all for 65 Euro cents...

lots of kilometers, Timisoara, Romania
We've started the journey home and here I am at a very nice mall in Romania using free internet. We've been living in the van for days now without using a camping place and I'd really love a shower. We made it here at about 3am after a pretty funny situation, but first, Belgrade...

I loved being back there. The bustle of Republic Square, the beloved cafe Plato, the friendly helpful people (it was said last night that more people speak English to us in Serbia than in Germany), Kalemagdon and the beautiful view at sunset as a city comes alive at night. We sat up there and prayed big prayers for Belgrade. Knowing God has so much more for that place. Then we slept in the city. Cooking many meals in the van as we are on a serious budget. Cafe Plato was our only splurge and even with the heat we didn't buy water, filling our many large bottles from the drinking fountain on the lagre shopping street.

The second day we went into the new part of the city and prayed a bit more, had a picnic outside of Genex and then walked around the apartments Krister and I helped to clean up last July. We headed back into town, filled the bottles again (it was and still is seriously hot) and headed off. Deciding where to go was hard. We'd love to go down to Croatia and even Italy, or up and explore Poland or to Dresden to visit friends living there and Misty and Scott. The possiblilites are endless, but with a non-existent budget and one dwindling bank account still with money in, we decided to head up north. Maybe take a ferry from Gdansk right up to Nynashamn. Expect news on a homecoming celebration in future posts...

The best story from the past couple of days has to be at the border crossing. We didn't cross at a large border as we were avoiding the large road tax Serbia has. It was about 1:30am when we left Serbia. The border patrol were fun and checked our passports, doing the roll call and seeing each of our faces. Then after a few minutes they okay us and we drive over into Romania. The sign says to drive 5 km/hr. A man comes running out of a booth and asks Johans name. Johan gives him the name and he says, "Two Euro." He didn't speak English and it took a while to understand that this was for a piece of paper which our van needed in Romania. The problem was we didn't have two Euros. We could also pay in Serbian Dinars but the last our our Serbian money went into our gas tank, right to the very last Dinar. So with only 1 euro and 35 cents he wasn't very impressed. We had to turn around and drive back into Serbia. At 1:30am and without a bankomat/atm in sight we got in line for the Serbia entry. The lady who had just inspected us came and talked to us. She said there was an exchange place and got permission from another border control on the enrty side for us to walk into Serbia and try to exchange our little money for one Euro or even 65 cents. Johan and I tried the booth with 25 SEK, a few Czech coins and some Hungarian Forints, but all were in coins. The booth wouldn't exchange coins, only paper money which we didn't have in any currency. Same story at the next booth but a second nicer guys tried to help us, but the man behind the counter refused coins. We went back to the border police and explained the situation. They tried to collect a Euro for us between themselves but didn't have any. Here it is 2am and we're tired and stuck between countries. The idea of heading back into Serbia wasn't ideal. The border guard called another guys over. We explained to him. Then he called another guy over. They talked among themselves. It went on this way for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then one man told Johan, "Come!" and they walked back to the second booth. The border control guard talked to the nicer of the two guys and he took a book and wrote something in it, then he handed the border police 5 Euros. They walked out and this was then handed to Johan who wasn't allowed to repay this. "Serbian people are good people," was the man's reply. Indeed they are! So, we went back to the disgruntled man with our Euros and here we are in Romania after a good nights sleep in Mr. Blues. You have to love random God-provision and the beautiful people it can come through.