Goodbye France Hello Croatai

So last Tuesday (the 19th) I left my home in Angers to embark on this month long adventure through Europe. It was a strange moment because I was rushing to finish up last minute work for my classes and then only had 2 hours to pack for my trip and say bye to people. And also it was emotionally weird cause I was sad to leave my friends yet I was going on thing crazy adventure, so exciting at the same time. It’s sad to think I’ll never see some of those people again. I know I will miss them.

So here I am surfing another couchsurfer in Opuzen, Croatia. This town is so small. I’m pretty sure I will know everyone that is here before I leave. I am here with Brandie and Jayne. It has been so good to see Brandie, to catch up, and for her to bring “a piece of home” to me. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone that I know this well. It’s such a blessing.

I started my voyage in Poitiers, France where I flew to London, and then to Zadar, Croatia. I’ve been cycling down the coast of Croatia on a bike that I rented in Zadar and camping a long the way in my tent. I got to couchsurf with this girl in Sibenik for a night. She’s a street musician who plays the djimbe. I even got to play with her the next day on the street. It was fun. But the night I arrived there, we went out into town and we were going to see some people playing on the street. As soon as we got there I saw this group of people standing around, someone with a clip board, and two with guitars and a djimbe. At once I noticed the tune of How Great is Our God being sung in Croatian. After a while I realized that they were doing street evangelism; talking to folks about Christ, handing them tracts and new testaments. The girl I was with, started talking to these people and after a while one of them came up to me trying to ask my questions in Croatian as a part of a survey, but I kindly told them, “no” and asked if they were doing street evangelism. They said yes, and when I told them I was Christian, they were so surprised. We started sharing testimonies and discussing how they got started and how I ended up in such a small town in Croatia. It was beyond imagination. I was overflowing with joy. Who knew that God would lead me to this place to meet these evangelizing Christians in Croatia! He’s taking care of me throughout my journey. Blessing after blessing and reminder after reminder of how real He is. They were able to talk to Sylvia, my host, for a while and it was in Croatian, so I didn’t exactly know what they were saying, but I know she is definitely not seeking God at this time, but is remaining satisfied in her own ways of life. I had the feeling she was frustrated by all this spiritual talk and was done talking about spiritual things so I didn’t probe her anymore afterwards. But we hung out in the middle of the town with some of her friends for a while, ending the night with a full night’s sleep.

The next day after playing the djimbe with Sylvia on the street and eating a very delicious vegetarian meal, I hopped back on the bike to head to my final destination, Split. Here I met up with Jayne and Brandie and we took the bus down to Opuzen after eating a wonderful lunch at a local restaurant. Now we are here with this really cool couple who have opened up their house for couchsurfers to come and stay. We have the whole first floor to ourselves and a kitchen. Today we went to sea and swam and read for a while. I think tonight they are going to cook us some sort of seafood for dinner. Sounds traditional :D

So after this, I head to Dublin for one night and then to Nice, where I take the ferry to Corsica to start my 10 day hiking trip on the GR20. It’s hard to believe I’m going to be doing all this. And that my journey has only just begun. Once I get back from Corsica, I’ll be meeting up with Dad to travel around France before I have to head back to the states.

The Out To Europe experience is almost over, but there’s still much to see and do before I leave. It’s all been enormously eye opening and quite the worldview changing experience. Look out for a final conclusion of the trip and so forth. Feel free to write questions you have in terms of debriefing my time here and coming back to the States and so forth. Thanks