under my umbrella.

My friend Mandi had to leave the country for the day because of Visa issues.

She needed to cross the border of a non-EU country.

Croatia.

Brittni, Liz, and I went with her.

What follows is not a narrative of what happened on the way there.



Nor is it a chronicle of our adventures in the small town of Koprivnica.

This is, rather, a story about our extended journey home.

8. November 2010 5:03pm
We arrived at the train station fantastically early for our 5:47pm train back to Budapest.

Still, we needed to check the timetables to find out what track our train would pull into.

Problem. The timetables were missing one key word: Budapest.

Second problem. The ticket woman didn't speak any of our languages.

We showed her our tickets.

She rattled off something in Croatian.

We stared.

She wrote down, "17" and "6.11" on a piece of paper, which she passed on to Liz.

We stared at the paper.

Then Liz voiced the unthinkable, "What if this means that the train already left at 5:00pm, and the next train is at 6:11 in the morning?"

We found translation.

And indeed, this was the true meaning of the numbers. We had the wrong train times.

There were now two options: spend the night in Croatia or select what would become a rife-with-adventure, harebrained travel plan.

Which do you think we chose?

6:47pm
The train headed for the border. Passports stamped. All was good.

We waited two hours in a train station bar. Eating pistachios and playing speed Bible thumbing.

9:30pm
Our ride left.

We dried our socks and shoes on the radiators, ensuring that whoever rode the train next would surely enjoy the gift of scented feet...

11:45pm
Arrived in Dombóvár.

No trains would be leaving until 4:00am.

All the workers stared at us.

We contemplated spending the night in the bathroom.

Then we found out that there is nothing around the fine Dombóvár train station.

So we found a bench. 

It was nice.

Brittni sprawled out in an attempt at sleep.

Liz simultaneously attempted to snap pictures while acting as a human blanket for us all.

Mandi and I were laughing hysterically. Or maybe just slap-happily...

What do you do when you discover that you'll be sitting on a bench for three hours?

PRAY.

Play twenty questions.

Laugh at your new adventure.

And then someone akin to Brittni will say, "Heyyy! It's been TEN minutes, guys."

Fail.

9. November, 2010 12:20am
Mandi opened an umbrella to shield us from the breeze.

12:22am
Mandi opened a second umbrella to form a stronger windbreak.

12:23am
Brittni opened a third umbrella in an attempt to create a crude shelter.

About the time we were congratulating ourselves on being ridiculous so resourceful, an older railroad worker walked up and motioned for us to follow him.

I suppose we looked undoubtedly pathetic.

He took us to a running rail car and said something about Budapest in Hungarian.

Then he let us in.

It was a worker transport train.

We were going to another town where we would catch a train to Budapest.

4:50am
After an 11 hour expedition, we rolled into Budapest. And 15 minutes later I was rolling into bed.

THANK YOU JESUS.

It was so amazing to see how God provided for us.

We had tried to find another train or a bus, but there wasn't any.

We had thought about getting a hotel, until we found out that one didn't exist.

We had resigned ourselves to spending the night on a bench in Dombóvár.

But God had other plans.

He used a compassionate man and helpful train workers to get us home safely, warmly, and in a way only He could come up with.

Love it.