Larry lived in Slovenia for two years in the early ’90’s while serving a mission for our church. He spent most of that time in its capital city, Ljubljana. When we got married, we planned for part of our honeymoon to be in Slovenija. It was Larry’s first return since he lived there on his mission 15 years earlier. When Larry first arrived in Ljubljana in 1991, it was just after the 10-day war that split Slovenija from the former Yugoslavia had ended. Soldiers armed with automatic rifles were frequently standing guard, especially around government buildings, and they often stopped these out of place young Americans to check their ID. The country was just finding its way out of commuist rule. When we went back on our honeymoon, it was obvious that they had embraced capitalism – everything from L’Occitane shops to UGG stores to trendy little clothing boutiques. Ljubljana had become (and is) a vibrant, beautiful, small city to visit.

This return trip (we will be staying in Ljubljana for a month) affords Larry and I the opportunity to really spend some time in the city, with friends, and exploring Slovenija. We got an apartment on a beautiful street in old town, just below the castle which has been standing watch over Ljbuljana for several hundred years. We arrived late on a Saturday night after a grueling 10+ hour drive from Prague. It should have only been a 7.5 hour drive but we were driving through a tremendous downpour the entire way, and it was exhausting.

Our first Sunday morning we went to church services in the newly built LDS chapel just outside of the city center. The new building has been built since we were last here two years ago and it is gorgeous! Up until now the church members have had to meet in rented buildings or rooms. It’s gratifying (especially for Larry) to see them have their own nice, big, new building. Because Larry was here for such a long time, he has several dear friends here, and they were all happy to see him when we arrived. Word spread quickly that “one of the first missionaries in Slovenija” was in the building and Larry quickly got pinned down by the branch presidency to speak for a few minutes during the meeting. He didn’t look entirely thrilled with the prospect but of course he accepted and did a great job speaking a little bit about what the church was like when he arrived (they had one rented room from the government, only two members of the church in the entire country, and about eight missionaries).

Larry and I have had a great time wandering around old town, shopping, going to the market, walking up to the castle, and marveling at the changes. Unfortunately we discovered that Larry’s favorite pizza place, Pizzeria Napoli, is now an Irish pub. Luckily we quickly found a replacement, Foculus, just around the corner from our apartment. And we made the greatest discovery ever – a massive mall, with a massive movie theater. In a tribute to capitalism taking root in Slovenia, developers have taken an old industrial complex and turned it into a massive series of shops and restaurants. They even painted funny bright designs on the old ugly smokestack. My favorite part: Movies! In English! Since Slovenia is such a small country (about the size of New Jersey), most movies (except the ones for kids) are simply subtitled rather than dubbed. It’s worked great except when we tried to see one movie which had a lot of dialogue in French and German. We had German dialogue with Slovenian subtitles and Larry trying to whisper translations into my ear. That one didn’t work so well. Other than that, we’ve had a great time catching up on a few American movies and we even found a DSW-like shoe emporium in the mall. I mean, what else does a girl need? All is well in the world.

Old Town Ljubljana is in the midst of some major renovation projects, including doing some infrastructure work which has required them to dig up many of the little cobblestone streets. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve been working through this project, and how quickly the road is put back together and the cobblestones are re-laid (by hand). In addition, they’ve been installing or refreshing new fountains in the squares, widening and re-laying the main pedestrian path along the Ljubljanica River, renovating many of the old town buildings, renovating and building an addition to the main opera house, and renovating one of the main downtown parks. Phew! It’s quite a work in progress. I can’t wait to see what it all looks like next time we come to visit!