Today was supposed to be all about a milk bar.

We had decided to walk almost two hours from the centre of Kraków just to have lunch in one of the old communist-era milk bars. Most people would probably have taken a tram. We walked instead.

Somewhere along the way, completely by accident, we noticed a strange building on the horizon. It didn’t look like anything else around it. We kept walking, got a little closer, changed direction, and before we knew it, we were standing in front of one of the most fascinating buildings I’d seen during the entire trip.

It was Arka Pana.

Until that moment, I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know why it had been built, what it represented, or why it looked so different from every other church I’d ever seen. Later, I discovered the incredible story behind it: how, during communist Poland, the people of Nowa Huta fought for years for the right to build a church, and how that building became much more than a place of worship. It became a symbol of resistance, identity and hope.

The funny thing is that none of this was part of the plan.

If we had taken the quickest route, or decided to eat somewhere closer, or simply followed the itinerary we’d imagined that morning, we would never have found it.

The older I get, the more I realise that this isn’t just how I travel. It’s how I live.

I’ve never been very interested in squeezing as many attractions as possible into a day. I’ve always preferred leaving room for curiosity. Taking the longer road. Turning a corner simply because something catches my attention. Following a feeling instead of a schedule.

I’ve started to think that curiosity is a form of trust. Trust that not every meaningful experience needs to be planned. Trust that sometimes the most memorable moments are waiting somewhere you never intended to go.

Looking back, some of the places I remember most vividly weren’t destinations at all. They were detours.

And maybe that’s why I still choose to wander.

Because curiosity has taken me to places that planning never could.