Sitting in a sunbathed outdoors café in the center of Zagreb, I am going through a pile of newspapers: Financial Times, Le Monde, La Repubblica. For good measure, I also have the special environmental issue of Time, which I otherwise tend to avoid. But the bliss of the fresh news is topped by something much closer to the skin: I am wearing sandals for the first time this season. Amazingly enough, it has been too cold for my favourite footwear until today, less than a week short of the month of May. The way the sky looks at the moment, the joy may not last much longer, either. Heavy clouds are lumbering from the north. At any rate, reading some of the best newspapers in the world while wearing sandals makes quite a difference: the world is not such an abominable place, after all.