Toledo, Sarajevo, Budapest and Tallinn

As I am part of the Bosnian National Team for Samaritan's Purse's "Operation Christmas Child", this year I went to the IConnect conference held in Toledo, Spain with 3 of my fellow team members. Here we are below with our colleagues from Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Yes, we went all the way to Spain and hung out with our local colleagues :)

This year was also Elvira's first time and she asked me to also dress up in National Costume so she wouldn't be alone. this was meant to be for the first night along with everyone else, but our flight was delayed and then our luggage lost, so we didn't get to do it then... but we were determined to do it anyway and it was really fun: 

Here are all of us from Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the OCC mascot! 

The conference was huge - over 500 people from 60 nations. We had corporate sessions in the morning and evenings and then workshops in small groups the rest of the day. It was long days, but we had a great time! 

One evening we were able to go to Toledo - and we took the little train up to the hill overlooking the city and got some great views of this Unesco World Heritage City, before exploring the city further and then having a little adventure getting lost trying to make our way back to where we could catch the taxi home! But we made it back safe and sound in the end...

After the conference, we all flew back to Sarajevo, and as it was my birthday the next day, everyone arranged to stay on and celebrate with me... Yay!! We were joined by Carolyn (and Elvira opted out) for the trip up the mountain on the newly redone Cable Car:

Here I am in one of the old cars - the original Cable Car was made for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and then unfortunately it was destroyed in the 1990s war, so it is nice to have it up and running again. 

Then, instead of travelling from Sarajevo to Banja Luka (5 hours by train) and then onto Budapest (12 hours on bus and train), I just flew on a Wizzair cheap flight to Budapest... and stayed with my friend Marie (and got to hang out with some other people as well which was great - but I don't have pics of that).

The reason for going to Budapest, was actually to take advantage of cheap flights to my next destination, Tallinn, Estonia, another Unesco World Heritage City!! (I should call this post from Toledo to Tallinn, seeing World Heritage cities across Europe!)

But you can see why it is a world heritage site... above is the Russian Orthodox church and below is one of the city gates that is still there - they have more that 80% of them, which is amazing for a medieval city!

 A view from the walls out... so pretty:

 This was part of the walk from where we were staying in the middle of old town to the place we were meeting... 2 years ago when I was here, I could barely make it up the hill... now 15kgs lighter and little bit fitter, I was able to make it up, sometimes twice a day, with no problem... so I was happy about that :)

The reason I was in Tallinn, was to spend time with these great people: The European Leadership Learning Community. I was part of the staff team for this event which was so fun. I love this group!

We had two very different, but amazing teachers. One was Ben Fitzgerald from Awakening Europe: He was more inspirational...

The other Oivind Augland from xpand Norway: He was inspirational, but also so very practical. Loved it!

We did have time for a little RnR... playing games in the park. There were some interesting ones like the one below... It was so much fun! And if you want interesting games, get a Dutchie to organise it!

During the week, I also got to hang out with my Estonian/Bosnian friend, Jael. She lived in Bosnia for 17 years and left last year in October to return to Tallinn. She took me to the medieval restaurant "Old Hanza" which was amazing...

The sausages were bear, moose and wild boar!! All the food are things that they would have eaten in medieval times... such a fun experience!

After 3 weeks, 1 5 hour hour train trip, 9 flights ranging from 1 to 4 hours, 1 5 hour bus trip, and many other forms of transport including the Cable Car, I met up in Zagreb with Ljilja and Sina and we hung out for a bit before Sina left... and then Ljilja and I picked up my MOM for her to come to stay with us in Banja Luka... but more on that in another post :)

Wedding in Finland and a whole lot more...

As my former colleagues' daughter, Ruut, was marrying our good friends' son, David, Ljilja and I decided to make the trip to Finland for the wedding. Our good friend, Sina, was so happy to have the chance to host us as she has stayed with us a lot in Bosnia, and even come to visit me in South Africa. Now was her chance to show off her Finland!

The wedding was stunning: of course it was on a lake (Finland is the land of a thousand lakes!), and luckily there was no rain. Here you can see where the vows took place:

The two families together in one photo: Finns on the left, Bosnians on the right. Ruut is the oldest of 4 girls and David is the oldest son in a family of 10! Don't they all look lovely :)

Here is just the happy couple: Ruut and David

 After all the festivities - they left in a very unusual way :)

Here's a photo to show you what we looked like in all our finery :)

Other than going to the wedding, we did see a bit of Finland: We spent a few days in Helsinki seeing the sights - here is the Lutheran Cathedral.

And here is the Marina area. Helsinki is surrounded by water.

We also spent time with some great people: including Sina's brother, Sani, and his girlfriend Anna.

We had a lovely evening catching up with Sina's friend, Jelena who has visited us in Banja Luka.

Then it was time to travel to Sina's family's "summer cottage". On the way we stopped off in Tampere to see some old friends. Lea (next to me) worked in Banja Luka for 3 years so it was great to see her and her sister, Eeva-Liisa, and also Susanna (who are both sponsors of our children in Banja Luka).

We had a great time at the summer cottage, which is not really a cottage:

We enjoyed hanging out with Sina's mom, who at 70 still plays tennis regularly, as does Sina's 86 year old uncle! Some amazing genes there...

And enjoyed the breathtaking sunsets over the lake at 11pm at night! Yes, 11pm!  

We enjoyed some fun Finnish traditions of berry-picking in the forest, and making a blueberry pie out of the pickings!! And of course the sauna... including jumping into the cold river in between sessions (but I kept my bathing costume on for that!!). We generally had a great time as the below photo shows :)

It wasn't all work and no play - we helped clean the roof of all the pine needles and leaves from the trees...

I didn't just take pictures... someone had to pick it all up off the ground where they swept it... ;)

Then it was time to leave the peaceful surrounds and head back to Helsinki. We made a day-trip across the Baltic sea to Tallinn in Estonia, where we caught up with my friend Helina:

And did some sight-seeing in the wonderful old town. So pretty!

Then it was time to head back to Banja Luka, but there is always time for a silly photo with sauna hats (do they need hats in a sauna??)

It was such an amazing trip and I am so grateful to Sina and her family for showing us such a wonderful time. The wedding was amazing, and I am so glad that we could be there for that, and it was also so great to catch up with many people along the way!!

First Estonian team in Bosnia!

It was so great to host a team of 11 Estonians - the first team ever to Bosnia from Estonia! It was so funny for me as they really reminded me of Finnish people in their discipline and politeness (and it didn't help that their language sounds so similar!). If you don't know where Estonia is, it is one of the Baltic nations, and across the gulf of Finland from Finland, so pretty far north! 

Here they are, (with Tanja and two other volunteers, Nina and Andjela - with Estonian flags on their cheeks!), in all their glory - the two leaders were my friend, Helina, in blue in the front and (my new friend) Liis with her mouth open in front... that says it all really! So much fun!

We started off with an Estonian evening - here is an arty shot through the flag (thanks to Liis and Helina for the photos!)

There was lots of food including black bread and fish: not my favourite... but luckily there were lots of other goodies...

They had little "booths" like in an expo where they explained different aspects of Estonian culture, history, sport, music, etc... and in the end there was a quiz... followed by dancing! Everyone had a great time!

Here they are listening to the Estonian national anthem:

I didn't get a picture of the dancing at the end at the cultural evening, but you can see below where we are trying it out at the children's home. We went a couple of times with them - doing a bit of a run down on Estonian culture (including the dancing!)

And playing lots of fun games: including pop everyone else's balloon while saving yours :)

Once we were tired of the games, there was time for face (or body) painting...

Putting in hair accessories:

 And making bracelets...

And generally hanging out and enjoying new friends. It was so much fun!

As usual it was sad to see them go, but it was fun having them and being part of hosting this historic team!