
I'm currently enjoying a long weekend (public holiday yesterday, day off today), and today I had lunch with Lovely!landlord and his wife. Epic, four-hour lunch.On the way homeit dawned on me that I have four months left here, in this city I love, and... I'm crying. I'm not feeling bad, but enormously sad. This place and some of the people living here have given me so much, and although I know that I'll be happy in Vienna, I just don't want to leave. I want to stay and listen to people talking in Macedonian, I want to continue feeding my street cats and agonising when one of them doesn't turn up for breakfast, I want the conversations with taxi drivers and old ladies, I want to be driven crazy by people's utter indifference to time and punctuality, I want the smell of the early morning, of the forest starting right behind my building, I want the song of the nightingales, I want to eat local food sitting outdoors, drinking rakija and feeding pieces of meat to stray dogs... I wish I could stay here. I know I'll be ok, but right now my heart is breaking.