Europe 2025 Day 13 Ljubljana, Slovenia

With one full day in Slovenia, we chose to go to Lake Bled, a popular resort town with a beautiful lake. We waited for a bit to take the bus and then made a quick stop once arriving at the grocery store for bread, cheese, meat, and drinks for a picnic lunch. 

The lake was indeed beautiful; we found a bench and enjoyed the view and our lunch. We began a walk around the lake. I didn’t expect to walk up to the castle, but there we were hiking up the side of the hill. It was quite the workout. 

We didn’t go in to tour the castle but walked a little past it and found the best view of the lake and Bled Island below. 

Another destination for the day was Vintgar Gorge. We happened to catch a shuttle just as we reached the bus station. It got us to the Gorge a little early for our 3:08 pm time slot. We had to wait about 20 minutes before entering the gorge, but that gave us time to have a little snack. 

We had to wear helmets in the gorge, but it was amazing. The color of the water was turquoise blue, the waterfalls around every corner. It was definitely worth the effort to visit Slovenia. Slovenia is known for its green countryside and abundance trees. 

So many waterfalls. Not sure I loved the trek back to the entrance at the gorge. It was an uphill ascent with feet already blistered from miles of walking. 

We were happy to rest while waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back to Lake Bled. Luckily, we climbed off the bus and onto the next bus back to Ljubljana. 

We found a Thai Massage place close to our hotel and determined appointments on Tuesday afternoon before flying home would be appropriate and welcome. 

We arrived at the restaurant TACOS earlier than the night before. Even so, we found out they were already out of chicken, but the food was good. 

Chris and I strolled through Old Town and decided this was an amazing town. And visiting the mountains outside of Ljubljana would be worth a return trip.

Kristen's Crochet Skills

Kristen crocheted ties for the elders in her district. 

I think she could make money off of her talent someday.

Europe 2025 Day 12 To Zagreb, Croatia

We were sad to leave the hospitality of Lucy and Ante and their family, but it was on toward another adventure in Slovenia. 

We drove to Zagreb where we would drop off the car at the airport. We made a quick stop at Slunj (pronounced Sloon). We chose to visit an old mill connected to waterfalls and showing the life in the 1800’s. It took us about a half an hour to walk through and totally not worth the 9 euro entrance fee. Oh well. 

Because of our time difference, Kristen had sent us a zoom link to her Sunday evening musical devotional. We found the link just in time to watch the second half of the fireside and just before her musical number with the other missionaries. It was a nice moment on the Sabbath. 

We sadly had lunch at Burger King along our way to Zagreb. It was…meh. I don’t even remember the last time I ate at Burger King in Colorado! We finally reached the airport, dropped off the car, and found our Uber to Zagreb. Zagreb was underwhelming. We left our luggage at the Left Luggage area at the bus station and then took a bus to what we thought was downtown and walked around trying to find something memorable. 

We weren’t sad to return to the bus station to continue on our way to Slovenia. I bought some apples and cucumbers from a street vendor for 2 euro. We got in line for our bus. After 15 to 20 minutes, we were starting to wonder if we were in the right line for our bus. The bus was late. I asked the girl standing next to me if this was the bus to Ljubljana, just to confirm. The bus finally arrived 30 minutes late. Not a surprise when we were one hour into our two-hour ride and the driver stopped for everyone to have a smoke break. 

We finally arrived in Ljubljana and were happy for our ten-minute walk to our hotel at Eurostars U Hotel. It was late when we finally went out looking for dinner. We found a restaurant called TACOS that was busy. Sadly, when we went to order we were told the kitchen was closed and out of food. We ended up at another place along the canal called Breg. Chris ordered monk fish and I had soup.

Kristen's Mission Emails - Week 49

Hi everyone!! This week... 

• We had a sick day, which meant me crocheting ties for the elders (see Google photos) 
• We had the music devotional with my super awesome solo (see Google photos) 
• Interviews w/ prez (love that guy) 
• Bus finding (scary, hate it) 

I kept hearing about the law of consecration this week and here's some conclusions I came to: 

Consecration is about God helping His people by His people helping each other AND give what you have and you'll get more than you had (in this life or the next). It's an interesting concept, giving our all emotionally, physically, and spiritually to the Lord. But I've realized, especially on the mission, giving our all is sometimes just giving the most we can muster and that's not always the same from day to day. And that's okay! 

Slower week for us but hope you all have an awesome week! 

Love ya!! Sis Kline

Amy's Ear Infection

On Sunday morning, Amy woke up with intense pain in her ear and jaw. She went to urgent care where they gave her antibiotic ear drops. 

The next day, Amy wasn’t feeling any better. Worse in fact, and now had a painfully sore throat. I encouraged her to call her doctor’s office this time to get an appointment. 

She texted Chris and I around 2 am her time because she was in too much pain to sleep. Fortunately she was able to get an appointment with a doctor in her doctor’s office at 10:45 am. 

It is definitely no fun to be sick on your own and to have drive yourself to the doctor or get meds when you feel so awful. They confirmed the ear infection and did a strep test. She is on oral antibiotics and trying to get better. She is off work and hoping to feel good enough to go to work later this week.

Europe 2025 Day 11 Plitvice Lakes National Park

We were happy to find out that today was the last day with reduced off-season pricing. 

June 1st (tomorrow) and the prices would almost double. The amount of tourists in the park was already wall to wall on our visit with all of the tour groups. I can’t imagine what it would be like on a full capacity day. 

We followed Lucy’s recommendations for seeing the park most of the day starting at Station 1 where we walked to the Big Waterfall. 

The raised wooden paths were filled with people and if you got behind a tour group, you just had to hope they would pull off to the side at some point. The lower lakes were filled with one waterfall after another. 

We followed the path until we finally saw the big waterfall from the ground. It was one of the waterfalls we saw from the overlook last night. 

After seeing the lower lakes and waterfalls, we took the train/tram from Station 1 to Station 3 at the top of the Upper Lakes. This was going against the tourist traffic according to Lucy and would allow us to encounter the least amount of crowds. 

We started from Station 3 and walked to our first viewpoint. It was a bit of an elevation gain, so not traveled by quite as many tourists. 

We followed the path to P2 and got in the huge line for the ferry to P3. This is where we should have followed Lucy’s advice and walk to P3 around the lake from P2. As luck would have it, we waited in line for the ferry to P3, eating our packed lunch along the way, and then walked back to P2. 

When we got back to P2, the line was at least half a mile long. We texted Lucy and asked her best advice. She suggested we go to Station 2 and get the train there instead of taking the ferry. We didn’t realize that would be an extra mile and half! 

It was a 12 mile day of walking. But so beautiful. Well worth our time to visit.

Graduation Photo Shoot for Amy

Amy’s new shoes arrived just in time for her graduation photo shoot on Saturday evening. She rented someone’s gown, shawl and cap and then found a newbie photographer willing to take her photos for her for a good price. 

The photos are lovely and show Amy’s excitement with being graduated. (And she was plenty happy that she didn't walk in the graduation ceremony.)

Unboxing the Louboutins

While Chris and I were on an evening walk in Plitvice, Croatia, Amy texted that her Louboutin’s had arrived. We FaceTimed with her for the great unboxing. 

She was giddy with excitement.

Europe 2025 Day 10 Rab to Plitvica

Our last day on Rab island. We found a short hike that led from one beach to another, Suma Punta in Kampor. Can’t complain about that! The color of the water in Croatia was simply amazing.

We stayed at the beach until 2 pm and then drove to the Otok Misnjak Ferry on the other side of the island. 

It took us to Lika Senj and from there we drove to our next destination at Plitvice Lakes National Park. 

We found this amazing bed and breakfast called Plitvica River House run by Lucy and Ante with their young children Matteo and Maria. They were all so welcoming and friendly. 

We arrived just before the dinner hour which gave me time to shower first. Dinner was prepared by Ante who worked for 20 years on Celebrity cruise lines and was their head food and beverage manager. 

We weren’t disappointed in our dinner. 

Lucy gave us directions to an overlook above the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was dusk but we decided to walk the 15 minutes to the overlook. Wow. So amazing.

We were excited for our day in the park tomorrow.

Misha's Duolingo Streak

Misha has been learning French on the Duolingo App for over 700 days. She may not think she is fluent, but I bet she could hold her own in France if given the opportunity.

Misha Job Applications

Misha has been applying for marketing jobs in and around Denver. It is a non-stop process until she finds something that meets her potential and career interests.

Europe 2025 Day 9 Rab Island

Old Town Rab was lovely. If we hadn’t climbed the stairs beyond the waterfront, we would have never known the Old Town was there. 

Old Town juts out as a peninsula. We walked through the town and the down along the other side of the peninsula. The path wound around until we ended back at our hotel. 

We drove to the beach again and enjoyed our day. After dinner, we walked around to the other side of the harbor. 

The sunset was spectacular.