Triplet to Croatia

 After the InterVarsity team left and before the next team arrived, we had a 4 day break. On our team calendar, it was written "R.E.S.T" into those four days. Ljilja and I decided to have an actual getaway including her mom and sister as well. We went to a Split (and they came up on the bus from Trebinje) and had a lovely time at the beach, relaxing and enjoying time at the sea. We mostly just stayed in our area of Split: 

But on the last day when we took them in to the bus station, we had a short excursion to the city centre: 

We managed to find MY shop: 

And also the tower which goes back to Roman times... 

And was also a place Mom and I stopped on our trip in 2015 to listen to the local singers: 

It was fun spending time with me "other" family and enjoying the lovely city of Split together... but then it was time to go back to reality!

Croatian trip

After being back in Bosnia for two and a half weeks, it worked out that I needed to go to Croatia to visit the YWAM team there. They are all leaving Croatia for good over the summer, and this was the only time that they would all be there and I could go before they left. Here is a pic of them: Danny, Jarod (with Amariah), Bexi and Ana carrying Rosie (Jarod and Bexi's dog).  

Yeah, my shoulder is doing really well, 4 months on from the surgery, but the 4 1/2 hour drive took me 6 hours as I was stopping along the way to stretch out. It did start to hurt a bit more than it has been, but it is just a mark of how good things are that my "bad days" now are better than my "good days" were last year! And now I know that I probably need to not drive as far for a while still...

I made the effort to go and see them as they are the closest YWAMers to me, and they have been in Croatia since 2013/4 so we have done some fun (and not so fun) things together over the years. We spent some time looking back over their time there and the things that we have done together. It was so good to be able to go and do an intentional goodbye to them all, even if it was hard.

I stayed with Ana and Danny who were dog sitting Fluffy, who is a brother to Rosie, Jarod and Bexi's dog. We went up on the mountain the one day for a picnic and you could see for miles... as far as the island of Korcula. It was amazing! Another good memory together! 

And this is probably one of my favourite pics ever - Fluffy living the life. It is my favourite as Ana managed to get it despite the fact that he is NEVER still for a MOMENT! And here he looks like his actually posing for it... he almost looks like a sheep enjoying the meadow 😊

It is always hard to say goodbye, but I have made the decision in my life that it needs to be done well and where possible in person. And I know it meant a lot to them as well! 

Bumping into my sister...

During our lovely holiday in Montenegro we heard that Astrid and David (my sister and brother-in-law) were going to be in Dubrovnik... a plan was formed. On the way back to Trebinje from Montenegro we would take a detour to visit them :) 

It meant an extra border, but luckily we were all able to cross into Croatia as Ljilja and I are vaccinated and Sina is EU, so we could "just do it" as they say...except it took an hour at the border, but it was worth the wait! Even thought it was very short, just a coffee together, it was very sweet as we haven't seen each other since the beginning of last year! 

We managed to surprise my mom as my sister called her to say "hey look how hot it is here...while you are cold in SA" and then said "oh and look who else we found here..." and turned the phone unto me! Yay for fun surprises! (Although my Mom is quite clever as she had written to my sister, "Hey, the 3 Musketeers are in the area, maybe they will come and see you"... so I am not really so sure how surprised she was!)

And the best part of all was that she managed to bring me some marmite and Twinings tea, so I was grateful for that too!! 

I have especially been craving marmite which you can't get here... and that is something no one who doesn't love marmite can understand!

Korcula, Croatia 2019

 After the crazy busy schedule I have been keeping, it was time to take a week off and try and rest up before the rest of the craziness continues for the rest of the year. This year, Sina, Ljilja and I decided that it was the turn of the island of Korcula. This is why:

Above was our "local" beach - about 10 minutes walk. Below is another beach which we drove to one day: so beautiful:

 We also managed to go check out the town of Korcula for the day when it was a bit "cooler":

But, as unfortunately, Sina was actually sick for most of the time, we had to make do with this STUNNING view from our apartment balcony. To be honest, I quite enjoyed our quieter pace, and so, although I am sorry that Sina wasn't well, it all worked out... 

And of course I had to get a picture of the "beware of wild pigs" sign... we didn't see any though :( 

After a lovely week away, it was time to go back to reality and get ready for the Finns to arrive!! 

Montenegro and Croatia

Every year in August/September there is a Samaritan's Purse conference called nConnect for those working with Operation Christmas Child. As I am part of the national team for Bosnia and Herzegovina I get to go along to connect with others working in the region (and with our team to work on how we will be moving forward in how we do things). This year the conference was in  Cetinje, Montenegro. It is always great to reconnect with the wonderful people who work with this project, this time with the Albanians and Montenegrins:

 We also got to enjoy some of the historical city of Cetinje:

On the way back we were going to go to Budva on the coast to at least put our toes in the water... But in the end this is what we got to see of the sea. The road was closed for repairs for an hour and so we decided to turn around and go back the other way. 

As we were heading back, we came across a one-car accident where the car was destroyed but the lady had somehow managed to get out of the vehicle. We were able to help her until the ambulance arrived... and she was soooo grateful that we came along :) (she just had one broken rib, having airbags saved her life for sure... she fell asleep and hit the rock wall alongside the road and the car overturned). 

We also discovered that the roadworks were not just on the coast and had to wait another 2 hours at the border as they were fixing the road right there and then when that opened the border took forever because of the backlog! But eventually we made it to Trebinje where Ljilja and I stayed for two nights to see her family (and somehow I don't have any pics of that!) and the others carried on back home. 

The next weekend it was time for another conference that happens every year in October on the Croatian coast: the Brela Women's Conference. I was one of the people on the founding committee and it has been going for 15 years now! It is always great to go and get refreshed and reconnect with people serving in the Balkans. 

The weather wasn't as good as it has been in the past, so no swimming this year, but it was still beautiful... and the wind reminded me of Cape Town! 

I enjoyed getting a little break away from it all, and it was great reconnecting with people I haven't seen in a long while!! 

Croatian Vacation

This year, I found a really reasonable place on the Island of Brac, just opposite from the city of Split. We also we added Carrie from the US to our motley crew - so now we were four nationalities from all over to make the waiters and border guards wonder how we got together!

Ljilja, Sina and I had been on the Island of Hvar before, but never on Brac, and we really enjoyed it. We were in Supetar, the biggest town:

We did some exploring of some of the other places around the island:

So beautiful!

We had a lovely sea view from our apartment and watched the sunset from our little balcony most nights: I love sunsets!

Carrie left us 3 days before the end, so on her last day we went to the world famous "zlatni rat" beach near Bol. (the below pic is off the internet, as any pictures from the land do not do it justice!) It was a lovely place and we had a fantastic day...

And we went out to a lovely restaurant overlooking the sea for her last dinner with us:

 After she left we did more exploring and enjoying the lovely summer weather at the beach :)

It was exactly what I needed to recharge my batteries and be able to come back energised for the next season here in Banja Luka!

travelling girl...

I needed to go to Italy for a conference, and to Budapest for meetings... and I discovered that it would work out cheaper to go via the UK to Italy and then onto Budapest, and it happened to be the half term holiday that week, so I combined the trip to see my sister's family and some other friends in the UK. I don't have pics of everyone or everything, but hopefully the ones I do have will help you enjoy the trip along with me...

I started in Oxford... and had a great time with my sister, brother-in-law and their two kids... that is despite the fact that my wallet was stolen the first day (from my bag while I was in a charity shop)... The most annoying part is not the money or cards, which are easily replaced, but the South African driver's license - which is not as easy to get a new one from overseas... but luckily my mom found out that she could apply on my behalf as long as I got a bunch of stuff together, which I managed to do while in the UK.

Besides hanging out with family (and helping them get a hamster!). I got to do some wondering around the dreaming spires of the city. Here is Amy on the Bodleian library steps:

We also wondered through the University Gardens on the way to and from the city... and got the only photo of us together on one of the cute bridges: 

And Amy got this super shot of one of the first snow-bells :) spring is in the air!

I then travelled to Stoke-on-Trent to visit my friends Trevor and Carol and their kids, my godson Christopher and Anna. We had a great time hanging out (and running around getting things done to send to my mom to apply for a new driver's license!).

Then it was time to fly to Milan for the YWAM Western (and Central) European Leadership Gathering. We were mostly in meetings all day, but we had one afternoon where we got to see more of the city...

The square where Constantine declared that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire:

We had some lovely gelato at the Duomo Cathedral square and I decided to go for the arty pic:

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele with some cool guys: Rune from Norway working in Romania, Jarod from Canada working in Croatia and Luke from the US working in Czech...

Sunset over the canals... so lovely :)

And yes, there was conference: Here is the main speaker Neil Cole: I didn't get any other pics, but there were other speakers, break-out groups and lots of meetings over dinner, breakfast and lunch! We started at 7am for breakfast, and got back to the hostel at 10pm each night, so long days, but lots of good connections and great input makes it all worthwhile.

After Milan it was time for Budapest. We had two full days of meetings, but I did get to hang out with my Swiss friend, Heidi, on the weekend and we even got to have fondue!! 

And of course I didn't get any other pics in Budapest either :(

After almost 3 weeks on the road, it is really nice to be home again!!
(oh and my mom got the stuff for my driver's license and already handed it all in - and so now it is just 4-6 weeks and then getting it here before I will be able to drive again... note to self: next time don't carry it in the wallet!)

Plitvice lakes with Mum

This is the third time that I have visited the UNESCO World Heritage Plitvice lakes in Croatia - but both other times (in 2009 and 2012) we were on our way to somewhere else and it was summer - so shorter time around the park, much less water, more people and no autumn leaves... So I can definitely say that this was my best time ever...

As we stayed two nights there, we had the whole day to wander around - and even though it was October, there were still many people (the park gets around 1 million visitors each year), but we were happy to let them through so we could get people-less pics...

There was a lot of water - as unfortunately the park was actually flooded about 2 weeks before we came, and so some areas were still no go, but there was still loads to see and we walked around for 5 hours which was plenty for us!!

I decided to do photo collages as there are so many lovely places and lakes, waterfalls and cascades - so it was hard to pick just a few...

There was plenty of water and with the autumn colours, we were pinching ourselves around each corner as it just kept getting better and better...

I am glad that Mum's first experience of the lakes was so spectacular, but any time you go it is just amazing... and around every turn is another reminder of how awesome God is!!

Croatian Vacation - Hvar Island

The second part of our Croatian Vacation (see part one - Plitvice lakes here) was on the lovely Island of Hvar with our friend Natalija. Ljilja and I were there in 2007 (with Cath Draper from South Africa) and 2010 (with our friend Dragana) and so we told her that we wouldn't come again until she had come to visit us (as she had been promising for so long we had to get her there somehow!). She came in December to Banja Luka, and then kept telling us we needed to come again, so with our rubber arms twisted behind our backs, we came back to Stari Grad. This time with Sina from Finland. Here we are out at the "Stari Mlin" or Old Mill in Stari Grad:

This is Ljilja and Sina in "Sridnja Kola" or middle street - the longest street in the Old Town part (and Stari Grad means "Old Town"):

And on the Trg Skor in Stari Grad: love it!

And then the "riva" or seafront: so pretty:

Besides the beach lounging, which we did a lot of, we also did a bit of touristing around the Island. Here we are in the town of Hvar: St Stephen's square and Cathedral:

On the "riva" with the town in the background:

We went up to the fortress above Hvar (after we discovered you can go by car...):

And the views were SPECTACULAR! With the Pakleni Islands in the backround:

Hvar and the Pakleni Islands:

Going inside the fortress :-)

Ljilja at the fortress - love this pic!

Besides the view, there are other things to experience in the fortress: including the prison: Glad I wasn't a criminal in that era... looks a bit small! 

We also went to Vrboska the one day, it is such a pretty little town:

But mostly we just hung out at the different beaches: even staying to see the sunset the one evening:

And Natalija was a fantastic host. Even taking us to pick lavender on her parent's farm. (they farm lavender, olives, grapes amongst other things). And we took the opportunity to get some lovely pics of us with the lavender:

Her dad was telling us back in the day a litre of lavender oil was so expensive that it was almost the same as an officer's monthly salary. And the bunch I am holding makes about 2,3 teaspoons of the stuff so you can see why. Now no one is willing to pay that much when there is fake scent available, so it is now not really worthwhile making it.

He also told us that he has lived all his life on the Island of Hvar, but lived in 6 different countries... The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Banate of Croatia, under the Italians and then the Germans in WWII, then Yugoslavia and finally Croatia! Interesting bit of history for you!

Now it is back to reality...