The Alps: The right home for the human spirit
The human spirit is way too often locked in the cages of contemporary life. We need to give it wings to fly and manifest its nature, to find this sense of fulfillment, which makes life feel well lived. We need to create more memories, we need more peaks in our days. The mountains have this magical power to provide space for all this to happen. While my time in the Alps was very limited and short, it felt like an expanded bubble in time, a bubble of happiness and fulfillment.
Mountains have been there for millions of years, seen all changes in the world around them, carrying the energy of endless time, and at the same time breathing timelessness. They make me feel small, but not in a diminishing way; small, in a way to help me find meaning in acceptance; acceptance, in the background of something vast, infinite and uncontrollable; the acceptance, that there is so much around us that we cannot control, that our greatest power is to look inside ourselves and find our own truth there; our truth, which will lead us to live a life in harmony - with ourselves and with the surrounding world. Mountains are the right home for human spirit - making you feel small, and at the same time big and powerful.
Before ascending, it is always a good time to tune in with some reggae on the beach
Our road trip with my girlfriends in Northern Italy starts from a little camping site by the beach - Ca'savio. The camping already promises a great experience. The three of us (Lyublena, whose birthday we are celebrating, Dimi and I) quickly tune in to each other, to the holiday mood and to the laid-back services in Italy, where things happen in an unexpected way, but eventually somehow always happen.
We spend long and precious time strolling around the forest camping site and just chilling on the beach. Under the sounds of the sea, the seagulls and some Bob Marley, we drawn in oblivion. It's too good to be true, the sunset is too beautiful to leave behind, but we head to our next stop.
The story of the Jujuana song will remain known only to us. This creepy psycho song will wake us up hyped and ready to rock every single following morning :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8d92-CFY1g
50 shades of turquoise Alpine lakes, boat emotions ...and gelato
Our mission is to conquer as many astonishingly turquoise lakes as possible, and we most certainly accomplish it. The way from the sea towards the mountain is already captivating. I try to grasp the whole scenery while driving but everywhere we look, there're magnificent green forests, hills, mountains, flowers, old churches, cute huts and gigantic statues of gelato along the road. We do give up to the latter; and we feast on the best gelato, in the most random village (Valle di Cadore), with the most spectacular view...randomness is delicious.
Lago di Dobbiaco & (apparently the very famous) Lago di Braies stay with me. They offer all possible nuances of the turquoise color and change mysteriously with the light from all sides. We can't get enough of these views and we have already gotten so immersed in the time away, that we have lost any idea of what else exists outside our trip. I guess that's what it means to live in the presence.
The story of what happened on our boat in Lago di Braies in front of the eyes of the surrounding hikers will also remain to ourselves, but I do hope to get more of those soon enough :)
Alpine peaks, marmots, deers... and some athletic mountain bikers
The peak of our trip is the hike towards the peaks of Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The landscapes start with thick green forests with unseen flowers, and slowly move through snowy hills with bright white mountain springs, to reach those rocky peaks uncovering breathtaking views towards endless Alpine massifs. The hike is opening all our senses and we are gaining immense energy. We are so hyped that we can't stop laughing, literally getting high on an overdose of happiness.
We want to seal this happy and precious moment and this constant state of amazement. The perfect state to make us boost with excitement at the glance of a marmot jumping in the snow. The perfect state to make us lose our breaths at the magical view of a whole flock of deers in the dark. The perfect state to make us feel truly alive.
Finally, I will not go into details with the story of how we saved the super athletic mountain biker, who was in trouble on the road after biking over 100 kilometers (but boy, these guys are something else).
Bottom line - stay hungry, stay foolish, go to the mountains.
