  The edge team arrived about 1 PM, and finished BEFORE us.  They had to wait on Kim to finish walking around with us before they could leave and drive to the coast.  It was a little funny that they left and arrived so much later than we had, but still finished before us.  Great, great day!

The most difficult part of the day was saying good bye to my dear friend Kim Hecht.  It was hard to tell her goodbye, but we had a wonderful time together.  Let me also just say if you do not regularly hold up our missionaries in prayer, you SHOULD.  They have a very difficult job to do and I really don't know how they survive apart from the prayers of the faithful!  Pray and uphold your missionary friends!  They need your support!

Our tour guide

After saying goodbye, Randy, the kids and I left Plitvice for a town about 30 minutes away from the national park.  We stayed in the little town of Rastoke.  This place is also known as "Little Plitvice".  Waterfalls are everywhere here as well.  Beautiful little place with a rustic hotel where we spent the night.  We ate dinner at the restaurant under the hotel and retired for the night.  Unfortunately the internet wouldn't work the entire time we were there, so the stress level went up a bit for Randy.  Tuesday was the drive BACK to Budapest and meeting the man to return our van.

A wonderful day of vacation for the whole Gardner clan, but NOT much rest for any of us.

Kim

A few more photos from Randy:



































And then Rastoke that night:

CROATIA!!! Day 3

Sunday morning.  The Lord's Day.  Time to worship with our Croatian brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of course it doesn't matter what time zone, country, or continent you're on.  The kids are going to be slow getting ready.  I related to someone the other day that moving the family (at least the Gardner variety) in the morning, no day in particular, is like moving a camel.  Sometimes it goes and all is well with the world.  And then there are the other times.  There are times when the camel decides it doesn't want to move.  You can yell at it, kick it, beat it with a stick and it still won't move.  In fact it might decide to make loud, obnoxious noises at you.  And then it might decide to spit on you.  In fact the camel will move when it darn well decides to move.

And then all is well with the world once again.

So we made it to church on time this particular morning.

the church was packed Sunday

Just before leaving for church we finally decided what song to sing.  It was an FFH song with a soundtrack.  It's a good song, easy to sing, great harmony.  No problem.

The service was great.  It was kind of structured between a Romanian service and a Heritage service.  There were a couple of testimonies, one from Fiona (an Edge girl as they were called, all from the UK.  Kelsie can handle that one) and one from a Croatian guy (probably 18-22 in age) that were interspersed with singing and corporate prayer (many people pray) and then the sermon.  This particular morning the sermon was done by Sergei, an intern who is studying to be a pastor.

Becky, Miro, and Kim lead worship

Did I mention our soundtrack failed?  It started and Kelsie was singing right along.  Then it started skipping just a little.  Kelsie would have to adjust slightly to stay with it.  Finally on the chorus when we were all singing it stuck in one place so we ended up turning it off and finishing without it.  Tim said later that it was better acapella anyway.

One thing that I think works very well for this new church is a time of refreshment and fellowship.  Somewhere before the sermon started they break for muffins and juice or water.  It began when the weather was really hot and they've kept it up since then.  It was a good time.

After the service we had lunch at a local restaurant and then back to Kim's for a little rest before the evening concert.  Yes, we only had about an hour because we had to leave for Slavonski Brod at 4 pm.  Somewhere in there we had to start getting ready to leave Monday morning for Plitvice Lakes National Park because we knew it would be close to 10 pm before we got back to Kim's flat.

So maybe you can begin to see why the blog is so out of date.

Outside the retirement center

Sunday evening we were singing at a retirement center at 6:30 pm.  It was nothing like I expected.  The place was extremely nice. I was thinking nursing home but this was really nothing like that. The people were anywhere from 50 upwards and very responsive to our singing.  Kim H. said that many of them were there because they had chosen to move out and let their kids have their homes.

Our concert hall for the evening

And the sound.  The sound was quite good.  It was a narrow, tall room with natural reverb that was sweet.  Some local guys in a band were kind enough to leave their mics, soundboard, and speakers set up for us already so all we had to do was add the keyboard, one more mic, and monitors.  We had to rig things a bit because their board didn't have enough inputs but it was just enough to work.  Their microphones were very good.  I didn't catch the brand.  It wasn't a common one but they were very responsive and had a good tone.

Our interpreter interprets

We had a new intepreter in Slavonski Brod, Lena.  Bless her heart.  We really worked her.  All of our songs had been translated into Croatian and passed out Saturday night at the concert.  Unfortunately the copies didn't make it to Brod.  We only had one copy so Lena had to summarize the song lyrics before each small set.

So honestly I don't know if we reached anyone with our message.  That is in God's hands.  It always was.  I think we at least encouraged and blessed the teams of missionaries in the two cities.  Charlie, the team leader in Nova Gradiska, said that we brought a level of legitimacy to the baptish church there and I can see how that might be the case.  The people seem friendly enough but it also feels like a closed society where new ideas and especially new religions are viewed with much skepticism.

Lim, Andy, Daniel, and Soffet  from the village

Andy and his wife Lim picked up Daniel's soccer balls after the concert.  They are starting an outreach to a local Roma village starting in a couple of weeks and were thrilled to have the balls and pump to use.  Pictured with them is a representative from the village that plays the piano and attends the SB church.

Most of our sound equipment had been borrowed from from the church in Brod so we unloaded it at the church then drove back to NG.  By the back roads it takes close to an hour so it was about 10 pm when we got back as expected.

Did we have supper?  Beats me.  Maybe Kim will remember.

Signing off,

Randy