Final Thoughts

Today is my last day of work at Komunaprojekt and its also my last day in Slovenia. Looking over all my other blog entries I've realized the majority of them are about adventures and trips out of the country. Granted, there's not much that's exciting about my daily life here, but I have enjoyed the simplicity of my life a lot. Maribor has been a great city to live in, maybe not a tourist destination, but a place to enjoy the environment and go at a slower pace for a few months. At least in the summer. I've been told that when the university students return in October, the city completely changes and its a much busier, more lively place. The last 10 days have been cold and rainy, not quite the parting memory I wanted to have of Slovenia, but I will definitely return here. Afterall, I didn't get to climb Mt Triglav and Ljubljana is a fantastic city that I didn't get to spend enough time in.

I will repeat what all the tourist brouchures say about this place, that its a small, chicken-shaped country that has a little bit of everything and its all beautiful. Well, except the coast, go to Croatia to go swimming. I'll miss the river and the red tiled roofs and the pink toilet paper and the bakeries and the bike lanes and the park and all the small cars. I'll miss the mountains here, even Maribor's Pohorje which isn't as dramatic as the Julian Alps, but its the idea that the mountains and outdoors are so well used and enjoyed here that makes it so nice. Whenever you go for a hike, there is a mountain hut along the mountain somewhere so you can stop for a beer or goulash or ice-cream. I think in America we hang on to this idea of pristine nature such that people either cant touch it at all and its kept as pristine as possible, or it becomes like the top of Mt Washington, with so many cars and people, it no longer feels like you're in nature. But going for a hike, stopping at a mountain hut and then seeing cows and sheep along the mountain side reminds me that people can have a sustainable, even beautiful, simbiotic relationship with a landscape. Slovenia has figured all that out.

I am definitely ready to come home, but I think my readiness comes more from the amount of goodbyes I've said to people in the last 3 weeks more than anything else. I came to Slovenia not really knowing what I was getting into and absolutely prepared to be traveling and living day to day by myself. Then when I began doing everything after work and on weekends with the other IAESTE interns, I realized how lucky we all were to be part of a group that got along so well. It's not like we were all perfect soulmates, but we were all openminded and willing to try new things and get to know people very different than ourselves. I know, I know, I should take some wine with my cheese here, but it's been great to make some good friends and have shared so many things with them, its this group of people that has made this summer so great.

I spent all last night baking cookies for my office with Helena and Andreja. Not being able to find chocolate chips or brown sugar at the store, I had to improvise a bit, but as long as they have butter and chocolate, they'll be fine. So that'll be my goodbye to the other folks in the office, milk and cookies. But I'll see them all in October when the entire firm goes on vacation to New York City and Washington DC for 5 days.

I am meeting my parents tomorrow in Budapest and spending a few days there with Andreja and Helena before the Klains move on to the Czech Republic and Prague.

So, 2 amazing cities and 12 days between me and Pittsburgh.


Here we go.