A Time to Be with Friends

Well I cannot believe I have been home from my Europe trip for a week already.  Even as I sit here drinking my favorite Kaminzauber Tea from Austria, it already feels like my time there was a dream. 

I had a wonderful trip.  Of course it was too short.  It’s hard to balance seeing everyone I want to see, with actually taking a much needed vacation to let my mind rest.  I always want to see more people, and spend more time with them than I have available.  My last trip to Europe in 2011/2012 was filled with lots of travel and it was just too rushed, so this time, I opted for more time with fewer people.  It is always a give and take I suppose.

I began my trip in Timisoara, Romania.  Flying from Orange County to Chicago to Munich to Timisoara.  Thankfully my tickets were bought with miles, so it was next to nothing for my round trip ticket to and from Europe.  But with miles, comes crazy connections! 

Timisoara is my favorite city in Romania and possibly in all of Europe.  It was the first city I visited in 1997 on my first trip to Romania, it was the city where the Romanian Revolution began and for whatever other reasons, it holds a special place in my heart.

I brought my friend Marinela, the young lady I had mentored while living in Oradea down to Timsioara to stay with me in my hotel for the first 3 .5 days.  It was wonderful spending time with her.  The first thing she asked for us to do when she arrived by train, was to go to the zoo.  So after a mini adventure to find the bus that would take us out there, we made it to the zoo.  Marinela loves animals. 

We spent the rest of our time walking around the city.  She had never been to Timisoara before and was excited to see everything.  I showed her where the Romanian Revolution began and even gave her a mini history lesson.  Even though it is her history, she was unaware of many of the details. 

There were many “teachable” moments, like going over how important it is to wash your hands and to not put them in your mouth.  Especially after traveling by public transport.  We spoke about her upbringing in the Romanian orphanage, and the hard times she went through.  It was eye opening to me to hear her speak of wanting to know her mother.  The longing a person has, even in their 30’s to know their mother….it just made me want to adopt all the more.  Listening to Mari who spent her entire childhood from birth – 17 in an orphanage just broke my heart.  I was thankful that she has a group of other orphaned young ladies that she now lives with, they are her “family”, just like I am part of her family now.  Also knowing she has the Lord, her perfect Heavenly Father, who sees her heart, knows her fears, hopes, dreams and sees her tears.  He will never abandon her.

We ate her favorite food, everyday….McDonald’s of course.

And while I was trying to adjust to the new time zone, Marinela loved playing with the Barbie, coloring books and markers I brought her.

Marinela said to me before she left, she had always wanted to visit three places in Romania.  Brasov, Timisoara and Cluj.  I had her come and stay with me for Christmas one year when I lived in Brasov, and now she was with me in Timisoara, she asked, “next time you come to Romania, can we go to Cluj?”  I smiled at her comfort with me, to be able to ask this question, and to know that I had a part in helping her to see beautiful cities in her own country.  We will see what the future holds.  It was sad to say goodbye when our time had ended, but I was thankful for the time we had together.

Immediately after Marinela left, I went over to visit with my dear friend Laura and her family. 

As some of you may remember, Laura was my Romanian language teacher for a few months when I first moved to Romania in 2007.  We have remained friends and I consider her and her family to be my “other Romanian family”.  I love them all so much!  Laura had a baby since the last time that I saw her so I was excited to meet the new addition and to see how everyone had grown.  It seems the past 2 years since I had seen them last was the biggest change for them.  The other times, when I would come and visit, everyone still seemed to be young children, this time, I came and John the oldest was a young college student and 2 others were teens!  When did this growing up happen!??!

My time with Laura as always was too short.  Only 2 days.  We spent hours together though.  Maybe 20 hours or more?  It was a time to talk, laugh, eat, share about what the Lord has been doing in our lives and enjoy everyone’s company.  I had brought some lego gifts for the younger boys and clothes for my little Romanian sister, Irina.  I had a lady at work help me to collect some clothing items for them as well.   Oh, and marshmallows for the family.  Everyone was thrilled.  It was so fun to hear their excitement about what I had brought them.  I was blessed to be able to bless them and I couldn’t have been more blessed by my time with them.

 

I had to leave Laura’s family in the afternoon on my last day in Timisoara to board a train for Oradea.  I was going to meet my friend Kelly for the night, as we would be leaving early for Budapest, Hungary the next day.

I was blessed enough to be able to meet up with another missionary friend I had not seen in almost 4 years.  Sue and I had worked together when I lived in Oradea.  Kelly and I met up with Sue and a new friend now, Allyssa, for pizza.  It was fun to catch up and see all that the Lord is doing in Oradea and in each of our lives.

The next morning Kelly and I left for our train to Budapest.

We had a lot of fun.  Kelly took me to places in Budapest I had never been before, including the great big indoor market they have.  (Where I bought some delicious Sunflower honey.)

We went on two walking tours, hosted by Free Budapest Walking Tours.  We went on a Communist Tour and a Jewish Tour.  They were both excellent and I highly recommend them if you are ever in Budapest.  Our guides were great and we learned a lot!

We also visited the House Of Terror.  The building had been used by both the Nazi’s and the Communists.  The museum inside is a type of memorial to all the victims who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed there.  It was very eye opening to the evils both those regimes inflicted on the country.

We did a lot of walking around and catching up.  Kelly and I met when we both lived in Oradea.  I have not seen her since I moved home in 2010.  She is still living in Romania, so we had much to talk about.  It was a great time of fellowship and exploring a city we both love.

After Budapest I boarded a train for Vienna, Austria.  The part of my vacation where I would have some real alone time.  I love my time with friends, but really looked forward to allowing my mind to have a break.  To walk around slowly through a new city, taking in the sites, taking pictures, trying new food, enjoying the lights of the Christmas Markets.

It was a lovely time.  It was also a freezing time.  The temps were between 25 and 40.  The snow was lovely, but unfortunately it didn’t stick around.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed every moment.  Walking as much as 10 hours a day, and seeing a dozen different Christmas Markets throughout the city. 

I also visited the Jewish Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.  Anytime I am in a city with a memorial, I always try to visit it, in order to pay my respect and to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.  “Mântuieşte, Doamne, poporul Tău, şi binecuvîntează moştenirea Ta!”

As I said at the beginning, I can’t believe I have been home for only a week and already my trip seems like a dream.  My heart is always torn between Romania and America.  I feel so at home when I am there and long for it when I am  not.  I am beyond blessed by the opportunity I have had to live there and the many times I have been able to visit.

I read a great book while on vacation called, “We Wait You”, by Taryn Hutchinson.  She was a missionary in Romania and Hungary (among other countries in Eastern and Central Europe) with Campus Crusade for Christ.  Her story touched my heart and literally made me cry…in my hotel room, at the airport, on the plane. Ha!  But it was worth the tears to read stories that I could relate to and to know many of the places that she spoke of in her book.  One of the main things she wrote that I could relate to, was that she didn’t feel at home in America, and she didn’t feel at home in Europe.  And yet, she felt at home in both places.  And maybe that was ok…because as it says in Hebrews 13:14, “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”  To me it was a reminder that I am not Home yet, that I will always be a wanderer here on Earth.  

And when you think about it, that isn’t so bad.   

As Tolkein so perfectly said it,

“Not all those who wander are lost”.

 

Grace and peace....

Romania is Calling...

Tickets purchased.
Hotels booked.

Counting down.....

Vacation and Romania Update - January 2012

This is on my new blog too, but I wanted to add a little update to those who followed me while I was in Romania.....

Time for me to write a novel about my awesome vacation! First let me start off by saying that God is so good and so faithful. I am so thankful that He allowed me to go on this trip and that He not only helped provide for the trip, but helped provide for me to bless so many of my friends while I was there. He also totally protected me, and went before me, keeping me safe and working out all the details of this crazy adventure I was on. Honestly, where would I be without the Lord? Even on (and maybe especially) while on vacation He was there!

My trip started out with my meeting my friend Susie in Cologne (Köln), Germany. Susie is in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria right now, so Germany was only a short couple hour flight away. We wanted a fun place to be over Christmas. It was SO beautiful in Cologne! I loved it!

The shopping was great, the food was great, the architecture and weather were wonderful. I even had to buy a lighter weight jacket cause it was so "warm" (probably in the 40's and 50's). We had a great time walking around and eating great food. Germany has amazing Christmas Markets and Cologne was no exception. It was so fun to walk around the markets and try yummy foods and see all the hand made items for sale.

Since most of Germany is closed on Christmas Day we had decided that we would go to a German amusement park that day. It is called Phantasia Land. That was my Christmas present to Susie. So we got on a train and made our way to Brühl, Germany. When we got off the train we were greeted by this amazing Palace, the Augustusburg Palace. We walked around for a little bit there (gotta love travel surprises!) then headed to Phantasia Land.

It was a lot of fun and sort of funny. Being the "DisneyLand Girl" that I am, itwas amusing to see the attempts at similarities with Disney, but on a much smaller scale. All in all, it was a great day. We were able to eat good food again, the park was pretty empty so we really didn't have to wait in any lines longer than 5 minutes. It was a very memorable and fun Christmas Day!

After 5 days in Cologne we packed up and headed back to Bulgaria. First to the capital city of Sofia. I was expecting there to be a lot of similarities I think with Romania seeing as how they are neighboring post communist countries, but there were not as many similarities as I thought. It was still a cool country and since I love all things post communist it was awesome. Plus seeing the Cyrillic alphabet everywhere was cool too. Our first full day in the city we did a free walking tour which was awesome. Our guide Boyko did a great job giving us the history of Bulgaria and showing us around the town for like 3 hours.

I was also able to visit the Synagogue in Sofia. Which as any of you who know me, is one of my favorite things to do in Europe! It was small and really pretty. I met a really nice man who stands at the gate who told me a lot about the synagogue and even told me where there was a Romanian Orthodox church around the corner. It was cool.

We also went to this cool museum that was sort of an outdoor statue museum. It had all kinds of statues and sculptures from when Bulgaria was under communism. They went around and gathered them all up from around the city and put them there, it was pretty cool.

Then we headed to Plovdiv, Bulgaria for New Year's weekend. Plovdiv has an amazing old town area with ruins dating back to the Romans. (Sofia has that too but Plovdiv is just set up different.) The old houses and buildings in the old town area were amazing too. I love architecture and these little streets with their beautiful buildings were awesome.

New Year's Eve we walked around the city all day, but it was totally snowing and FREEZING so we were in pretty early and we didn't even stay up to see the fireworks. Which when midnight finally came, we were happy to be safe in our house and not in the "war zone" of crazy fireworks being set off by everyone and their kid outside our walls. I seriously was waiting for a firework to come through my window! It was nuts.

We returned to Sofia for our last day and half in Bulgaria. It was great being able to see my friend Susie since she has been gone and to see her skills at the Bulgarian language. It was nice to catch up, and to spend Christmas and New Year's together. After 2 weeks we said our goodbyes and Susie returned to her mountain top village and I got on a plane for Timisoara, Romania!

I was SO happy to be back in Timisoara. I was picked up at 11pm from the airport by my hotel. The next day as I was walking into the city and saw my cathedral I just had that feeling that I was "home" again. I can't describe it and I was wondering if I would still feel it. But I did. I love Romania and the people there. I love the language and the cities and the nature. I love how God has given me such a heart for this country and I am thankful I STILL love it and that when I got there it all came back to me as though I had not ever left.

I only had 2 full days in Timisoara. The first thing I did was to get a sim card for my phone and then I was off to meet up with my Romanian "other" family. Laura (my original language teacher) and her family are my dear friends and I was SO happy and blessed to spend time with them! It was far too short, but we picked up where we had left off and it was as though I had never left. That is one of the great things about good friends, time goes by and when you see each other again it is as though you saw each other the day before. I had a great time hanging out with them all and seeing how the kids have grown!

I didn't get to take a lot of pics of the city at all, hanging out with Laura and her family was way more important. Next time I will spend more time in the city and then I will take some pics! I also was not able to see everyone I wanted to in Timi but prayerfully next time that will work out too!

I was then off by train (4 hours) to Oradea. I only had a day and a half there. But that was enough time to see my dear friend Marinela. I mentored Marinela when I lived in Oradea and have kept in touch with her since. She came to visit me my last Christmas in Brasov, Romania. It had been over 1.5 years since I had seen her and we had such a blast together. We met for dinner my first night in Oradea at McDonald's where we always used to eat, we even were able to sit at this cool little table where we always used to sit. It was fun! I had brought her a little Christmas gift and she had brought me a couple of gifts too. It was really sweet of her. It was so awesome to see how the Lord has been working in her life and all that He has been doing to take care of her. She has a great job and God is blessing her and showing that He is her Heavenly Father.

The next day we hung out all day. It was SO cold outside that we could only handle it for about an hour. Then we spent the rest of the day at the mall, walking around, eating, going to the movies (new Chipmunk's movie) and going bowling. She beat me twice! It was a great day of hanging out and it was hard to say goodbye.

The next day I was off by a very long 9 hour train ride to Brasov. Brasov is where I spent the most time when I lived in Romania. I had 3 days there. I arrived at night on Sunday and Monday morning was on my way to work in the hospital where I used to work! I was SO excited to be going back and to see my dear friends Cami and Andrea.

I had a great 3 days working in the hospital. Again it was as though I had never left and we picked up as though I had just been there the day before. I helped in the play therapy room where I used to work and even saw one of the young ladies that used to come in all the time.

I helped Cami with a little photo project on her door and just got “caught up” with her on everything that has been going on since I last saw her.

Cami and Andrea treated me to dinner one night at Andos, my FAVORITE Romanian fast food place….man, just thinking about it gives me a craving for it! Then I treated them to lunch at the hospital my last day. Cami helped me get my ticket for the long 14 hour overnight train I would be taking to Budapest, and then helped me change the ticket to a better train. It was a lot of crazy work, but God was faithful and Cami was super helpful!

I was super blessed to have been able to visit my little neighbor Nuți while I was there. I didn't have a way to let her know I was coming and I didn't even know if she would still be living in that apartment. I just prayed and trusted God that it would work out. Turns out He took care of everything, if I had come a half hour later she would have been out for the afternoon and I would have missed her. She was SO excited to see me and she was so sweet and cute and we caught up. We only had a short time together cause I had to go and fix my train ticket but it was really nice to see her and give her a little gift.

I didn’t get to spend much time with the girls from Firm Foundations, I did get to hang out a little with Alisha and Raelene and I got to see Steffi and her kids for like 30 minutes. I didn’t get to see Mary or Sarah at all, but I am so thankful and blessed that they let me stay at their hostel for free and let me work in the hospital those days I was there. Next time again, I will have to be there longer and to spend more time with everyone!

After 3 awesome days in Brasov, I boarded my train, taking my first ever 2 bed sleeper car to Budapest, Hungary. Let me tell you, this sleeper car was AWESOME, like first class in an airplane. I was the only one in the car and it was GREAT! I could never afford to travel like this as a missionary but it was sure nice to be able to travel like this while on vacation, especially after weeks of running around, I really needed the chance to sleep the whole night on the train and to be safe and comfortable. Plus it was SO clean! (even the BATHROOM!) I loved it!
I decided to spend 2 days in Budapest alone at the end of my trip, because I was flying out from there, and I thought with it being so far from Brasov, it would be a good idea to have a little down time close to the airport. Budapest was BEAUTIFUL! Honestly I have been to Hungary a few times, and while it does not pull on my heart strings exactly like Romania does, there is something about that country that I do love, who knows maybe I’ll end up living there some day

Anyway, I had a GREAT time walking around Budapest. I spent a few hours at this awesome cemetery that was more like an outdoor statue museum. It was super old and super beautiful with the trees and the plants and statues and birds singing and strange looking squirrels jumping around. It was awesome and very peaceful. I took entirely too many pics there, but I loved the time to just walk around and enjoy the quiet.

I also visited the Great Synagogue in Budapest. Which is very impressive and had a lot of history to it. It also had a beautiful memorial to those who died from Budapest during the Holocaust. It was this weeping willow tree, and each leaf had the name(s) of people who had died. It was very moving.

My last day in Budapest I think my trip was catching up to me, I was out by 8 in the morning walking around but by 2 I was back home for the night. The weather was crazy that day, sunny, then cloudy, raining then pouring down hail! It was an adventure!

Then back at the hotel, I had to repack and catch a shuttle at 4:50 the next morning so I didn’t mind calling it a night so early.

I had 2 flights home and then 2 days off and then it was back to work.

Feels strange being home. I have had the worst case of jet lag I have ever had. I’m a bit fuzzy still and I miss Romania. I haven't even totally unpacked yet. I still know that I am where God has for me to be, but I am still just as open to anything new He may bring my way!

You know I didn't go into detail about how 7 of my 9 flights were late and 1 of my train rides was crazy complicated, but I want to again give glory to God at how He worked everything out. How I did not miss any flights and made it safe to all the cities I was visiting and even was blessed by that train trip to Budapest. It was an awesome trip of God once again showing Himself faithful in my life.

I am so blessed to be a child of God and was SO blessed on my trip by my friends.