My mom, brother, and I took a bus through the spring kissed alps from Trieste, Italy to Bled, Slovenia. Bled was a little town nestled into the mountains built around its crowning feature - the lake. Our airbnb looked out over snow covered peaks with a skylight perfectly placed for laying in bed and looking at the moon and only cost $80 for the weekend. We arrived in the evening, just in time to watch the sun set over the magical island in the middle of the lake. We had dinner at a rustic restaurant with a castle view, trying the most Slovenian recipes on the menu, and then called it a night. 

We meant to wake up the next morning to catch the sunrise light, but when the alarms rang in the pitch dark, freezing cold night we decided to sleep in a bit more. We started our adventure a sensible amount of hours later, once we were sufficiently rested and caffeinated. Even though the trail around the lake is 3.8 miles, we decided to make a day of the journey. 

We started on the trail to the right, toward the magical Bled Castle that rested on the cliffs above. The trail was a paved path through the forest, shouldering the lake the entire way and giving the opportunity for three-hundred-and-sixty-degree views of the Church of the Assumption in the middle. It’s important to note that tickets to a Nick Offerman stand up show back in Knoxville went on sale that morning, and I was constantly checking the clock until the 6 hour time difference caught up and the box office opened. Yes I bought them literally as soon as I could.

A little further down the path, I got an email about a time-sensitive work situation that I had to solve. Being a remote worker has its pro’s and con’s… con: my serene walk around the lake could be interrupted by a work emergency at any time, pro: a park bench next to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world became my office for the day. I was able to take care of everything from my phone (thank you technology) and carry on with our venture around the lake. 

We made our way around, stopping every once in a while to capture every angle of that little island, and every new angle was even more beautiful than the last. Because we were taking our sweet time, we got to experience the majesty in every phase of light (well, except sunrise of course). When we finally made it back to our starting point we were exhausted, but in the most pleasant way. We finished off our day with some Slovenian pizza (it’s a lot like any other pizza) and headed back to our airbnb under the light of a full moon. 

The next morning we packed up, said goodbye to our airbnb, and made a little journey across town toward the place we would catch our next bus. We stopped and bought some souvenirs and made it in time to spend a few minutes by the lake before we left. We didn’t know what to expect before we came to Bled, but it was a little pocket of serenity on a trip that had already experienced major ups and downs and that was far from over. A moment to stop and catch our breath. A quiet place in a noisy world.