The weather has been wonderful for more than a week now. A few thin clouds have marred the sky since yesterday morning, but it is still a delight to be outdoors. And so we decided to take a long walk early this afternoon. There are several ridges coming toward the center of Zagreb from the north, which is where one can find many a fancy house, and there are deep, wooded valleys between them. In places they look rather like gorges. We took one of them and walked uphill for less than an hour. Tall trees along the narrow road gave us a feeling that we were far from everything. And then we returned to the center the same way. Back in the hubbub, we were amazed by the crowds. It took us less than a couple of hours of solitude to feel squashed by so many people milling about or sitting in packed cafés. On our walk we met only an old man, who was exercising his arms as he strolled, and an old woman with a dog. And that was the full count. The deep, wooded valleys between the ridges stretching north from the center of the Croatian capital are not in fashion. They are completely abandoned to weirdoes like us.