City and Outside - Part 1

Close your eyes and focus on your ears. All around you, you hear voices. The smell of the burnt fumes of cars, apparently, the lights switched to green. Suddenly, you hear the breaks of a bus. Doors open, and people flow out of the giant vehicle in front of you. The sound of their voices, all in different languages, fill your ears. It becomes harder and harder to even hear your own thoughts. A cycle rings his bell, and curses loudly. He almost got hit by a car. The owner of the car sticks her head through the window, and starts yelling at the cycler. “...THE PAINT!!...” It’s all you can hear through the rest of the noises.


Fumes fill up your nose, and mess up your sense of smell. Someone is standing beside you, he (or she, of course) is smoking a cigarette. While cars drive past you, you hear people talking through the phone. Yelling, laughing, sobbing, all in different languages of which a few you can actually understand. The smoker standing next to you flicks the remains of his (or hers) cigarette away. It ends up on the street, where it keeps smoking until there is nothing left. On the other side, a person is laughing loudly into his phone. Suddenly, the traffic light goes green. People start pushing each other out of the way, only so they can cross the street faster. Your head starts throbbing, it is too warm, it is too crowded, the people around you start to annoy you more and more. And just at the point where you can’t take any more of it, you open your eyes.



Beneath your feet, old leaves rustle. Something falls behind you, you turn around. Small rodents fight over a beechnut. Small beams of sunlight fall through the leaves. A robin chirps loudly, it tries so hard to be louder than the old crow a couple of trees further. Your nose starts filling up with the smell of dry trees, damp leaves en fresh ground. A couple of meters away hangs a bunch of breams, so ripe that their almost asking to be picked. Slowly, your head becomes idle, all the pressure floats away, the peace returns.