November 17, 2008
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Back from Greece
After driving 24 hours (10 hours there and 14 hours back) and sitting in about 16 hours of meetings, I have returned from Greece! Sounds exciting eh??? Actually I did have a good time. Met with about 50 other missionaries from all over Europe to participate in a “Think Tank”. In simple terms we discussed some of the issues Europe is facing and tried to strategize how we as a spirit led missions organization can work together to tackle some of these issues and where God is leading us over the next 3-5 years. We had some very good discussions.
I got to meet some fabulous people who are serving all around Europe and was blessed to hang with them this week.
Okay, I had talked myself into not saying anything about this but I must… besides it makes good blog stories when one can laugh at their own inadequacies. Those who know me, know that I am somewhat directionally challenged. But I am a somewhat good map reader and I eventually find my way. Did very well driving to Greece. Not much problem and all went well at border crossings. Drove through Bulgaria as well. However, on the way home was another story. Managed to make it to Sofia Bulgaria however, it was getting dark and approaching 4 pm. I knew I needed to make it onto the ring road which goes around the city and to head towards the border town Russe. Now, so that you know, I have someone with me so I am not alone. There is construction and traffic and it’s dark so seeing any signage is difficult. We drive and drive and drive. At this point I’m getting exhausted so I start reading signs to keep my mind occupied and then it hits us both. I’m reading the exact same signs I read when we originally entered Sofia and got onto the ring road. We just made a complete circle around the entire city. an hour and half later we ended up right where we started when we entered the capital city. If we both didn’t have to work Monday and we were not so afraid of the Mafia stealing my car I would have opted to stay at a hotel. But reality hit me and we can’t stay here so we call a friend who lives in this city and he proceeds to tell us that it is true the roads are not well marked at all. That would have been good information to have in the beginning. He gives us landmarks and we proceed (Again!). We find his landmarks, but then he wasn’t sure where exactly to turn so we are just praying and then after about 30 minutes we find the first turn…. but as we continue down the road the fog gets so dense I can only see a few feet in front of us. We are going slow, searching for more signs or landmarks to get us in the right direction. I see a sign that says Pyce to turn off. Since I am looking for Russe I ignore it and continue. The road then abruptly ends and forces me to take a sharp turn to the right and I make a 180 degree loop. Then to my horror I pass by a sign that says to Sofia. Oh my goodness, I just came from there. Please get me out of Sofia!!! I see a cop but then get too scared to get out of my car and ask. We figure we need to go in the opposite of Sofia so I turn around and go back, again not being able to see anything except what is directly in front of me. I’m getting a bit freaked out and then see my sign to Russe and can relax. We enter into another town and the signs to Russe stop but there are the signs again to Pyce. I don’t want Pyce, I want Russe. I drive around in circles in this town trying to figure out where I go to Russe and then it dawns on me. Bulgarian language consists of Cyrillic script however with roadsigns they will also include the International phonetic alphabet spelling of the word. Okay, call me very slow (or after driving all day long, very tired) but it took me a while to realize that Pyce = Russe. Pyce is the cyrillic spelling of Russe. Okay now I feel real dumb but once I figured that out I venture on my journey and make it okay. Arrived in Bucharest around 1:30 AM. And woke up at 7:30 to my neighbors beginning construction renovation.
Be blessed my friends and may you never get lost driving in Bulgaria
Tamara
Comments (2)
This just reinforces my fears about taking the bus through Bulgaria next year. There’s just something unnerving to me about not being able to read (Cyrillic script). Glad you made it home safe though.
Thanks for sharing, I’ve gotten a bit turned around here too…fortunately, most of the signs are in English and Arabic, but they are not always spelled the same way in English…so that keeps me on my toes.