Rüdi and I decided that we would spend a few days in Tuscany for a quick vacation get away. It was precisely what I needed, what we both needed, actually. We rented the new CLS Mercedes through his company and were able to ride most comfortably. We even had massaging seats, which was a plus, since the road trip to Italy was about 10 or 11 hours.
On our first night, we stayed in a farmhouse atop a hillside vineyard. It was lovely, quaint and secluded from everything. It was as if time stood still in this remote location. Whilst we ate our food, little kittens were roaming around and the staff there was so friendly. I was able to communicate a little in Spanish but even though it is a bit similar to Italian, it isn´t quite the same.
The next day we paraded around old towns and even visited a lot of landmarks that Rüdi had visited in his video game Assassins Creed. I thought that was pretty neat, he said that it was quite accurate to the game. We tried, supposedly, the world´s best gelato. At best, it was mediocre in my honest opinion. I was really disappointed in their pistachio flavor. Anyway, we climbed a few tours, visited old towns, churches and a monastery that was also featured in Assassins Creed. In the evening we drove down the coast towards the beaches. We found a beach house which was also a bed and breakfast and retired the night there. It was pretty cool, we walked along the beach and headed to bed.
In the morning of the next day, we ate on the terrace overlooking the beach. It was quite relaxing. We spent a few hours on a beach nearby and got our tan on! There were a few dudes going around selling things. I felt bad that I had nothing to give them and I much rather would have given them money to hear their life story. I was genuinely curious about what brought them to Italy and if this was the life that they had imagined it would be. We ate coconut on the beach. That was a first time experience for me! We drove up to a monastery later that night, where we would spend our last evening. We ate at a cute little Italian restaurant and went to bed relatively early.
For our last day, we headed out to Florence. It was so busy and crowded that we did not get to visit the Uffizi gallery, like we wanted to. Instead, off the beaten path we located Dante´s house and visited that. It was super fun. We called off the rest of our trip with some gelato and said, "Arriverderci" to Italia.
The ride back was long and somewhat agonizing but we made it. We barely spoke much, we just listened to music and that was ok. Once we got back to the Austria/Germany area though, the sunshine disappeared and it was back to cold and uninviting rainy weather. Huge bummer, yes, but it was a great reality check. We arrived home around midnight.
We awoke early the next day to head out to Reutlingen for the wedding of Norman and Alex. We headed out around 3:30 and that was tons of fun. I was happy to meet new people and to get to know the people who have impacted Rüdi´s youth so significantly. It was a very cool feeling. I had a great time, many good conversations, and of course, a lot of great photos were taken.
The downside: Some asshole propositioned me for sex. I had noticed him because he and his girlfriend sat behind us during the wedding service. She was translating to him in English. Later on, he was talking to me and my friend Silke about Thailand because she had mentioned it earlier. I introduced myself and he asked where I was from. I told him I was from America and he told me he was from Egypt. Anyway, Silke took off to grab a drink and he asked me for a cigarette and wanted to know if I was interested in taking a walk with him. I figured there was no harm in this since he obviously had a girlfriend, I had a boyfriend and I was curious about culture as much as he pretended to be curious about mine. I realized that the pathways for walking were too dark, so I settled for sitting on a bench with him. We talked about religion, caste systems, and the freedom of living in places like Germany and America. After a brief talk on Buddhism and Christianity. He tried to convince me that there were no chance encounters, and that we meet in life only to fill the carnal needs of our bodies. He kept asking if we could meet up later, as more than friends... and then he tried to convince me that we should have sex despite having relationship partners. I kept telling him I could not agree and I was not interested, nor was I anywhere remotely on the same page as him. I then convinced him to meet my boyfriend and said goodbye. A few minutes after ditching the creep, I told Rüdi everything. He then threatened him and told him not to speak to me or even come near me, or else he would beat the crap out of him. He had also informed him that if it weren't the wedding of his best friend, he would already have a bloody nose.
The next day, we had dinner with Rüdi´s family for his mother's 67th birthday celebration. It was nice to be with the family. His niece and nephew are growing up so fast!
Monday, I caught up on much needed sleep. I believe I slept for about 14 or 15 hours. No joke! Today is Tuesday and Rüdi went to therapy with me and I am home, relaxing, blogging... and listening to music. I will probably start to catch up on some reading... and then cleaning. :)
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I have been pretty busy with friends lately. I finished all of Transmetropolitan finally. It took two days and I absolutely loved it. I have also had quite a few interactions with Warren Ellis on facebook and twitter. He told me recently that there was no such thing as writer's block, only not wanting or knowing how to write something in front of you. He said you need to either pick a different subject or move on. I have been slowly but surely, been getting darker and thinner also!
Big bummer? My laptop totally wigged out and I lost everything. Hard drive failure. I am only hoping that the time machine at my dad's house backed up enough of my files so that I don't go totally insane!
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