Usually, we can’t appreciate things that are right in front of our face. We yearn for far away places instead, make bucket lists of things to see and do that involve spending numerous hours in cramped planes while the true paradise lies almost in our backyard.
Recently, our Triglav National Park has made it to the list of the 10 top national parks in Europe by the Guardian Magazine. Roughly at the same time I read an interesting view on the park by an old friend. In a couple of sentences he summed up the key points why this part of Slovenia is so special: it’s easily accessible, geologically and geographically extremely diverse and boasts a unique combination of unspoilt natural and man-made landscapes.
All this made me think: We need one hour by car from our home to the edge of the park and I can’t remember the last time we were there. All the while people from around the world travel to Slovenia to marvel at the beauty of this tiny stretch of earth. Could we be any more ignorant?
So today I decided to make things right. It was an out of the spur decision which says a lot about how easy it really is to visit the park. You don’t need much planning, you can just pick a starting point and begin walking. We chose the Krma valley, for no particular reason. I remember seeing some photos on Facebook and I thought it would be a nice place to visit. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I’ve never been to this charming glacial valley before. And I couldn’t help thinking how we could travel all the way to Patagonia before we discovered this gem right on our doorstep. But today I made a solemn commitment which I will write down here to show you how serious I am about it: We will devote this summer to exploring the places we take for granted.
TravelSehnsucht 