Cityfinity

Ljubljana is one of those unfortunate cities that people abandon in summer, either to escape the heat or head off to the seaside where it's even worse. Yet, curiously, summer is also the season when Ljubljana is the most alive, for those who stay gather in cafés along the Ljubljanica river in evenings to chat without a worry in the world or have lazy breakfasts and brunches exclusively before noon when the sun reaches its highest point and you have to hide inside. The whole city is brimming with the energy it usually doesn't have.

I don't understand Vienna. It might be because despite wanting to belong to every city, I never feel truly comfortable when I'm there, and I wish it were different because I like Vienna. It's a proper city; it has a more than decent public transit system, stupendous architecture and one of the best opera houses in the world. And yet we don't click.

One of my best friends is currently in New York. Although it's been more than a year since I've lived there, I don't envy her. After my return I used to panic over not being (in every sense of the word) there any more. Gradually I've grown to realize I don't have to worry about anything: the bond I have with this city will take care of my coming back when the time is right again.

A couple of months ago I found negatives of the photos I had taken during a school trip to France (Tours, the Loire Valley) in May 2007. Realizing I had never scanned most of them, I had to attend to that mistake immediately. In the process I also came across a .doc file containing the report we had to write for our French class afterwards. The effect of the trip becoming alive once more in front of my eyes through writing and images was very Proustian. I was surprised by the honesty of my words ...