I have noticed that there is a marked difference between the way I listen to the sounds around me while I am in my house in Motovun and while I am in my beloved’s apartment in Zagreb. In Motovun, I am all ears. The least sound in the house or outside it attracts my attention at once. And I always make a quick interpretation of what I have heard. Is it a loose shutter somewhere in the house? Or is it a neighbor’s front door a few houses up or down the street? If I cannot figure out what is going on, I either walk around my house in search of a clue, or I walk out of the front door to better hear the unusual sound. In Zagreb, I am much less attentive. Although I prick up my ears at any unusual sound within the apartment itself, the sounds coming from the apartment building or the street generally leave me cold. The Croatian capital is pretty loud even at night, let alone during the day. By comparison, the Istrian hilltown is dead quiet most of the time. Which explains the marked difference in my dealing with sounds in the two places, I reckon. The quieter the place, the more attentively I listen to the sounds around me, and vice versa. I only wonder why it has taken me so many words to make it plain. Almost two-hundred and fifty of them, to be exact.