Slovakia

Slovakia is scary ...

Details to follow.

Okay, this is the updated version of the original post. So Slovakia isn't as scary as I thought. Half of it was lovely and the other half was ... well, not lovely. I arrived early in Bratislava where I met a lady from the office there (she is wonderful. I don't know what I would have done without her!) and we traveled to Bystrica. The ride there was absolutely beautiful - fields and fields of wildflowers and poppies. Everything was green - it felt just like Pennsylvania. Actually, if I didn't know where I was, I would have guessed I was in Pennsylvania!

So here's where I need to put in a little blurb for those considering traveling in Europe for the first time: The only thing you need to travel is 1) money 2) Some sort of soap or cleansing product and 3) A nalgene bottle. For real, that's it. Money to get around, soap so you can live with yourself (and others) and water (because it's the essence of moisture and moisture is the essence of beauty - guess the movie quote). Why am I telling you this? Because I packed a 30 pound bag and hiked around Europe for four days. Do you know what I'm doing now? Nothing, because I'm so sore I can't move. I have never been more miserable in my entire life. I packed a laptop - A LAPTOP, PEOPLE! Why would I ever need a laptop to travel?! So you can guess what I'm taking on my next trip (hint: only three things).

Anyway, Alenka (who is the loveliest young woman ever) and I got to Bystrica in the early afternoon and we spent the day photographing and traveling around the city. It was a very picturesque town and we were able to get some great shots of the people there. We stayed in a YMCA hostel there and when we got back after a night shoot, the key wouldn't work, so we tried it for almost an hour and then we ended up breaking in. That's right ... Claire Riss broke into a YMCA hostel. I'm not proud of it, but we couldn't sleep on the street.

So the next morning we traveled about an hour to Zvolen and took photos of the city center there. We got to go to Zvolensky castle and take pictures from the top which was incredible, but they were setting up for a music festival inside, so we didn't get to see much.

Later in the day we traveled back to Bratislava, spent the night there and then left the next morning for Brno in the Czech Republic. We spent the day at the TWR office there interviewing and taking photos. The team there was really a blessing to us and it was very special for me to visit with them for just a day. It was so touching to hear their take on the ministry there. They work under very hard conditions, but they're all family and they care for one another is such a wonderful way. I saw that right away before they even talked about it in the interviews. So we spent the night there in their guest flat and the next morning we came back to Bratislava and then I traveled back to Vienna.

There it is in a nut shell. It's a very condensed version. There's really so much that happened and this trip had a lot of spiritual significance for me, but it would be impossible to write it all. I was able to spend precious time with the Lord during all of the train and bus time and I did a lot of "soul searching" (for lack of a better phrase) in the past four days. My heart and head is still trying to process everything, but I think I returned to Vienna changed in some way. Sorry, this doesn't really make sense!

So I will spare you the ramblings and if you want to know anything more specific, shoot me an email! But for now it's movie time with my very new, very lovely roommate! Woo-hoo! Thanks for reading! Ciao!