Croatia, here we come!

For the past 5.5 years we've lived here, we've often talked about exploring the Balkans - especially Croatia (since we heard the coast was amazing) and Albania (since we've had a number of Albanian students that we've known well at LCC). So, the time has come for us to head south & check it out!

Part of what promted our trip was a retreat designed for women missionaries sponsored by the organization Women of the Harvest that will be hosted in Dubrovnik this weekend. The timing was perfect, the price was right, I am IN NEED of some spiritual nourishment, and everything has fallen into place for us to go. Hallelujah! I can't wait.

So, tonight I'll board a bus for Vilnius & spend the night in the airport hotel so I can catch my 6am flight out in the morning. I fly to the capital of Zagreb in the northern part of the country & then have a 1 hour layover before catching another flight to Dubrovnik. Pray that I don't have any delays & can catch my flight on time! The retreat is held at a 4-star hotel in downtown Dubrovnik and aside from the spiritual teaching & fellowship they advertise that there is a fair amount of pampering involved. Again I say Hallelujah!!

On Sunday Andrew & Ieva will fly to Zagreb, rent a car & drive down to Dubrovnik. It's faster to drive through Bosnia to get there, so they'll go that route & will meet me Sunday evening. Please pray for their travels as Andrew navigates the bus, plane & rental car all with Ieva in tow!

You can see how Croatia stretches down the coast of the Adriatic Sea - Dubrovnik is the furthest city south!

We plan to spend the rest of the week relaxing in Dubrovnik & are hoping to drive down to Albania for a day or two. We've discovered that Croatian rental car companies don't allow you to cross over the borders of non-EU countries with their cars, so if we want to go to Albania, we'll have to find a different way to do it. We're hopeful something will work out. Next Thursday we plan to start heading up the coastline, spending a night somewhere mid-way up and then making our way back to Zagreb in time to fly back on Saturday. We'll post photos when we return! Thanks again for your prayers for us - please pray that the retreat can give the spiritual nouishment I'm longing for & the trip can be the mental & physical break we both need.