How Slowing Down in Slovenia Revealed a New Rhythm of Travel and Purpose
The gift of slowing down is seeing what’s been waiting for you all along
When I touched down at Ljubljana’s airport on the morning of October 2, I officially recorded Slovenia as my 48th country visited. Even after logging so many miles and journeys, it still amazes me how travel invigorates, revitalizes and surprises without fail or disappointment. I’m already struck, in particular, by how taking a different approach to travel here has inspired a blissful unfamiliarity and fresh perspective on established routines, old habits and discovery through movement.
By design and very much with intent, I am running a different kind of play on this trip. Instead of jumping from hotel to hotel, juggling heavy luggage on train platforms and packing and re-packing, I’m spending three solid weeks – at the generosity of friends – in a cozy condo in a small village just outside of Lake Bled. I’m still seeing new places, tasting local flavors and moving about… but my rhythm feels totally new and novel. After seeing 47 countries one kind of way, I feel so incredibly grateful to be seeing this one just the way I am – slow and steady.
As I pause to watch the sun rise over the rooftops as the delicate, wispy fog that’s glazed the valley in front of me all morning dissipates, it occurs to me at no other point in my life, except for the one here and now, could or would I have ever wanted, or been able to travel in this exact way. Time, opportunity and means had to align just so where I would seek out, accept and most of all appreciate the experience that is now laid out in front of me. It feels like a tremendous gift and an unmistakable signal from the universe. One need only lay eyes upon the view out my balcony window to know no harm can be done by absorbing the beauty and grace of somewhere so epic and awe-inspiring.
I take comfort in the fact that I am right where I need to be as I need to be here. All the good and bad choices, the ill-fitting and right-sized circumstances and the misfortunes and blessings of everyday life set this trip in motion. I am here in October as the seasons change for a reason too. There is most assuredly a purpose behind this slow and steady and I mustn’t let its intention slip through my fingertips.
The backbone of my Tessera Blog’s 30th edition takes its shape under this lofty expectation. With it, comes the pressing moral obligation to convert my privilege and this raw, wild opportunity I’ve been given into something more meaningful and magnanimous. The more I travel the more I recognize it’s simply not enough to collect the gifts of travel for my own self-discovery and gain. Rather, I feel incessantly compelled to repackage travel’s gifts for others at a sweeping, accessible scale – a calling that intensifies and consumes me with every trip I take.
While I search for ways to connect where I am with where I’m going even in the context of a single, humble blog post, I can’t help but reflect on what I’m truly meant to share and leave behind. I’m not talking about vanity or legacy. I’m talking about acknowledging and paying off and forward a massive debt of gratitude for finally having the gall, gumption and gravitas to activate my life’s purpose.
Since arriving here nearly a week ago, I’ve taken walks around Lake Bled, day trips into Ljubljana and Radovlijica and spent a quiet rainy afternoon plotting out upcoming stays in Slovenia’s wine country and along its sliver of a coastline on the Adriatic Sea. I’ve tried local specialties like Bled Cream Cake, buckwheat dumplings, and mushroom soup. I’ve sipped on Slovenian red, white and orange wines, bought a small portrait by one of Slovenia’s most renowned contemporary artists Irena Polanec and fallen in love… with dark chocolate dusted with oregano and rosemary.
While I could go on forever about the chocolate, it is Irena Polanec in all seriousness who deserves the extra screen time. I discovered Irena Polanec’s work in Laura’s Gallery in Ljubljana’s Old Town. I took to the gallery’s owner almost immediately as she unobtrusively and selectively shared stories of the Slovenian artists on display in her boutique. At one point, Laura stopped in front of a collection of female portraits with delicate features and gold leaf detail against dark, bold and moody backdrops. Their faces were haunting yet at the same time self-assured and beautiful. Irena Polanec’s Eve series, Laura explained, was an exploration of every woman’s inner Eve – a celebration of their femininity and a call to women’s empowerment.
She had me at “every woman’s.” I had to have an Eve of my own, I thought.
Having now read more about Irena’s illustrious career as an influential female artist in Slovenia and France, I am even more inspired and proud to hang one of her pieces in my home. It was not always easy or comfortable being a female executive in the Sports industry. I am not at all surprised to find then, as I explore my own path that I’m drawn to the stories of strong, resilient female creators. These women have refused to be boxed in by stereotype, myth or ignorance.
They are artists like Irena Polanec and chefs like another Slovenian woman of influence who will become part of my experience here later this month, Ana Roš. Ana Roš is another reason I was so eager to bring home an Eve of my own. I thought it would be in perfect complement to my upcoming Three-Michelin-Star meal at her farm-to-table Hiša Franko where she is the highly decorated head chef. Once named the World’s Best Female Chef and just named the #2 Chef in the World by The Best Chef Awards, Roš is an industry trailblazer who brought Slovenia its first Michelin Star back in 2020. She’s a self-taught chef, a mother of two who speaks over five languages alongside her native tongue and a recognized Green Michelin Star champion of sustainability.
Uncovering, absorbing and most definitely sharing stories like Irena’s and Ana’s is a big way I metabolize creativity when I travel. Most importantly, stories like theirs soften my heart and sharpen my senses to detect the lesser known, but no less significant stories of everyday women courageously pursuing their purpose all around the world. As an ardent believer in the Rule of Three’s, it doesn’t surprise me that no sooner have I absorbed the impact of these two strong Slovenian women, have I encountered a third capstone influence whose story feels fortuitously like my own. It is yet another fateful moment here that feels like anything but chance.
I met Sanda, this young designer on a tour of Center Rog, a rehabbed rundown bicycle factory that had long been an eyesore on the river that cuts through Ljubljana’s Old Town. In 2023, Center Rog had been reborn as a vibrant creative hub. Today, it houses the most spectacular of incubator concepts brought to life through dozens of artist workshops and labs across a wide range of artistic craft from culinary, textiles and ceramics to metalworks, organics and gems.
I spent a lovely and inspiring afternoon touring its halls with one of their artists, jewelry designer and master goldsmith Peter Dragolic. At Center Rog, artists not only have access to equipment that turn their vision into reality like 3D printers, pottery kilns and high-end kitchens, they have access to other artists across mediums and disciplines who can mentor, elevate and inspire how hard and far they push themselves. It’s an extraordinary place to visit. Passing through on a random Wednesday afternoon in October, it was impossible not to absorb its generous creative spirit and energy.
Like me Sanda was once a marketer who had grown a bit disenchanted with the shortcomings and formulaic demands of the day-to-day (my words not hers). She took a leap of faith outside the safety net of a conventional corporate job to pursue a lifelong calling, jewelry design. As she told me about her journey, I hung on every word she said paying the most attention to how joyfully she said that she wakes up every morning to do something she truly loves.
For every Sanda out there who had the courage to go live her dream there is an Amanda just getting started. When we choose to activate instead of resist our purpose, we not only fulfill our own creative destiny and unlock potential we never knew burned inside us, we set the stage for the ones just behind and all around us to seize and unleash theirs too.
I now see an even greater responsibility for casting my own ripple of self-actualization out into the world. For the first time, I seem to finally grasp I am on a journey that simply cannot and should not be rushed but instead must be savored like the changing of the seasons carefully celebrated Eve by Eve – to the only rhythm that serves us best – slow and steady.
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