 Monday, June 27th 2016 – on our second day of 20 Days Through the Balkans European trip, I said YES at one of the most romantic places – Lake Bled, Slovenia. What started as a rare gloomy and rainy day of our trip turned into one of the most exciting and memorable ones. After having breakfast at Le Petit Café, we headed for the bus station. Roughly an hour later we arrived at a small town Bled known for its dreamy and picturesque symbol of Slovenia’s beauty, Lake Bled. The lake surrounds a fairy-tale Bled Island, which contains the striking pilgrimage church, which can only be reached by a traditional wooden boat known as “pletna”. Once you reach the island, there is a Baroque style stairway with 99 stone steps leading up to the church. Numerous weddings are held there and after watching one of Rick Steve’s episodes, I learned that it is tradition for the groom to carry his bride up the steps before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church. I secretly wished to be married there one day, but little did I know that that’s where we would get engaged. The rest of the lake is framed by panoramic snow-capped Julian Alps and a cliff-hanging medieval castle a top of one of the surrounding peaks. The whole time we were there, we could hear the bell ringing in the distance.      Bled Castle    Bled Castle - the oldest castle in Slovenia  Tito's Vila Bled  We walked around the lazy lakeside promenade until there was a break in the rain and stopped at a dock to take some photos with our tripod with the island and church in the background. Jason secretly changed the setting to video before getting down on one knee and proposing. I don’t quite remember what followed next after I extended the wrong hand except for my ugly crying from extreme happiness. There was a nearby restaurant where we grabbed a celebratory drink while I ugly cried some more before continuing on our journey around the lake.    |
