Of Poland, Czech, and Narnia

"It's over there, just beyond the lamppost"
-Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

When I arrived at the hotel where I am currently staying in Poland, one of the first things pointed out to me was a lamppost. Three of the young women on my team rushed up to the lamppost exclaiming "It's like the lamppost in Narnia!" In reality, the lamppost looked nothing like the light fixture that Lucy found in Narnia, but we spent the next few minutes discussing Narnia and how we wished we could move there. Little did we know how close we actually were to the real Narnia.

Several days later we crossed paths with the lamppost again on our way to a forest that boasted beautiful waterfalls. A feeling of familiarity struck me as we walked through the trees. Somehow the topic of movies came up and one of our Polish friends interjected that we were walking through the forest where The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was filmed. We were in Narnia!

A Narnian waterfall

Look! Narnia!

After the stumble across Narnia, the travel bug hit us and we decided to go visit another country. The camp we are at is located close to the Czech Republic border, so we decided to hike up a mountain and step foot in Czech. The hike actually turned out to be a ride in a ski lift longer than any I've ever been on. It took us over a half hour to get to the top of the mountain. By the time we reached the top, we were so exhausted that we walked in, took a picture, and got back on the ski lift to go back down.

On the ski lift. I'm the one in the background sticking my tongue out...

Finally, I suppose I should mention that the English camps that I am filming are going super well. I'm getting great footage and it is so neat to see how God is working through us to impact the people of Poland. Thank you all for praying for me! As you can tell, I am enjoying myself - which is a huge praise as I was not excited whatsoever to go on this trip. Little did I know that I was about to go to Narnia.

Pożegnanie!
-Matthias