It was a warm evening after a long, sunny day in Croatia. That was the day when they played 2014 Soccer World Cup final, and Germany won. I was sitting on the porch with the straight view over the city to the sea. All the lights of the city shining in front of my eyes. I heard cars and scooters going around, people from restaurants were asking people to stop for dinner.

My brother came talk to me and told that he found bikes downstairs in our hotel and he was wondering if I wanted to go ride bikes with him. I told him that yes, I wanted to. I also knew it was our last time to really spend time together before we went back to Finland and he moved to U.S.. We took the bikes and rode them slowly on top of a small hill next to the city we stayed in. Even if the hill was small and the bikes were really good, the warm of the night and humidity made it exhausting. The road was peacefully going uphill in a zigzag way. On top of the hill, where we were able to see the whole small city between the mountains with the sounds and lights, I was just amazed how beautiful it looked. The mixed smell of food, sea, and colorful plants and trees that were growing next to the street made the moment perfect. Everything was dark but still so beautiful.
After a while my brother suggested that we should head back the other way and ride along the road that was right next to the coast making its way through the downtown. Biking uphill was pretty hard so we were exhausted, and I remember being a bit worried if we can make it through the city. Luckily, coming back down was super fast and we didn’t have to use the last piece of energy we had. It wasn’t windy almost at all so the tires were just rolling downhill. The feeling of light wind playing with my hair and the smell of summer was just amazing.

I remember how we were driving along with the cars and busses through the downtown because they didn’t have a lane for bikes. I was scared that we are gonna get killed but my brother said I’m just overthinking, which was pretty much true now that I think. Luckily the traffic on the road was so slow that there wasn’t a risk to the others to drive over us. My brother went first and I was following him all the time. I was able to hear the music from the restaurants and bars. A lot of people were celebrating the soccer world cup champion and that’s why there were even more people than usually walking around and hanging out with their friends and family.

After couple hours of going around and looking at different places we were so tired we weren’t able to ride our bikes anymore so we decided to get something to eat and relax. We went to a small bakery where they sell all kinds of pastries. I took a croissant and my brother took a cheese roll. We grabbed our food with us and we went to the top of the hotel where we had a beautiful view over the city in its nightlightning.

I think I will remember this for the rest of my life. Not only because it was fun and I loved to see the lights of the city, but also because I knew that it was the last time to see my brother in over a year.