We spent one of our last nights in Ljubljana with the Majc’s eating, playing cards, and catching up with newly returned missionary Davor. We had a great time and will miss them, but Ivan and Rosana have promised to come visit us in New York next spring. Until then!
While here in Ljubljana we’ve had a great time catching up with old friends and making new friends.
The Three Majas
Last winter, a friend of Larry’s from the church Slovenija, Maja Hegediĉ (pronounced ‘Maya’ to our American readers – the ‘j’ has a ‘y’ sound in Slovene) came to New York for a few days. I was able to meet her and we had a great dinner and evening on top of the Empire State Building with her friends, including briefly meeting her friend Maja Kaplan. We immediately caught up with Maja Hegedic and Maja Kaplan on this trip. They also introduced us to another Maja: Maja Ŝekoranja. We’ve all quickly become friends and have had so much fun together. They are now collectively referred to by us as “the Majas” or singly referred to by the first letter of their last name.
While in Ljubljana we have fallen into a routine of Wednesday night ping-pong at the church with Maja H. Larry loves ping pong almost as much as he loves me and his iPhone (which he loves in that order), and Maja Hegediĉ is also a big fan. I became the cheerleader while they played, with the other Majas sometimes joining in. (I haven’t held a ping pong racket since the 7th grade and I apparently couldn’t even be trusted to keep score properly since I kept losing track.) They have been fun nights. We even had an exciting foosball match in the church attic one night as Maja K is as fierce a player as Larry is. Maja H introduced us to a little cafe outside of Ljubljana that sits along a man-made lake where at least 50 swans have decided to live, and it serves amazing palaĉinke (crepes). The banana and Nutella crepes almost have too much Nutella! (I say almost because I’m not entirely sure you can ever have too much of the evil little choco paste.)
We also had a perfect afternoon lunch one day when the Majas were free, at a gostilna that served yummy Serbian food with a beautiful outdoor patio – sooo good! – and a trip for ice cream cones and a visit to their “beach”. The “beach” is really just a little man-made lake in the middle of Ljubljana full of turtles and swans and ducks. It’s a quiet spot surrounded on one side by condos and on all other sides by nature. Maja S and I had great fun on one of the kiddie spinning rides. I can’t stay away from spinning rides. I’ll probably never grow out of that. 🙂
Lunch with Aleksandar
One night right after we first arrived Ljubljana, Larry and I were having a quiet dinner at one of the restaurants that lines the Ljubljanica River, where Larry suddenly jumped up and ran over to hug someone passing by. His friend Aleksandar had been riding by on his bicycle and spotted us. They quickly exchanged numbers so that we could have a proper meal together and catch up. It’s so great to have chance encounters like that, and to see friends you may not have seen in years. Facebook helps us keep in touch virtually but nothing can replace sitting down for lunch or dinner, or just hanging out.
We subsequently had a nice long lunch with Aleksandar at a gostilna that sits along the Ljubljanica River just outside of the town center. It was one of those perfect early autumn days with sunshine, good food, and good conversation. A perfect afternoon. This was the first time I had met Aleksandar and it was a delight to get to know him a little bit. I look forward to future visits.
Time with the Majc’s
When we came to Slovenija on our honeymoon a little over 3 years ago, Larry was able to get in touch with the last family that he baptized before he left, the Majc family. It was a very special reunion. Since he taught and baptized them, they have become very active members of the small LDS community in Slovenia and have had three more children (in addition to the two they had when Larry first met them). When we returned to Ljubljana for a few days on our first anniversary, we were able to celebrate with the Majc’s as their older son, Davor, announced his mission call to Barcelona, Spain. Davor was just a young guy riding the neighborhood on his beloved bike back when Larry first knew him. How time flies! With this long visit we’ve been able to spend some quality time with the Majc family. Before we left the states, Larry dug up some old mission videotapes he had taken that included a visit to the Majc family house, and had them converted to DVD so we could share the footage with them. It was so fun to see young Davor running around and little Barbie, who was probably 18 months old at the time, saying “‘Anson!” when she spotted Larry coming up to the house (it was one of her first words). Barbie is now a senior in high school. Ivan laughed at how fast he drove and the funny shorts he was wearing on the day Larry was filming. We all laughed when little baby Barbie puked all over Larry, requiring him to change his pants while Rosanna washed them. I think the Majc’s really enjoyed seeing it and it’s so fun that Larry was able to share it with them. We also had a fun bowling date night with Ivan and Rosanna. Larry used all of his traditional high school “BH Bowlers” tricks, and still managed to beat me.
Time with the Lotriĉ‘s
The very first member of the church in Slovenija was a man named Albin Lotrič. Albin was baptized when he was studying as a university student in Norway. He brought the church back to his future wife, who was also baptized. These were the only two members in the entire country when Larry first came as a missionary. Back then, the only church materials in Slovene were a few hymns and the sacrament prayer, both of which were translated by Albin and printed from his home printer. Things have changed a bit in Slovenija now, as they finally have a version of the Book of Mormon in Slovene and have full facilities and materials in their native language. (When Larry was on his mission he had to try to convince people to read the Book of Mormon in Croatian).
We had planned to go on a hike with the Lotrič’s near where they live up by the Austrian border, but unfortunately the weather would not cooperate the week we were to go. Instead we were able to have dinner one Sunday afternoon and go on a mini hike on a mountain ridge near their home. Their son Benjamin brought his remote control airplane and we had a great time with the view (though the air was hazy) and looking at a nearby church. Albin told us a story of a car accident he was in at 18 years of age where a friend of his lost control on a bend and they rolled 200-250 vertical feet down the mountain where we were hiking. None of them were wearing seatbelts. Albin’s friends were thrown clear from the car at various points on the mountain but Albin was not, and stayed in the car until it finally came to rest against a tree. Albin eventually woke up and walked to a neighboring house for help. One of his friends, who was thrown from the car not far from the road, had also awoken and gone to another neighboring house for help. The third friend remained unconscious until the emergency personnel arrived to find him. All of them survived with minor injuries. Miraculous.
Time with Sara, Aleš, Vanessa, and Rebecca in Maribor
Larry has a good friend Sara who lives in Maribor, one of Slovenija’s other major cities, in the northeast part of Slovenija not far from the Austrian border. We were able to spend an afternoon with Sara when we were here in 2006. So one recent Saturday morning we headed north to Maribor to spend the day with Sara and her family. We only met her husband Aleš for about 5 minutes last time because he was working, and their youngest daughter, Rebecca, wasn’t born yet. We had a nice, long visit this time and had such a wonderful time. The girls were adorable and though shy at first, quickly became best buddies with Larry (Vanessa especially took a liking to him). We even managed to befriend their cat. We spent part of the time in their home eating, and eating, and eating, and part of the afternoon in the town of Maribor. While in Maribor we were also able to meet up with another woman Larry taught on his mission, Sonja, and her husband and little boy. Sara fed us far too much food and we stayed late into the evening and then left reluctantly for our drive back to Ljubljana (after being scolded by Sara for not planning to spend more time with them). Sara, we promise we will stop for longer next time!
Larry and I went out for a drive one afternoon to see a country church built by a famous Slovene architect, Joże Pleĉnik. It is one of the most unique churches I have seen. Set in the middle of farmlands, literally on marshes, it is called St. Michael in the Marshes. Because of the ground conditions, Pleĉnik built the church on approximately 350 eight meter piles. It’s a simple but beautiful building. We happened to show up at the church on the day they were holding a town festival, celebrating their farming heritage with demonstrations of period techniques, farm animals, and plenty of local pivo (beer), of course. What great fun!
After visiting the church we took off down the road to explore some of the smaller towns in the area. It was a Saturday afternoon and we didn’t have anywhere to be so we took our time. After wandering for a while Larry noticed that one of the directional signs pointing to nearby towns was named something unique. I’ll let the video do the explaining:
Yep. Hell. Apparently it’s a ridge where there are several beautiful waterfalls and because the ridge was so impassable back in the day, the people named it “Hell”. We were getting late in the day and running out of light, and I was in flip-flops, but we decided to hike up to the first couple of falls which were easily accessible, and see what they were about. Unfortunately not a lot of water is running through them this time of year, but they were still pretty. And now we can say that we’ve been to Hell and back.
One recent evening we hiked up to the Ljubljanski Grad (castle), standing over the city since the 15th century, to watch the sunset from the clock tower. Here are a few shots from the trip.
Every town and city in Europe has its central market. Despite the invention of supermarkets and hypermarkets, there is still an open-air morning market at least once a week in every small and large town and city throughout Europe. I think it’s a great tradition and am happy to see that it still exists. I hope it never goes away. The open market and the daily fresh bread from the bakery are two things that America’s missing, in my opinion. New York City and other cities in America have tried to start a green market culture – New York has Union Square and other markets – but they frankly don’t even hold a candle to the local markets here. And the markets don’t just sell food – they sell clothes, shoes, candles, baskets, trinkets, you name it. Almost anything you can think of.
Larry often told me stories of the “tea lady”, an older woman who ran a stall filled with bags of mystery herbs and flowers. You would simply go up to her, describe whatever was ailing you, and she’d fill a bag with several handfuls of different items, and then give you instructions on how to take it. Feel a cold coming on? Go to the tea lady. Can’t sleep? Go to the tea lady. Larry and I stopped at the tea lady stall one day and asked for something to help us sleep better (foolishly thinking that this would keep us from staying up all night working on the computer!). The tea lady’s husband, who was minding the store that day, quickly filled a bag with various leaves and flower buds, and then told us to steep it for 30 minutes and take it 1 to 2 hours before bedtime. In brewing the tea later, I could tell that it had chamomile among other things in it. I have to say that it was delicious, and I slept like a rock.
Mlekomat
One day as I was coming back from a hike up the castle hill I noticed a vending machine tucked into the corner of the market square. Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was a raw milk vending machine. I have seen these in other towns in Europe and think it’s brilliant. The farmers from the countryside surrounding the town fill up the milk machine with fresh, raw, unprocessed, unpasteruized, unskimmed milk. Straight from the cow. People can then come to the milk machine, any time of day or night, and fill either their own or a purchased container with fresh milk. Upon doing 5 minutes of internet research I quickly discovered that, like most things, milk is actually much more nutritious raw than the pasteurized/homogenized counterpart you can buy in the store. The processing takes out hundreds of beneficial bacterial that have been proven to help with everything from calcium metabolization to lactose digestion. (Many people who have a lactose intolerance can actually handle raw milk better). Larry and I quickly made a habit of getting our fresh milk from the Mlekomat and have loved it! Too bad you can’t find things like this in America.
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