Easter

This past week, I spent Easter in Bratislava with my friends Colleen, Heidi and Becky. We were able to spend time together, worship in English, and hang out with the other ELCA missionary teachers in Bratislava. Here are the highlights from our trip with pictures as taken by Colleen, our official Easter weekend photographer:

Several mothers sent Easter care packages with typical American Easter items: peeps, robins eggs, Easter grass, jelly beans, and (best of all) an Egg Decorating kit.
On our first day in Bratislava, we decorated Slovak eggs in true American Easter style.



This was my egg. I am clearly not an artist. I joked with Colleen saying, "I think my egg has gonnorhea."



The next day, we did some shopping, and we had Taryn and Christoff (the ELCA English speaking Church in Bratislava's vicar and her husband) over for dinner. Colleen made her traditional meal: stromboli. It was excellent. Everything was made from scratch.



On Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the open air market in Bratislava. The food was beautiful. They had everything you could imagine. I had my first pineapple since I left the states! We found potted herb plants, the reddest tomatoes, and apples the size of my fist.



Then, we went on an eight mile walk through the city and eventually the woods to Austria. The weather was goregous. Slovakia is slowly starting to turn green, and I am remembering what a beautiful place I live in this year.

Here are some of the pictures from our walk.





This is the Bratislava Castle.



Our walk led us down to the Danube River.



On Easter morning, we went to church, and heard the same words in English that you did: "Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed, Alleluia." This Gospel message was truly medicine for our hearts. I needed to hear this good news this year.

Later that day, we went to the Easter markets in Old Town Bratislava.



Then we walked around Old Town and took pictures with the statues that welcome the people as they walk down the streets.





For dinner, we got together with the other Americans for a cookout. The people who hosted it have the "penthouse" apartment with a patio on the roof of the building. This is the view of the city from our Easter dinner table.



I had a wonderful Easter with friends who might as well be family.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.