Frustrating

Finally the government measures have started to noticeably relax and we have been granted practically free movement within our country (judging from several foreign license plates we saw on the roads, we have started to let people into our country, but we are still unable to go to Croatia to visit some of our immediate family). Of course we took advantage of it…as did numerous other people.

It is understandable that many people had the same idea as we did, needily rushing to the lovely Slovenian nature, but most of those people have gotten the idea that it is life as usual – or at least life as before the pandemic. However much I try to be open about other people´s idea of safe distance ( 1,5 meters is still mandatory) I nevertheless got very aggravated these past few days. Wherever we went, we tried to respect the strict rules about the safe distance between people, but there is just so much space on walkways where I can back away to. And no matter how much my family and I moved away from other people going past us, everybody seemed to take this as a sign to spread further across the path. I wouldn´t mind if this was a rare occasion. Unfortunately it seems that people have accepted that the danger is over and staying at a safe distance does not make sense anymore. Walking on the edge of a path while other people walk three to four people shoulder to shoulder across the path, smiling at us, completely oblivious to the hints that they should in turn also make some space for the safe distance, made me furious. Being mad at other people´s folly while I should be enjoying the outsides is just frustrating.

Meanwhile experts are already warning of signs of a second outbreak. Still it is almost impossible that any subsequent outbreaks will get the attention as the first one. Due to the low spread of the virus and consequent casualties in Slovenia, I am certain (gathering from the comment on social media) that a large portion of the people will not take the future warnings seriously anymore. Also the demeanor of people we came across in our few previous outings basically confirms this suspicion.

Still, despite my aggravation over the long lines of cars winding towards the “untouched” nature, or people disregarding the safety distance, we had a wonderful time. The walk along the banks of the Sava river near Ljubljana gave us the necessary cooldown. The walk to the Little Mount (Mala Planina) was almost magical and we did manage to steal some solitary moments on the out of the way hill, marveling at the Slovenian natural beauty – well, at least until we spotted a litter thrown recklessly by someone else who had gone that way. The walk with my mum on the Polževo plateau offered some nice pictures and quality time (oh, how we Europeans hate this American expression – well at least I think it is American) with our family.

The impressions of our walk along the Sava river:

The wonderful Little Mount:

The couple amazing small things from Polževo:

Another frustrating thing is the fact (now official) that our kids will not be going back to school this year. That means for us an almost unattainable goal of managing jobs and their home schooling. The really frustrating part about this situation is that none of the officials that need to answer these questions, no matter of their difficulty, are not addressing this matter. It seems we are left to our own devices. So, we will use every means available to make this work. Hoping for the best.