In Which Taylor Gives Us All A Lesson In Leaving Town With Style

Like I mentioned before, Taylor flew home last Friday. There is a shuttle bus that leaves Rijeka every morning at 5:00am that goes straight to the airport in Zagreb. This was perfect because it got her there 2 hours before her flight, and it meant that we didn’t have to risk driving our ever-deteriorating car all the way there and back.

The shuttle pick-up spot is about a 15-minute walk from our apartment, but with three large bags we figured it would be better to drive. So, around 4:30 I left to go get the car. As I pulled up in front of our apartment, Taylor leaned in the passenger side window and said, “We’re locked out.”

I was slightly annoyed as my plan to quickly go back to bed slipped away. But it was an honest mistake, our building’s front door locks automatically and we were running on less than 2 hours of sleep. So I replied, “Don’t worry about it, let’s just get your bags in the car and get you to the shuttle and John and I can figure it out later.”

“Well, our apartment door is wide open, and one of my bags is still up there.”

Things were getting more complicated. Taylor and John started ringing the buzzers for every apartment in the building as Taylor pleaded into the intercom, “Please….so soooo sorry….locked out….need to get to the airport…” Either nobody heard or nobody cared because we were getting no love from the neighbors. John tried going around the back to our balcony but both of those doors were locked, too.

It was time to kick it up a notch and call our landlady, Branka. After waking her up and explaining the situation a few times, Taylor convinced her to call some neighbors. No answer. We decided to leave and make sure Taylor at least got on her flight and we would just deal with the luggage later, but we left John to keep trying the door.

Zoran met us at the station to say goodbye to Taylor, and after loading the bags she did have we had about 5 minutes to spare. Right about then, John called, “I broke in – come get me!”
I immediately jumped back in the Tiger Tank and headed back while Taylor and Zoran tried to stall the driver. Thankfully there was almost no traffic, because I was careening around corners and running red lights action-spy-thriller style. I saw John running up the street with a suitcase in tow and paused just long enough for him to jump in. We got there just in time and Tay was on her way, miraculously without any missing components.

John, Zoran and I needed to unwind a little so we went to the all-night café by the bus station for some tea and cocoa before getting some more sleep. John thought he had damaged the lock, but after further inspection we messed with it a little and got it working again.

The funniest thing about all of this was just how typical it felt. That’s just the way we roll, I guess. ☺