Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Travel with me today

Yesterday I read a book about Russian prisoners of war who had been building a road over a Vršič pass in the northwestern part of Slovenia during the I. World War. I lived in a town below this pass for some time during 1996 and in the years 2002-2004. Let's travel to Kranjska Gora now:
46°28'36.84" N
13°47'02.75" E
Elevation: 848 m
Called Borovška vas in the old days, this little town is surrounded by mountains; there is always fresh air and during the winter when Ljubljana has fog every day, this place bathes in sun. I miss it, a lot. I had a cat there and her name was Kiki. A beautiful one. I had to leave her there in a care of my neighbors. The last time I saw her was in 2006 when she had 5 beautiful kittens. She came to me like in the old days. She jumped onto my lap when I called her. I miss her a lot.In 2003 I was riding a bike quite a lot. Out of sadness. I felt much better being on a bike. I rode up to that pass I mentioned at the beginning of this post very often as it was the closest. Especially during the week it was a nice ride as there were no tourists going up by car. Surrounded by mountains, meadows, larches, alpine flowers, I enjoyed each moment immensely. It is a 12km ride, 800m difference in height. At the beginning it took me 105 minutes to get to the top, on a race in September, I needed 68 minutes to the end line. Only 3 minutes slower than my dad (who trains a lot, I tell you!) I had been ill a week before and therefore I was going a bit slower than I would have probably gone. I am so proud of finishing this race. I will never be that good again, I am almost sure. I was 10kg lighter then! Today I know that the road to that pass is paved with the remains of Russian prisoners of war.

I hope that I will be able to live in Kranjska Gora again, at least when I am retired. Who knows!

2 comments:

Victoria said...

It looks amazing and the riding - I'm soooo impressed. I have nothing in my past like that, or present, my greatest physical achievement (apart from giving birth to two girls and I had no choice in that end result) was a 6km fun run in London! I would love to ride that ride with you!

paperseed said...

What a lovely and scenic photo. It reminds me of when I worked in Yosemite National Park almost 10 years ago. I learned to be a snowboard instructor there. I look back and I'm amazed at how much faster and less fearful I was back then. Thanks for sharing and bringing back good memories.