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One day on our recent visit to Split, Croatia, we took a city bus to the late Roman city of Salona.  Salona, a city of 70,000 people, was the birthplace of the future Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century. You can see the modern city of Silon in the background.
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Ghosts and ghouls are not my thing so let's see more pictures instead. The city of Split, Croatia, sits on a peninsula on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. On a recent visit to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary, my husband and I hiked along the ridge of the Marjam hill, set aside as a park by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century.The hike began with ninety-nice steps to this look out point--and that was only the beginning.  Cruise ships and ferries ready to embark for the islands wait in Split harbor in the early morning.  My husband and I completed forty years of marriage in May. Knowing we would be in Croatia, we decided to wait and celebrate in Split on the Adriatic Sea. Well worth it! Fabulous time! The fun part about staying for five weeks in a place is getting to feel almost like a local. We were well known at the bakery around the corner where we bought fresh bread for our supper each night. (Our main meal we ate at noon with staff and students in the cafeteria.) We were recognized at our favorite pizza place and my husband was a regular at the coffee shop on the corner. Today I will share a few more pictures of life around town.  Beneath this square in the center of town is a modern shopping center where city government functioned during the Serbian bombardment in the 1990s war of independence. (The Cathedral is off to the left.) My husband and I recently spent a month in Osijek volunteering at the Evangelical Theological Seminary. See previous blogs for pictures of the school, the synagogue turned into a church, and the Cathedral in the town center. Todays pictures feature the old part of town, called the Tvrda (the fort) by locals.  Osijek, Croatia, on the Drava River, has changed hands many times over the past few millennia. The Austro-Hungarians razed the city when they forced the Ottomans out, so what you see is late seventeenth to nineteenth century.  The Cathedral in Osijek, Croatia, dates from the early 19th century. We made several trips there to admire the paintings and the arches.  This synagogue, surrounded on three sides by the seminary, was built in 1902. There were once three synagogues in Osijek, Croatia, but following World War II few Jews were left. An Assemblies of God congregation rented the building off and on until the handful of remaining Jews offered it to them for sale in the 1970s. The synagogue was restored as a Christian place of worship that celebrates our Jewish spiritual heritage. In 2002 the choir of the remaining synagogue came to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the building together with the church.  You haven't heard from me in a while because I have been in Croatia and it's not smart to announce to the cyber-world that you are not home. I've been dusting off my library skills to catalog for Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek. I have been here several times before, beginning in 1993 just after the war for independence from the former Yugoslavia.
The library is in a beautiful new building whose glass sides inspired lots of photos “Bring him home!” Jean Valjean prays in Les Miserables of the young man his foster daughter loves. My daughter loves a young man too, and God has just brought him home from nine months in Afghanistan. We are grateful and rejoicing.  My daughter made a special onesie to welcome Daddy home. The baby "helped" with his handprint--a challenge when you are eleven and a half months old It's impossible not to be a on spiritual high in Colorado. Here are a few more pictures. Contact me if you would like to see the slideshow I put together.  As my sister commented, even stretching there is a beautiful view! |
AuthorLeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives. Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
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