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We had been in Tally since the afternoon of 27. The next three days went uneventful. We had already returned our rentals and were back in our lazy vacation lives. On the 31st, we decided to travel to Panama City for the countdown to 2024. We were scheduled to start from the Panera at W Tennessee St, where I had already been waiting. We got our coffee, got into our cars, and set off at 6 PM. Soon enough, we were on the I-10.
Nothing crazy happened during our ride. The interstate was dark. However, we had traveled for two hours and Panama City at 7 PM was full of life. Panama City is an hour ahead of Tallahassee and we felt like we had regained an entire hour. There were two ball-drop events at Pier Park, and one was happening at 8. We had to look for a parking space while pushing through the heavy traffic. We did eventually find one pretty close to the Ferris wheel at Pier Park. When we had reached it, the first drop was over and people were already leaving. The next one was scheduled for four hours later.
There was a concert going on at Pier Park with at least three bands to celebrate the new year. We joined the concert. The park was very crowded and very lively. The park road has many shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs on both sides, and each of them had queues ending on the street. The bands played some classic American pop songs by artists such as Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish and Camila Cabello. We vibed to the tunes until it was finally time for the beach ball drop.
A large LCD monitor had a countdown timer on it that started from five minutes till midnight. We all counted together. When the timer hit 0:00, the ball dropped fully, and the crowd went wild. The fireworks started on the other side of the road, however. Everyone turned around and followed the fireworks to the pier. We sat there gazing up at the sky for quite some time.
People all around were happy and were wishing anyone and everyone. We joined the festivities and did the same. After the festivities were over, we crossed the road to the pier. The pier has a club at the entrance. The club is completely open under God’s holy sky, however, there wasn’t the least bit of space inside. The club had a balcony-like space outside with round tables for sitting. We sat there for some time and took in the ambience. Entry to the pier costs $5 each, but entry to the beach is free. We decided to go to the beach next.
The beach was desolate, and all that existed was us, the sky and the waves. It was a starlit sky. We sat on the sand and matched voices to some classic Bangla tunes. We then got back up and got back out to our car.
One of us had packed “khichuri” in the trunk of their car. We were eleven people huddled in front of the car. The park went empty real fast after the countdown was over, and we were the only people in the parking lot. We checked the time, and it was still 1 AM. This made us realize that we weren’t at home anymore, in Dhaka, where the city actually never slept.
We had a satisfying dinner, all together, and then hopped back onto our rides setting course for Tallahassee. Apple Maps took us through alternate routes avoiding highways for some reason. It showed this to be the fastest route. The roads ran through a bunch of spooky neighborhoods. We had to remain vigilant not in fear of ghosts, but a bigger evil, deer. To our fortune, no deer was traumatized during the timeline of our trip back home.
I entered my apartment at 5 in the morning. I kicked my shoes off, fell on my bed and dozed off. Until next time.