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Hi from Italy!
In reality, the soft sands of Puglia‘s Gargano Peninsula are roughly 150 kilometers away from the rugged Dalmatian coast, where I actually reside at the moment.
However, in recent conversations with some hotel guests, I’ve discovered that the human ability to provide rough estimates on geographic matters is often overrated.
“Is that Italy?”, the two unconnected visitors recently asked me while pointing at Hvar Island, some 6 kilometers away from the Igrane shores.
To see Italy on the horizon, one would have to jump over Hvar, Pelješac, Korčula, Lastovo, and the entire Adriatic Sea.
Yet, the curious guests were seriously thinking they were greeting Italy, so close that you could almost touch it. That is, if you had really, really long hands.
We know more than one joke about tourists trying to reach the Italian boot from Croatia on a SUP instead of a ferry. Travelers’ ability to feel the distance is highly overestimated.
On the other hand, there are people who think of international travel as something incredibly far and inaccessible.
If I hop over to Switzerland from Croatia, my mother, for instance, could ask me, “Which time zone are you in?”
For her, leaving for Asia is like heading to the Moon. I cease to be a backpacker and instantly become an astronaut. Everything sounds so far and grand, an entire world away.
I feel that many people who can afford to travel to foreign countries and yet postpone chasing those dreams are trapped in a mindset that overestimates the adventure as expensive and unattainable. Do you have that brake in yourself?
The world is more connected than ever, and if we exclude primitive wars tearing societies apart, we hardly live in the era of Magellan, when traveling the world was a privilege of a few, blessed by investors.
“Destinations in the mirror are closer than they appear”, if I may rephrase the famous safety warning. Widen your field of view, and you might be able to both identify and reduce your blind spots while traveling.
Have a curious week,
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
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