IVF Czech

April 9 and 10th

  Well here we go again!  Please check out my other blog at www.abroadivf.blogspot.com to find out more about our last round of IVF and two FET in Istanbul.  The blog will give you our background and all of our experiences so far with IVF in Turkey. This post will be a little longer but I will try to keep the others as short and sweet as possible. 

 We decided to go the Czech Republic for this round of IVF because we needed a fresh start.  Most likely this will be our last chance and well we might as well make it a heck of a trip.  This IVF cycle we decided to go to the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Zlin.  We again were directed to this clinic by Mark Semple at IVF Vacations who I believe is only assisting with surrogacy trips now. 

  This trip worked out to where we could spend a couple days outside of the Czech Republic before we have our first appointment on Monday April 14.  Since we knew we wanted to take day trips my husband John looked into renting a car for the month.  He is a wiz at finding good deals and ending up scoring a car for less than $600 (for almost a month) which included the border crossing fee to travel to other countries.  We even ended up getting upgraded from a 2 door Fiat 500 to a 4 door VW Polo.  Score! 

  We flew into Vienna on April 9^th in the morning and were out at the car rental in less than 15 minutes!  Most of those fifteen minutes were spent walking because the car rental is outside of the airport.  Customs took no time at all and all of our luggage was right there on the turn style as we walked up.  We grabbed it and were out the door ready to start this adventure.  We are very impressed with the Vienna airport!

  Our first destination was Lake Bled, Slovenia.  From Vienna to Bled is a four hour trip and unfortunately John is the only one that can drive a manual transmission.  Luckily he thinks of everything and purchased European maps for our Garmin GPS system, because I was a terrible companion and couldn’t stay awake.  The flight kicked my butt and I snored from Vienna almost to Slovenia.  I tried desperately to stay awake but my wonderful husband finally said its OK go to sleep.  I felt awful!  

  When we arrived at our Hotel Ribno in Bled we were so pleased. John is so good at picking out great places and getting awesome deals.  The hotel was very nice and set up on a hill surrounded by woods.  We had a beautiful view of the snow capped Julian Alps from our room and you could hear the rush of water from a nearby river.  As seasoned travelers we knew that since it was only 4pm we couldn’t just go take a nap when we got in the room otherwise we wouldn’t acclimate to the time change.  Instead we decided to take a hike down the trails behind hotel and find the source of the rushing water.  The hike was brutal but awesome!  The trail was very steep but led us to a park area with more trails and the river.  It was a great start to a long journey and even though we were going on very little sleep after an eight hour flight and four hour drive it was worth it.  

 

The view from our room in  Bled, Slovenia. Those are the Julian Alps. 

On our hike behind our Penzion (hotel).

At the bottom of the trail in a park.

  That evening we went to dinner at a nice restaurant by the lake that my parents recommended and went and had a piece of Slovenian Crème Cake afterwards at Sloscicarna Smon. 

Famous Slovenian Creme Cake at Slasicarna Smon

  The next day we visited the lake and took a boat to the island in the middle.  On the island is the Church of the Assumption and it is said to bring good luck if you pull the rope to ring the bell and make a wish.  You can probably guess what our wish was! 

Lake Bled Island and the Church of the Assumption

There is a castle at the top of the hill on Lake Bled in Slovenia. 

  After visiting Lake Bled we decided to go to Vintgar Gorge which is just a few minutes outside of town.  The gorge has rushing water and a walkway that you can wind around on, but unfortunately it was closed for repairs.  We went back there anyway, but could only go so far as men were working on the walkways and there were big gaps and no railings in some places.  It was beautiful nonetheless.  

 

Leaving Vintgar Gorge near Lake Bled Slovenia.  Can you see the sea blue water at the bottom? 

I absolutely loved Slovenia.  I enjoyed driving through the countryside and visiting Lake Bled, and I wish we had more time there to see other places.  I would definitely recommend it.   

Our internet service has not been the greatest so it has made it hard to keep up on my blog, and for that I apologize. 

More on our journey to come

Next up...Rovinj, Croatia

Kelly and John