We Do Adventure

On Friday night we took a group of young people to Zagreb to see Martin Smith and Matt Redman in concert. We first saw Martin Smith when we were teenagers too. His songs, and the music of Delirious, have been a big influence. Sometimes it's easy to forget how big but there's nothing like the live experience to jog the memory; no escape from the weird and wonderful joy of revisiting the familiar in another time and another place. Context may change but truth doesn't for those who want to be History Makers . The focus my be different but the passion still comes from a heart that burns with that Obsession . Taking It Wherever It Goes was what they used to say. Back then we didn't expect it to bring us to this point, but here we are...happy we still have the energy and desire to out dance the teenagers on God's Great Dance Floor !

We were in Zagreb, Croatia, on Thursday and Friday, celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary. Wandering through Trg bana Jelačića – the city's central square in a similar way to what Trafalgar Square is to London – when we spied a seasonal sign. Perched above a mobile phone ad encouraging us to “Embrace life” and a white goods' ad claiming its products are “The smart choice for 280 million users worldwide” was a digital billboard of Jesus*. “Happy Easter” it said. “The Lord Jesus Christ, Victor over death and Satan”. It was the contrast between style of the artwork, admittedly not to my taste, and the uncompromising statement that made me snap this photo. I thought for all its reputation as a edgy cultural capital I couldn't see this message playing well in London. But then I checked online and discovered Trafalgar Square hosted a full-scale Passion play this year. Somehow that discovery was more reassuring than finding any number of unnecessary chocolate eggs! ...

Last weekend the Pope was in Zagreb. We were there the couple of days before he arrived. The to events had no connection, except that we were as aware of his impending arrival as he was unaware of our impending departure. However, the point of this post is to put Zagreb on the map if you haven't heard of it before. We would hope the capital of Croatia has crossed your consciousness before now but should it have evaded your radar that's about to be corrected. We've only started to explore Zagreb since our move to Jajce; it's now about a four hour drive away, which is makes it a reasonable proposition for a weekend break. Where as every city we've visited in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a east meets west feel to its architecture, Zagreb is definitely a western city. It has charm and, though we can't claim to have visited any of them yet, it also seems to have a healthy collection of museums and art galleries. It also has recently landed a regular Easyjet service fro...

This isn't the first time we've had reason to write nice things about EasyJet on this blog. We hope it won't be the last. But least pessimism get the last word let's celebrate the bizarre experience that was collecting my brother and his family from Zagreb airport yesterday. We knew they were flying EasyJet, in fact we'd noticed tickets for the new route become available and recommend they book a cheap trip months ago. We'd since forgotten they'd booked on the inaugural flight. Without this context we did wonder why we were seeing the aircraft ceremonially doused by the hoses of two fire tenders as is taxied towards the terminal. The presence of a media scrum in the arrivals hall had us wondering if a Croatian celebrity had shared the flight with them. When a lone piper struck his first drone note in baggage reclaim we were lost for an explanation. Thankfully the British Ambassador to Croatia was on hand to provide the missing pieces of the puzzle. As we say...

Almost five months ago I wrote a post titled ‘Inconvenience or Adventure?’ Back then I was still debating whether Zagreb was too far from Mostar to consider getting tickets for the upcoming U2 show there. Last night as we soaked up the spectacle in the Maksimir Stadium it was obvious I was right to choose adventure over inconvenience. I’ll get some video from our trip up tomorrow but for tonight I’ll leave you with one pretty picture (The Edge, featured on the screen, got birthday champagne before the encore – nice touch!) and this link to Bono introducing One. I could write loads about the amazing ability of U2’s songs to be reinvented with special poignancy or meaning in different situations but I’ll just say that last night this one pushed the button for me. ‘We’re one but we’re not the same, we get to carry each other, carry each other...’

In less than an hour we’ll be on the road to Zagreb. Why? Because tomorrow night U2 will be playing their first Balkan concert since they played Sarajevo in 1997. U2 fans should know the history behind this but if 'Bill Carter', 'satellite link-ups' and 'Miss Sarajevo' mean nothing to you read on. You may be a little less well versed in the back story but I'd still recommend this article on U2.com . It’ll give you an insight into why we’re so excited to be going. That and it’ll be an awesome rock show!