Sometimes You Get Better Than You Expect

Note: We have been in Salzburg for the past 3 days and just finally got internet this morning. So, the next couple posts are about stuff that happened a few days ago. We'll catch up to now at some point! Later today we are headed to the Black Forest in southern Germany and I'm not sure if we'll have internet there or not. We'll blog if we can!

Tuesday, June 22 - Written by Eric (with picture comments by Kristen)

I always try to live by the adage: You will often get better than you expect.

Croatia was a place that was never on my personal radar screen. If you had asked me where I wanted to go on my sabbatical, it would not have been top on my list. However, by the insightful advice of a friend of Kristen’s, we chose to visit. If I knew anything about Croatia, it was because of the war that took place in the 1990s: the Serbain-Croation conflict. It was on the news regularly in those days. It was the start of the break-up of former Yugoslovia.

The past few days staying in Croatia, for me however, have been incredible. Kristen posted about the “Garden of Eden” like experience at Plitvice Lakes National Park. I don’t think I have ever been at a place that is more beautiful, peaceful, and God-breathed. It really can’t be described, just experienced. Following our day in the park, we drove to and stayed in Zadar, a city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Many of these old cities, like Zadar, are walled in, fort-like cities with narrow streets and buildings that date back to 1000 AD. Over these past days I got much more than I expected. Croatia is beautiful and the people helpful.

The view of the Adriatic Sea from our window (the Adriatic Sea is right between Italy and Croatia...the mountains in this picture are not Italy (unfortunately) but rather the Kornati Islands, which are a string of barrier islands just off the coast of Croatia) -


The sea organ in Zadar (as waves roll in, different tones sound) -


Enjoying ice cream (which is THE THING to do Zadar!) -


After leaving Zadar, we were scheduled to stay in Zagreb, a larger city in northern Croatia. We arrived later Tuesday afternoon, find our prearranged lodging, needed to take back a rental car, and get some dinner. We successfully found the address of our lodging for the night…But that is when I began to wonder about living by my adage because I was not sure we were going to get better than we expected.



The entrance to our lodging, as you can see, was adorned with full garbage cans. There was graffiti on the walls, and no sign anywhere that indicated where our lodging was. It was ironic to me that the place we were looking for was “Camera Felice”, which means “Happy Room” and we were not greeted by anything that even was close to “happy.” We opened the door and walked into a dark hallway. Coming around the corner was a shorter, older man, mostly unkempt and toothless, emerging from a dark apartment with his finger pointing up in the air. He wanted us to know something, I am sure, because the more confused I looked, the more he repeated himself, and the louder and louder he repeated the same words (in Croatian) and made the same motions.

I went upstairs to find…..nothing. I found nothing that appeared to be a “Happy Room.” I thought that maybe it was time to look for another place to stay. So back into the car we jumped and drove around town. A few moments to gather ourselves again, we decided we would make one more try to find our happy room. Kristen texted her contact there to figure out where and how to get in. No response.

Walking up and down the sidewalk trying to find someone who might know about the “Happy Room”, a woman emerged out of a window. She was on the younger side with a huge afro and big white glasses. She was talking to us. “What have we gotten ourselves into,” I thought. She invited us up to see the “Happy Room.” I still was wondering, “What have we gotten ourselves in to?”

I should always trust my old adage. I should learn to trust God more. What we ended getting ourselves into was a “Sobe.” Sobes in Croatia are rooms that individuals rent in their apartments or homes. We ended up staying in two brightly colored and modernly decorated rooms in the home of a young couple. They had all the things we needed, and more. A bed. Hot water. Clean towels. A small refrigerator. A TV for watching the World Cup. And even a gift for their guests.





We did get better than we expected. We found the “Happy Rooms”! I should learn to believe more often.

Tomorrow it is on to Salzburg, Austria. Seven hours on the train….I am surely looking forward to seeing the mountains!