[Blog #55] Ljubljana | Photography | Why do we travel?
Hooray Readers! I'd like to share some thoughts and photos altogether, plus leave a question...
Suuup, guys! As far as updates go, on the insane trip I don't have much to add, apart that my life has been following the same pattern millions of people follow on a daily basis. Funny isn't it? How everyday more and more people feel bored on their working routines and wish they could simply quit everything, dress a backpack and throw themselves into this world of ours. That's exactly what I did, and here I am... working like a horse, way more than when I was at home.
That said, is travelling the solution for all the problems?
I'd say no... unfortunatelly. But I'll have to explain myself further on, because this question actually is so vast and in-depth that I'm still looking for the answear. So, while we develop the thoughts, I'll introduce you to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia - the place where my mindset started to change. Enjoy!!
Wandering Along the River
By the time I reached Ljubljana I had been crossing Europe for more than a month; a long, cold, windy, rainy, fun and above all quiet month. I'm pretty confident to be around with nothing but myself enjoying any dumb idea that may cross my mind, such as choosing the worst short cuts ever in history of wandering.
However, at some point I found myself camping less and going to hostels more.. where's that guy who used to sleep on the streets in Patagonia? Where's that guy who used to travel with barely no money?
Walking by this very canal I started to realise that my bicycle trip had became something automatic and without a real purpose; long days cycling and crossing empty villages, no locals to greet and stop for a quick chat. The whole idea of being free to camp while enjoying nature was not being fulfilled as in my previous trips and I've started to realise that taking pictures turned into an obligation, just to have content to keep the blog going. The texts turned into boring descriptions of places I had passed through and the long, detailed and full of dialogues story tellings disappeared from the blog. Language barrier may have been the reason for not interacting with locals, but also for the most part they were just not interested at all in a conversation. And thus, I've started to feel bored.
The Lack of Connection
Even though happy to be doing such a journey on my own, I couldn't feel a connection to any of those marvelous cities; we cannot deny their importance to history, but most of them had just became touristic magnets. Thousands of tourists packed fighting for a spot to take their selfie for the social medias on a perfectly restored castle. Most of them blindly walking around without paying real attention and trying to understand how life would've been back in medievel days. Around, many stalls selling all sorts of trinkets ranging from t-shirts to souveniers so everyone could take something back home to show others where they have gone. I don't blame them, each one with one's travel style, but I didn't want to be in the middle of that.
Nostalgia
My expectations of meeting locals along the journey were far from reality, let alone receiving permission to camp on their garden. Sleeping on the streets for the most part was out of question after many warnings of bike thiefs peeking around in search of an easy pray.
I missed the long days of light camping in the middle of nowhere near a river, without any preocupations but what to eat on that day. I missed leaving all my stuff unattended knowing that absolutely nothing would happen to them. I missed making friends on a camping site and a few hours later treat them and share food with them as if we knew each other for many years.
Now I had to keep on going and crossing all this history cities that I wasn't really enjoying anymore, thinking about nature and the peacefulness of a clean river flowing right in front of my tent's door. Money was ending fast, preocupations were raising and the chances of finding a quick job were almost zero. I was becoming just a normal tourist.
I've started to question myself: Why am I doing this? What is the purpose of travelling? Why do we travel?
For now I'll leave you with those questions as I, more than 3.000 km later, can't really answear them.
The content will continue with more thoughts and photography sharing, eventually I'll find nature again further on, but for that you'll have to keep in touch.
Why do you travel? Would you visit Slovenia?
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~Love ya all,
Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broke backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
I'm Arthur. I blog about Adventure Stories, Brazil, Travel, Camping & Life Experiences.
Follow me to stay tuned for more craziness and tips.
You may also want to read:
[vlog #35] Cycling on the Alps | Slovenia | Logaska Dolina
[vlog #33] Bike Vlog on the Road | Slovenia | Maribor to Dravograd
[Blog #53] Where the hell am I going? | Slovenia | Photography
[vlog #32] Bike Vlogging in Maribor | Trail | Exploring
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all legitimate questions. my thought is that you missed the part of the year. camping and cycling through middle of nowhere in winter like opportunity to meet new people 😁
language barrier could also be a problem, in our parts in the middle of nowhere population that lives there is mostly older and not knowing of other languages.
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That can be true, winter is indeed unusual for traveling. However, most of the people I crossed by seemed to be intimidated by me a nd my bike, to a point I stopped waving at people, because they were not waving back =/
Summer is comming, let's see where I'll go.
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Hey @mrprofessor I just spot you on steemit worldmap. I'm Slovenian. Seeing that you miss to connect with people. See, I like to use couchsurfing for that reason. When I go cycling abroad, I organize my trip a week ahead with locals. Try that.
And still, Slovenia was one of the most welcoming countries on the journey. I'll go back there to cross the Alps, because I couldn't do it due to the harsh weather on top (I tried though)
Problem on my trips is that generally I don't plan, I have a general idea and then I just find routes and keep on going, but I change it quite a lot.
Deep thoughts, I find that travelling is not the same since I began to write for Steemit. Instead of enjoying the surroundings I am capturing and thinking about the content. So, instead, I am enjoying the photography meetups. Finding a different purpose to Steemit.
That's what I passed through, I was taking pictures that I didn't really care much, such as touristic attractions. In fact, the whole thing became 'mechanized', to a point I stopped ans said "hold on a sec, why am I doing all of this?"
I don't know what my problem is, I don't really care much about visiting touristic attractions, I just like to be in movement, camping, etc as long as I'm moving I'm ok.