For about 4 years now, walking has been my primary way of exercise. When I first fell in love with music, i found going on a walk and putting on some headphones insanely enjoyable. I still remember when we used to live in Nove Jarše and used to walk around the neighborhood listening to Black eyed peas' Let's get it started.
But things have changed since then, first we moved to the suburbia that is Trzin and I started listening to a lot of different music now. Walking is my way of getting out and getting some fresh air. And music while being enjoyable, also serves as a way of drowning out the noise around you.
So yesterday me and my family celebrated new year. Some extended family came to visit, we drank, had a lot of great food and just in general had a good time. But I personally just couldn't be bothered to start awake till midnight. I know it's a sin, may god come down and stroke me against my thighs so I can't sit for a week or too. I Just couldn't keep my eyes open and i started to worry about how much food i had consumed by this point. I was never one of those who believed that calories during the holidays don't count, I think its just something people say as they're paranoid.
But anyway I laid down in my bed and tried to close my eyes, but sadly, I went to bed a little bit too close to midnight so I didn't manage to zone off before the City erupted. And through my window I saw some jackass throwing fireworks off his balcony whole there was a guy underneath trying to walk his dog, I'd seen enough to know, that Just like me, this people will stay the same assholes this year, just as they were the last year. Somewhere in the middle of the thought I managed to zone off tho.
And the morning came. I, just like I expected woke up first at about 7am. The apartment was still pretty dirty and most of my family was still sleeping. As i didn't want to start cleaning now, I rushed to my room, grabbed a pair of headphones and went out for a walk. I was a bit worried about dog parking when I came back, but this was gonna be a bridge i cross when I get there.
When I reached to end of the staircase and I opened the door to the outside I saw a completely empty and lifeless place, but when I turned my attention towards the bus station, I saw a pretty filled up bus coming. First of all, I didn't even know the bus was driving today, second of all, I saw a bunch of kids coming out of the vehicle. This kids were, what i like called them, Domžale Vampires. Domžale was a local city, that was a little bit bigger than ours, where a lot of People from here went to celebrated, the other half went to Ljubljana.
The reason they were called the Vampires was because they came back drunk and barely stumbled their way back home. But I decided to ignore them, so I could leave before Ljubljana Vampires could join them. So I took off and went near the small "river" (more so a puddle) near my house. On my headphones played Pansy Dickson song Groovy underwear. I liked this song, because it's hilarious. It also depicted greatly where I was mentally at the time. I never had anything against gay People and I especially liked queer culture. But I felt like I really started acting a lot more homophobic around a lot of other people. And it was never to impress them i Just wanted to see where their moral limits stood, but i never reached them, this was Balkan and really most People say more fucked up shit over breakfast.
So when I reached the puddle, i saw a bunch of teenagers throwing fireworks near the river. It looked like it was not enough of a party yesterday and they had to continue in the morning. I could shout at them something like; "Hey dipshits, beat it!" But I just did not have the energy for that and I turned around.
But my only other option was not very inviting, you see i didn't know a lot of people around here except for a couple from school. But about 8 months after moving here, during the first week of high school, i was ridding a bike through the neighborhood, when I reached the train station, where I heard a semi-soft voice behind me: "Got space for one more?" It was a really skinny red-haired girl who appeared to be a bit older than me. At first I didn't understand why she wanted a ride on my bike, but then i locked eyes with her foot which was in a cast. "Sure, hop on." She was really surprised, it looked like she was joking originally, but pretty quickly she found herself on the back of my bike. The journey that would last 3-5 minutes normally, lasted about 20 minutes as I drove super slow and kept checking on her in the back.
She told me a lot about herself, i told her a lot less about myself. She told me her name was Ruby and that she was a local here, she told me she went to Gimnazija Vič, which was one of the best schools in the city. She was probably, i assumed so an A star student and she was also into politics.
Anyway, i took her to her home which was quite deep in the city. They had quite a big white House. "Do you, like, want to stick around, i'm not sure anyone's home?" She asked me. I denied as my father was making kebab at home and I was not gonna miss that, but also because i felt like it would be a bit weird as we only knew each other for about half hour. We exchanged phone numbers as I didn't have any social media at the time.
So back on the january 1st, I was standing there, in front of this part of Trzin. It's been 3 years since and we never really talked again. To be fair there was an fire in Trzin that messed up their part as well in 2022, so I kinda tried to forget about it, but i never went there. I was thinking for a while, I could see the house from where I was standing.
Some of you may ask, why do I care? Get over it. But what if she thought I was weird from that very first day and now she see me walking by her house.
It was just a bit too much for me that early and I decided to hit the road and come back home. As i was laying in my bed i was just thinking to myself: " I have not changed one bit, have i?"
Lara Petek 2.1. 2025