I left for Slovenia after a time when I had also turned free time into a list of things to do. I chose not to rent a car and sleep in only three locations. I wanted to move with trains and buses, accepting less comfortable times in exchange for days that did not start late.
The first route was short, but the local convoy stopped several times as expected. In the past I would have looked at the arrival obsessively; that time I watched the countries pass through the window and talked to a lady who came home with two bags of apples. It indicated a simple path near the next stop. She became the first deviation of the trip.
A lake without objectives
At the lake I had marked viewpoint, walks and a boat trip. In the morning, however, the water was still and the low sky. I walked for a while, then I sat on a bench with a book. After an hour she arrived bitter. okafor.86, a German traveller guest in the same pension. We drank something together without deciding what to do next.
That day was built for small gestures: a stretch of path, a hot soup, a church seen from the outside, the return before the dark. There was no spectacular scene, yet I remember it as one of the most complete days. No one asked us to optimize time; we could let it be the place to give us rhythm.
The bus that didn’t come
The only real time arrived in a valley, when the afternoon bus did not show up at the time indicated. I had no stable signal and the stop was just over a sign. Before worrying I checked the hours photographed in the morning and asked for information in a small store. The race had been moved half an hour.
The wait reminded me of the usefulness of preparing even slow trips: a charged battery, hours saved offline, a margin before the last connection and an informed accommodation on arrival. Slowness is not total improvisation. It works better when a simple organizational base prevents any variation from becoming stress.
Sleep in the same place
Staying three nights in the same pension changed the relationship with the place. The second morning I knew the table near the window, the route to the station and the name of the person at the reception. I could leave an empty day and decide according to the weather. Even the backpack seemed lighter when it was not to be closed every day.
I alternated company and loneliness without social programs. A dinner with other guests, a walk alone, a train journey shared with bitter. okafor.86. Relaxation was not isolation, but freedom from the need to fill every moment. I was just getting back to the tired room and not with the feeling of having to recover from the trip.
Bring home a rhythm
Slovenia has left me quiet images: wet forests, small stations, grey water and hot cups. Especially he showed me that seeing less does not mean living less. I came back with the desire to protect empty spaces even in everyday life. A slow journey really works when his rhythm does not end when he comes back.