6:10am

We're sitting in the Zarnesti Train Station once again with a big day of traveling in front of us. Our destination: Elena, Bulgaria.

Yesterday we decided to hang around Andras' Cabana for the day. The kids (particularly) Luke can't believe how sore he is from the hike the day before. We tell him it's from jumping all the down the mountain - which they all had a blast doing (just like the good ol' days).

The thing about Couchsurfing is that it's so much more than simply finding accomodations. You are literally invited INTO the lives of your hosts. Although there are many people staying at the Cabana, there is this massive difference because you are invited. Everyone sees the "superficial", CS'ers often see the true picture. So Andros let's me in on some of his personal struggles as of late. The obvious is the back injury that has left an extremely active guy almost incompacitated. This leads to our whole family having an opportunity to share the hope we have. I hope that there is more opportunity to speak further in the future.

It seems like our hosts generosity to us knows no bounds and just before lunch he offers his relatively new vehicle to us to drive to the illustratious Bran Castle (legend of Dracula). We had hoped to see the castle and it was everything we hoped a medieval castle would be, cloaked in mystery and legend.

We offered to cook our hosts supper and everybody decided spaghetti should be the offering. It was rather interesting trying to find supplies at the mini, MINI market in Zarnesti but we ended up with the basics and the meal turned out pretty good - a little taste of home! While the girls cook, the boys and I put our hands to some manual labour around the Cabana, moving lumber for Andros.

All in all, a pretty relaxing day, watching horse drawn carts go by, shepherds leading sheep, and visiting castles. The day ends with a very transparent conversation with our host about finding that thing that's missing. We tell him we'll be praying for this family and for the complete healing of his back. On returning to our room (and before the kids retire to the barn hayloft), we all pray for Andros and his wife Annikur.

15:58 (whatever time that is :-)

We've crossed the border into Bulgaria which I'm pretty happy about as it means we have made a train connection that was pretty important, with minutes to spare. Over the last couple of weeks we have heard some pretty negatively slanted comments about Bulgaria. Which has an opposite effect on me - I'm positively looking forward to discovering it's hidden beauty. I think of how often I've heard similar statements about Fort St. John, and how if people just gave it the chance, the might come to love the place. We certainly have, and although we're enjoying the heat cranking through the train windows, all of the Warriner's secretly look forward to the first snow fall, late nights skating on the pond, and warm cozy fires in the hearth (to say nothing of hunting season which starts in 11 days!).

There is positively nothing like riding train listening to country "train" songs: Long Black Train, Life's Railway to Heaven. I've got my iphone going :-).