The Twilight Zone

 

The weather has been rather grey lately, but on a couple of occasions I've managed to catch the sunset. The photos above were taken on 14th December; the ones below today (17th).

 

While I was walking through the town park on my way back home from the town centre this afternoon, a man caught up with me and asked me where to find the bus stop from where he could catch a bus to the Maxi supermarket. I tried to explain, but it was not really visible from that distance (while another one was, which only confused things...) However, the stop that he needed was pretty much in the same direction that I was walking myself (only, I was not going to take a bus), so we continued to walk on together for a while. I could well understand his frustration, because some of the changes in the bus lines they've made here in later years are frankly ridiculous. Changing bus lines used to be fairly easy in the past, with nearly all the local buses meeting in one and the same square. However, this was eventually deemed too crowded from traffic safety point of view; so some bus stops were moved - which means that changing between some lines now involves quite long walks. (For my own part, it saves me no time any more to take the bus for the short part of the way into town that it can take me these days. So I usually walk the whole distance.)

From the man's comments I gathered that for one thing he did not live here, and did not know the town all that well; and for another he had a bad leg and some difficulties walking (he was limping a bit). That came up when I said that actually, from the bus stop to which I was directing him, it really wasn't all that far to just continue walking the rest of the way to the supermarket as well... Our ways parted just about where he could clearly see the bus stop ahead of him. I can only hope he found it worth while to get on a bus for 2-3 minutes  before having to get off it again!

Myself I walked on (~ 15 minutes) along the river and across the old cemetery to get home - in my head writing yet another "letter to the editor" (of the local newspaper) about the buses, on behalf of the stranger. (I did write one nearly two years ago, and numerous other people have kept doing the same since then - but so far without result.) If it's difficult enough in plain daylight and for people having lived half our lives here - for a temporary visitor and in winter twilight, it must be downright impossible...