The following day, we did a day trip to Trebinje, Bosnia to visit an orthodox monastery. No matter what country we went to that was formally part of Yugoslavia, this trip was particularly special because it allowed the family to visit our Serbian roots. We visited the villages, houses, churches and a school and cemetery that our former generations call home. It was an emotional experience for all of us in different ways and it was truly a blessing to share this experience with everyone.

At the end of the week, it was time to say goodbye to Marko, Tomo, Danica, and Sasha. Such an amazing time had come to an end. Without our driver, we headed north to Croatia, Bosnia, Croatia again, and headed to Slovenia. We missed Marko and all the funny things he would say, so we found ourselves quoting and mimicking him the entire way. We filled our 7-hour drive playing games like Loaded Questions and used our IPODS to play trivia and 20 Questions against the computer-a freaky thing considering it guessed our item most of the time.

We made it to Lake Bled, Slovenia. What a perfect place to spend our last day of vacation,

at least for Ciara's October break and our road trip. It was magical. The small town surrounded a lake

about 3 miles around-everything about it was picturesque. Autumn was a perfect time to be there,

the weather was crisp and the leaves were bright hughes of red, and orange. We stayed in a very nice

hotel-thanks to Baba Lu for treating us. We got to spend this time relaxing from the hours we spent

in the car and before we headed back to Vienna. What a vacation this turned out to be, we could not

have asked for a more perfect time and are so blessed to have such an amazing family.