Where to begin. We have had a delightful week exploring parts of the Adriatic coast on our way to the Adriatic North Mission Seniors Conference. We left Sarajevo after church on Sunday and drove as far as Split. It is about a 4 hour drive but we lost our way getting into the city (compliments of GPS) so it took us nearly 5 hours.
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| Neretva River on the way to Split |
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| Driving through the mountains to Split |
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| Small lake on the way to Split - we stopped to stretch our legs |
Split is a city of almost 200,000 and is said to be the jewel of the Adriatic coast. It is a modern, ship building city with ancient history all the way back to the Roman Empire. In the fourth century A.D., the Roman emperor Diocletian wanted to retire to his native Dalmatia, so he built a huge palace there. Eventually the palace was abandoned, so the locals moved in and made themselves at home. A medieval town sprouted from the rubble of the old palace. In the 15th century, the Venetians took over the Dalmatian coast. They developed and fortified Split with new architecture but the nucleus remained the ruins of the palace. Today, 2,000 people live or work inside the former palace walls.
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| Bell tower inside Old Town Split |
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| Old Town Split |
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| Part of tower wall in Old Town Split |
Our hotel was steps away from the palace, inside Old Town. It was a cute, clean room but fairly noisy with all the night life happening until early morning hours.
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| Looking at the windows of our hotel room in Old Town Split |
We left Split mid-morning on Monday and drove to Zadar. We stayed at a charming hotel right on the water in the Diklo area of town. We fell in love with it right away. We always like to put our feet in new bodies of water we visit and Zadar gave us the place to do it.
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| Cooper feet in the Adriatic Sea |
We ate lunch in the hotel restaurant, with the windows wide open, enjoying the sea breeze and view.
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| View of the Adriatic from the restaurant window |
We were sad to leave Zadar and decided we would be jealous of the senior couple coming to live there May 15th. Tuesday morning we drove to Piran (pee-rawn) Slovenia. It is only 6k from the Italian border and we were tempted... but decided to be obedient missionaries and not leave our mission boundaries.
Croatia's 3,600-mile-long coast gets all the acclaim but Slovenia has 29 miles of Adriatic coast. We found Piran to be very pleasant and just as beautiful. We were a bit disappointed when we realized our hotel wasn't close to the water but it had an awesome view.
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| View of the Adriatic from our hotel balcony |
Our hotel was really an apartment, which is fairly common to rent here instead of a formal hotel room. This one was new and beautifully furnished and very comfortable.
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| Our lovely apartment in Piran |
The apartment also had a large bathroom and a separate bedroom, and a large balcony. It was a 15-minute walk down the hill into Old Town. We wandered through town and had dinner at a nice restaurant by the water. We had olives for an appetizer.
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| Yummy appetizer at the Piran restaurant |
The waiter spoke English fairly well. He brought us bread and instructed us how to mix olive oil, sea salt and pepper to dip our bread into. "No butter served here." It was good but then he insisted we have wine to compliment it. We seem to have a thing lately with people insisting we drink alcohol. Maybe we just look like we could use a strong drink. He passed by several times and offered wine. When we said we don't drink alcohol, he told us wine isn't alcohol, it is food. He wouldn't take no for an answer and brought a small carafe of wine and two glasses to the table. We said again that we would not drink it, no matter what. There was a man at the next table with his baby, waiting for his wife to arrive. He said he would take the wine. We thanked him and started talking to him. He is from Krakow, Poland. John explained we are missionaries for our church and we don't drink alcohol. The man said he understood, he is Catholic as well (as well?) and Jesus drank wine. Yes, well, you drink to our good health and enjoy it. Where is our niece Whitney, who served a mission in Poland, when we need her??
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| Piran bell tower |
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| Piran harbor view from our restaurant |
We had to leave beautiful Piran Wednesday morning. We have almost forgotten we are on a mission by now. We drove two and a half hours to Lake Bohinj (bow-heen), Slovenia. Driving in reminded us a lot of Glacier and Waterton areas.
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| Lake Bohinj |
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| Lunch with E/S Mayberry and E/S Monson |
We ate lunch with two couples at a cute lakeside café. Elder and Sister Mayberry are serving in Osijek (oh-see-yek), Croatia and Elder and Sister Monson serve in Celje (cell-yeah), Slovenia. When the four new couples arrive, there will be 16 senior couples in our mission. We need about 10 more couples.
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| Adriatic North Mission Senior Couples with President and Sister Melonakos |
We had another photo taken in our "missionary attire" but I haven't been able to download it. The theme of the conference was tender mercies and what works in our branches. We heard some very touching tender mercies and shared a few of our own. Strengthened our testimony that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us. We also gleaned a few good ideas to use in our branch.
Thursday afternoon was "free" time. Most of us chose to take the boat ride on the lake to the tram and ride up the mountain side. It was pretty spectacular.
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| A few of the couples on the boat ride |
We stayed at the hotel one extra night and planned to hike around the lake Friday afternoon but it poured rain all day long. We really couldn't complain, as we enjoyed nice, warm weather all week. President and Sister Melonakos and Elder and Sister Swendsen also stayed so the six of us played Phase 10 in the hotel dining room Friday evening. We had only met one or two of the other couples prior to the conference. It was nice getting to know everyone and to learn what life is like in their cities and towns.
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| St John the Baptist church, the most photographed church in Slovenia |
Triglav (2,864m), the highest mountain in Slovenia, is the pride and symbol of the nation. The inhabitants of Bohinj have always been very closely connected with the mountains, so it wasn't surprising that the natives of Bohinj were the first to stand atop Triglav August 26, 1778.
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| Morning mist on Lake Bohinj |
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| Morning on the lake |
We were truly sad to leave and come home. We drove 8 and a half hours on Saturday and arrived in Sarajevo about 5:00 pm. We are so blessed to be in this amazing part of the world and thrilled that we have the opportunity to travel and see it. We invite all of you to come visit us, just don't all come at once! We are in the perfect spot for history, beautiful scenery, and good food! It's hard being a young missionary here; they work so hard and don't see much success for their efforts. Sometimes I want to jump up and down and shout so people will pay attention. I want for the good people here to know the same joy and peace we have and understand why the gospel of Jesus Christ will bring them such joy. I realize it is all in the Lord's time and one day Bosnia will have thriving wards and stakes. It won't happen while we are serving here and may not be in my lifetime, but I know it will happen one day.
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