Goodbye to All This

After breakfast this morning I went for one final run downtown to the River Drava. It’s a quiet, beautiful run, hardly a soul on the trail that loops around the broad river with the town beyond it. I’ve been curious about the bridge that leads to the University section of Maribor. Every time I run by the river, I cross the bridge, and have to go down the convenient pedestrian stairs to get back to the river trail. But the stairs go up as well as down; there are four flights, each with its own little landing, above bridge level. Today I ran up those flights and climbed through an open trap door to the roof of the stairwell. Graffiti covers the walls. There’s a flagpole with no flag. Great views of the whole city, and you can lean right over and stare down into the water. Maybe that’s the whole point of it, as Tina suggested.

Later we went to sit and drink coffee in Aroma, our favorite cafe downtown. Everything else downtown closed, a ghost town, as Tina says. Just an odd smattering of tourists passing by in big groups every now and then, cameras around their necks, talking amongst themselves and walking past the closed shops. I had two cups, along with some Radenska, the excellent local mineral water. Served in a glass with ice and lemon. And a straw for Tina but not for me.

We started to walk towards the park, which is just up hill slightly past the downtown. But it started raining. I had brought the umbrella but left it in the car. We turned back and walked into bright afternoon sunlight while rain poured down on us. Ducked into an open passage that led to a building courtyard to wait out the rain. Then walked slowly back towards the car, running into Nona — Tina’s grandmother — who we then gave a ride to another relative’s house before heading back home. Now we’re packing. Can’t wait to get home and see the animals, make our own coffee, and sleep in our own bed. But it’s been great, too, and I could easily stay on a while.

Here we go…