After Thailand, Kelly and I slowed down and spent a lovely two and a half weeks in Ljubljana, Slovenia. One of the best things about Ljubljana is just how comfortable and easy it is to live there. During our stay, we visited our friend Anastasiia and got to meet her husband, Chong, and their daughter, Alice. They welcomed us to their home in lg, a small town just outside the city. It was a pleasure catching up with Anastasiia, walking around her neighborhood, admiring her garden, and simply spending time together.

We put the camera away for almost all of our time in Slovenia. But we did make sure to capture one last photo on the morning we left. Here we are enjoying lattes before a delicious breakfast at Le Petit Café.

Next, we headed to Vilnius, Lithuania, where we’ve been living for the past two weeks. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know the city. Our visit overlapped with the summer solstice, and since Lithuania sits pretty far north, the days have been incredibly long. The sun rises at 4:40 AM and sets after 10 PM.

Here are some shots of us hiking through Bernardine Park and wandering around the city.

To our surprise, it’s been easier to eat here than in Slovenia. In addition to having a larger Airbnb kitchen, nearly every restaurant we’ve visited has had vegetarian options. Europe in general seems to embrace workday lunch specials more than the U.S.; we’ve found more than four places in Vilnius with weekday lunch deals, each offering a daily vegetarian choice. We saw this some in Ljubljana too.

One place we’ve especially enjoyed is RoseHip Vegan Bistro. It’s honestly the best vegan restaurant I’ve eaten at, anywhere. We’re going back for our final dinner tonight. Here are some shots:

Another “best ever” experience was the cat cafe here, simply called Cat Café (or Kačių Kavinė). We haven’t visited many of these, but this one stood out. It had a booklet introducing all the cats, lots of space for them to roam, thoughtful safety rules (like bagging your shoes at the entrance), and, most importantly, a crew of cats that seemed genuinely happy, both with the humans and the other cats.

We’ve also done a bit more sightseeing here than we did in Slovenia. Between work hours, we’ve ducked into a few cathedrals, browsed markets, wandered through museums, and even checked out the National Library of Lithuania.