Croatia & Bosnia (plague & all!!)

I am glad to report that I am completely well and now able to eat again (although the site and smell of fish make me nauseous...). Being sick in Bosnia is not something I would like to repeat, but God definitely brought our group together through that and we are all doing better now!!

Random: The z and y keys are switched on this keyboard, so sorry in advance for any silly typos!

Ok...so after we left London what feels like about 4 years ago, but was actually about 2 weeks, we flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful city! It is right on the coast of the Adriatic (?) Sea. We were only there for a couple of hours, but that was long enough for a few of the guys to jump in the water and swim around, and for the girls to go get ice cream and watch the sunset over the water. After we left Croatia, we were ushered into the first city we stayed in in Bosnia, Trebijne, by our guides Mustafa and Samer. The next day we got back in the (non air conditioned) bus and went to an Orthodox Monastary, an old Bosnian graveyard, and a Turkish Mosque and then to our hotel in the next town, Rujiste. It was really interesting going to the monastary and the mosque in the same day, especially after visiting so many cathedrals during the first part of the semester. Its amazing just how different the different traditions are - how foreign to me they are. Ironically, after the opressingly hot day we spent on the bus, the next day we woke up to cloudy and cold weather - and we had scheduled to go on a 23 km raft trip. Rafting was cool(literally and figuratively!) and so beautiful. It was a really different way to see the country. At one point our raft pretty much capsized and Vanassa and I were underwater up to our necks, and at another rapid 5 of the 7 of us in our raft fell out - so we were freezing!! It was a lot of fun, though, and our guide spoke English pretty well, so he was able to keep us informed about what we were seeing, and answer a lot of our questions about Bosnia. After the raft trip we went to our hotel in Sarajevo, and then spent the next 3 days dealing with the previously mentioned Bosnian Plague.

Sunday was the first day I felt really well again, and it was a glorious day! We went up into the mountains to this "old world European" town - completely traditional. The first thing that struck me about it was the sheer beauty - huge mountains, rivers running through green valleys, trees everywhere with the leaves changing, and a brilliant blue sky. The weather was incredible - it reminded me of Colorado in the fall! The town is completely self-sufficient - they make everything themselves. We hiked up the side of one of the mountains to the shepherds huts, and then walked around to the side of this ridge where we could see out over the town and the valley and the rest of the mountain range. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the scenery and sunshine.

Now Im in Vienna, and my parents are here, which has been AMAZING! I love this city - theres such an incredible musical history here, and something about it makes me think of Christmas!

More details of Vienna to come, but time with the parentals has been great, and Im off to continue that :)

all my love....

God bless.