CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Slovenija~Vintgar, Bojhin, Bled, & A Tender Mercy

IMG_8384 I got up at 6:30 this morning and came and had breakfast, and this is what it looks like.  They always have a good spread of scrumptious bread, lunch meat, cheese, yogurt, cereal, fruit, and juice.

IMG_8385 I always sat at this table and this was my view.  After eating, I stopped at the front desk to ask them if they had a safety pin or needle (luckily I had brought my English/Slovene dictionary so I could look up how to say safety pin) that I could have so I could pop the blister on the bottom of my foot.  Gross, I know, but it hurts so bad I can hardly walk and I know I’ll be doing a ton of walking today.  They had one, but it didn’t help my blister feel any better even after I relieved the pressure on it.

Anyways, I hobbled to the train station to meet Erik & Tina at 8:30.  They weren’t there, so I sat on the little steps outside and just wrote in my journal.  While I was sitting there, this short, old, ugly, creepy man came over and said something to me.  I had my ipod headphones in and couldn’t hear him so I had to pause my music and take out the headphones and ask him to repeat what he had said.  He asked me if I wanted to go get a drink of coffee with him and I politely told him, “I don’t drink coffee, but thanks.”  He said, “well, you could get something else to drink then.”  Dang it!  I thought he would leave w/ the no coffee comment.  I politely said, “no thank you, I’m not interested” and went to put my headphones back on.  He said, “oh, come on!”  I finally just smiled and turned my music back on and started writing in my journal again and he eventually left.  Eww!

IMG_8386 Tina & Erik finally got there 45 minutes late, b/c Erik had been sick and had thrown up, but was feeling better.  Again, I hated not having a phone so I could call people!  Anyways, we drove to Vintgar and got lost on some major country bumpkin roads but eventually got there.  It was $4 Euros to get into the park, and was worth every penny (do they have pennies in Euros)?

IMG_8388

IMG_8403 These pictures do it no justice, b/c it was absolutely breathtaking.  The water was a bluish/green color and we walked along these wooden bridges they had built into the side of the mountain over the water.

IMG_8407

IMG_8440 Luckily it was a nice and leisurely walk so I could hobble around w/ my owie foot.  We stopped every 2 minutes to take pictures, and I’m so glad we did b/c on the way back, the water had turned a dirty brown color.  So weird!

IMG_8418 The water was so clear that we could see the fish (they look red in this picture).  It was also cool, b/c a slight breeze would come along and tons of leaves would start falling into the water.  It was like confetti from heaven!

IMG_8437 This is my ultimate favorite picture that I took in Vintgar.  The bright color of the leaves against the soothing blue and white water is just spectacular to me.

IMG_8445 We got to the end of it, which is a big bridge that goes over a waterfall.  Isn’t this just the picture of fall time with the changing leaves?  I can’t believe I’m here and get to experience this!

IMG_8446 I had fun trying some different settings on my camera to get the water to look like this.

IMG_8447 Picteresque

IMG_8452 We walked down a bunch of stairs and over a super creepy and decrepit bridge.  I was worried some boards were going to fall out from underneath me and into the water.  Here’s the waterfall from below.

IMG_8455

IMG_8456 Again, I had a good time using different settings on my camera to achieve this affect with the water.

IMG_8463 There was this cute older couple that we kept running into on the trail, and we asked them to take a picture of the 3 of us together and then we took one of them together.

IMG_8467 We finally walked our way back out of the valley and were hungry, so Tina busted out this little picnic basket full of goodies!  She is so thoughtful and it had freshly baked croissants filled w/ nutella that she had made that morning, bananas, oranges, apples, and some candy.

IMG_8476 We snacked on the food while we drove to Bled Castle.  We climbed the super steep hill up to the castle only to find it costs $7 Euros to get in!  I had already been in when Mom & Dad came to pick me up from my mission, so I didn’t care to pay to go in again.  Tina felt the same, so we just sat outside on a ledge and talked while Erik went inside, and I sent my camera with him so he could get some pictures.  This is the island in the middle of Lake Bled that you can see from the castle.

IMG_8488

IMG_8491 I LOVE this one he got of the vines and multi-colored leaves w/ the castle in the background.  Maybe we have a future photographer on our hands?  We wanted to get a picture in front of the entrance to the castle, b/c of the original crest above the door.  It said 1519 on it!  What was life like back then?  How many people have walked through the doors of this castle?  So fascinating to think about.

IMG_8493 This was the view across the valley from the castle (I had to get out my big huge zoom lens to get this shot and the one below it).  These quaint little Slovene villages w/ a church in each village or on top of each big hill just makes my heart so happy.

IMG_8494 I can’t help but smile when I see lush green fields dotted with white dots of lambs and sheep grazing.  So peaceful and serene.

IMG_8496 Here I am standing at the door to my castle…now all I need is a prince!

IMG_8504 We left the Bled Castle and drove towards Bojhin Lake.  This is another favorite of my pictures b/c of the old rustic church in a field of corn w/ the sun’s rays peaking out through the clouds in the upper right hand corner of the picture.

IMG_8505

23

IMG_8507

The picture on the left hand side is when I first visited Bojhin as a missionary back on 9/9/2002!  The one on the right is me a little over 8 years later on 10/14/2010!  I truly feel that a large part of my heart will always belong to/in Slovenija and that is why I am so happy to be back here.

IMG_8511 This is the church on the other side of the bridge, which used to be called Devil’s Bridge, but the sign that used to be there is gone.  I wonder if the church didn’t like having to tell people to cross the Devil’s Bridge to get to them?  LOL.  I noticed how the pretty colors on the church matched the colors of the fall leaves.

IMG_8517 This was another favorite picture from today b/c of the colorful leaves w/ the lake in the background.  I hope Autumn can come visit Slovenija with me someday.

IMG_8522 We were all hungry by this time and wanted some lunch.  So, we stopped at the Mercator and got a poli sandwich w/ some drinkable yogurt.  We used to have this all the time as missionaries and it was another thing I got to cross off my list.  It reminded me of the P day we took when all the sisters got together and took the bus here and went and ate our lunch by the river that comes off of the lake.  Good times, good times!

IMG_8527 After out tummies were happy and full, we drove back to Bled to try and take a boat out the the island.  Since there were only 3 of us, they told us to wait until we had at least 5 people and then someone would row us out there.  While we waited, I took some cool pictures.  Can you imagine what it would be like to live in this white house and see this fantastic view every single day?

IMG_8529 This house had the brightest red leaves I have seen the whole trip.  And they seem even more red in contrast to the stark white of the house.

IMG_8532 I couldn’t believe it that while I was sitting there waiting, a white swan came swimming by and just made this already beautiful scene even more perfect!  The only thing that could have made it better were if it weren’t so cloudy and the sun were out a little more to make the colors really bright.  But, I’m not complaining and will take what I can get!

IMG_8538 Again, another favorite picture.  These are the gondola looking boats that they row you out to the island in.  No motorized boats are allowed on the lake, which is wonderful if you ask me.  This is a favorite b/c of the Slovene flag waving in the breeze w/ the castle in the background.

IMG_8547 Majestic!  We were finally able to get 2 more people so we could be rowed out to the island.  It was the cute couple that we kept running into at Vintgar and at Bled Castle!

IMG_8557

IMG_8560 We got out to the island and it’s tradition that if you get married in the church on the island that the groom must carry his bride up these 99 stairs!  I don’t know how anyone could do that, b/c I could barely get myself up the stairs!  Tina & I had to stop and take a breather, but Erik whizzed past us to the top and took this picture of us resting.  The church used to be free to go into, but now you have to pay $3 Euros and since I already paid $12 Euros to be rowed out to the island, I didn’t pay to go in again.

IMG_8563 This picture is so quaint with the cute yellow mail box next to the vines on the side of the building with the pretty flowers below.

IMG_8565 Isn’t this big red rose beautiful?  I like that it’s set against the backdrop of this old window.  A mix of new and old!

IMG_8567

IMG_8572 Another cool old door, and a self portrait in the glass window of the church.

IMG_8580 We walked around the little island (they give you 30 minutes before you have to head back) and Tina said this would be a great place to take engagement pictures if you were getting married.  Erik & I decided to be funny and the look on his face cracks me up!

IMG_8584 I am so glad that I got to hang out and share these memories with Erik & Tina.  They are so much fun to be around and we had a great time.

IMG_8589 Saying good bye to the lovely island.

IMG_8592 This is the adorable couple that we kept running in to.  They are from Jerusalem and her name is Irit and his name is Danni.  They were celebrating their 34th wedding anniversary and just couldn’t be cuter.

IMG_8593 This is the crest of Lake Bled that was on one of the oars.  We did everything we had wanted to do today, so we headed back to Tina’s house so she could get ready to go to a work party for her boss who is turning 60 and retiring.  I used her computer to send Mom a quick email and then we drove to the top of this huge hill (it was probably a mountain) in the dark to this gostilna where the party was being held.

IMG_8594 She gave us her cell phone and had borrowed her SIL’s phone so she could call us when she was done.  Erik & I drove into Kranj to a big mall Tina had told us about so he could look at some church shoes.  He found some he liked but didn’t buy any tonight.  Then we went to InterSpar (kind of like the Slovene version of WalMart) and I got 20 Kinder eggs for the kids I teach at church and some Milka bars for the people at work along w/ a Multi Sola for me and a few other things I wanted to try.

IMG_8605 I got this yogurt, which is so good it really is like eating dessert.  I had looked for it the whole time I was here but could never find it, b/c the outside of the container had changed from what I was used to.  But, luckily Erik found it and it took me back to my missionary days.  Isn’t if interesting how smells or tastes conger up such powerful memories?

IMG_8597 We looked for a little pizzeria or restaurant in the mall but couldn’t find anything and Erik wanted to see downtown Kranj where he had served, so we drove to downtown.  It was closed off due to construction so we found a back road and parked and walked up the hill.  It was 9:30 at night by this point and most things were closed, but we found a little food truck that was open and got some food.  I ordered a chicken sandwich with fries and it came on the biggest bun ever!  It was so crunchy on the outside and then soft and chewy on the inside.  It definitely hit the spot and I enjoyed sitting on a bench in center near a fountain eating my food.

IMG_8600We walked around town for a little while and I saw this building that I was instantly drawn to.  First of all, it has cool old doors.  Second of all, it has this balcony with beautiful flowers hanging over the side.  Third, it has the Slovene crest on the left hand side and the Kranj crest on the right hand side of the door.

We were getting worried b/c it was 10:00 and we hadn’t heard from Tina.  We thought maybe she had gotten a ride home w/ someone at the party.  The only problem was that her phone kept asking for some password to unlock it, which we didn’t know so we couldn’t call her.  And to make matters worse, we didn’t know her address or what city she lived in or her boyfriend’s last name so we could look it up.  We tried not to worry yet, and miraculously found our way back to the big hill where we had dropped her off for the party.  We drove up there, but all the lights were off in the gostilna so then we started to worry a little bit.

We came up with a plan that we would drive back down the hill and find a pay phone somewhere and call Majtaz in Germany and hope that he would answer so he could tell us Gasper’s last name or the address.  If he didn’t answer, then we would just go back to my hotel and try to email Tina.  I said a silent prayer and everything would turn out OK.  We got to the bottom of the hill and were stopped at a stop light and were trying to decide if we should turn left or right when the light turned green.  Right before the light turned green, Tina & Gasper pulled up!  They were coming to see if we were up at the gostilna at the top of the hill!  Talk about a tender mercy, b/c what are the chances that we would both be in that exact spot at the same time.  Gasper asked Tina how she knew we would be there and she simply said, “I said a prayer.”

We followed them back to their house so we could drop off some things and then they took me to center and dropped me off.  I went and used the internet to email Mom and then France called my room and we ended up talking until 1:15 am!  He’s a really nice guy.

1 comment:

Holly said...

I'm eating up every word and picture.