Travel magic

by Nina Lucija Eschebach (Croatia)

I didn't expect to find Croatia

There is a common belief amongst a huge range of people that you need to travel far away to some exotic and remote locations, like holy and mystic Japanese shrines or Amazonian jungles to drink some magical potions, in order to experience the famous „travel magic“: the unexpected broadening of horizons, the beautiful lightness of being filled with positivity that inspires you to discover, be curious about the world and yourself and most of all to apply your new experiences to enhance your life quality. We are all looking for that magic, mostly spending a huge amount of money we don`t have and in the end our big expectations fall into disappointments: „ How on Earth am I not feeling enlightened after that expensive Ayahuasca drink? Why do I still feel anxious even though I`m meditating in this ashram for a week by now?“ The solution to this urge for travel magic, that will lift us out of our ordinary,daily lives and that will ultimately inspire us to do and feel better is in fact in front of our noses. We often oversee things that are directly in our grasp, only because we think that our neighborhood cannot surprise us the way some remote destination could. But I need to dissapoint you with that: our neighborhood is exactly the place to travel to. Just ask yourself: Have you discovered each and every tiny party of your country? Did you visit all the National parks there are, have you discovered all the corners of your own city, do you know the smell of the trees in your nearby park? If the question is negative, I would like you to re-evaluate you travelling beliefs. Before you travel far, travel close. For instance, if you love the nature, go to the mountains. Since I enrolled myself in the local mountain association, my life truly blossomed. Most of all I could live my passion fully: travel almost every weekend to some nearby hiking destination. Always on the road but never too far from home. Sounds almost ideal, doesn`t it? You share your experience with dear people, empty your head while breathing in the beautiful odours of flowers and grass, all your sensations are refined, everything seems more alive, more colorful. You breathe in all those enhanced fragrances that are gently caressing your skin like a summer breeze, you touch the rough rock that is standing there fiercly for a long long time and it will still be there after you`re gone, you savour the juicy wild berries in the moment you`re especially thirsty, and it`s the best feeling in the world, no drink could compare to that. Imagine waking up in a cozy wodden mountain hut, covered with a warm blanket, next to a crackling fire place. The first thing you see in the morning is snow all over the place, you hear the serene concert of all sorts of birds wishing you a beautiful start of the day, your lungs inflate with the unexpected, crisp and unpolluted air, and you basically just feel happy and grateful for being alive and living on this beautiful planet. Very often it`s possible to combine nature with tourism, so we get so see for example some amazing nearby towns e.g. in Slovenia in the amazing Soča Valley. We were camping right next to the river, we woke each and every morning up with the amazing and potent flow of water. After washing our faces in the stream and drinking a warm coffee, we hopped in the car again and went to the Julian Alps that where super close. We hiked surrounded with breathtaking views, we tried local cuisine in the nearby towns like Bovec and Kranjska Gora. So how to arrive to this very special microcosmos? Sounds like I made it all up. But I need to disappoint you again on this: the mountain is only one hour away from my home. Paradise is in our grasp. We only need to become aware of that. It`s very easy. As H.D.Thoreau would say: „Simplify, simplify“. You don`t need to travel far to feel the travel magic.