and sees through the master plan.
The past few weeks have gone by incredibly fast. I feel like I can't breath. Everything is just coming at me and the calendar just keeps creeping. Today is the first day of July. This will be the last month of me living in Europe. I'm really scared about returning. I'm also far too busy. I've even considered that I need to quit my job now to have time for all the things I want to do. ugh.
Italy was the best holiday I have had in years, and it was not at all the typical way I spend my holiday. I didn't run around and look at all the architecture. I spent almost the entire trip drinking and goofing off. Laura came for a week and a half, which was sort of a mistake that I realized within the first few minutes of our time together. She had gained quite a bit of weight since I last saw her a few years ago. This tells me a lot about a person. I think her time as a teacher has vastly affected her in ways that I don't like. I forgot how boring and unadventurous she was. I thought everything she was interested in doing was pretty uninteresting. We went to a palace where she just walked right through it all and I was actually interested. She has no real interest beyond movies. Its all she talks about, and she doesn't actually stop. Its annoying. It really made me realize I want to give up my movie watching habits. I haven't been watching nearly as many in the past few months as there just isn't time anymore. I think its more important to live your life, rather than fantasize about someone else's.
I met Alexa two months ago at a hiking event in the Alps. We had hung out a few times since then and shes always been a lot of fun. While we were hiking with Sabina (who was visiting from London) a few weeks ago, I told her I was going to Italy for a few days. She said she really wanted to go so I told her to just come along. A few days later she had her plane ticket. It was pretty exciting.
So Alexa gets there a few hours before we do. Upon arrival shes already had some wine and is loving Rome while Laura is coming off her drugs from the flight. Laura wants to stay behind and sleep from our late flight and really late bus, and Alexa and I decide to run out into town and hangout outside the colosseum with some pizza. It was great just sitting there with her chatting. A guy comes up to sell her a flower. We tell him we are american and he says, "I love Obama!" and then we tell him we live in Germany and he's like, "I hate Hitler!" So hilarious. We go for late night amazing gelato and end up back at the hotel around 2am or so. We plan to take one of the first trains out to Castiglion Fiorentino, so get up early on little sleep and make it to the train station. We actually get there with plenty of time... but we were waiting on the wrong platform and completely missed the train. The next one was to come 2 hours later, so we get some great pastries and espresso while we wait. We catch the next train and are all happy and still plan to make a vineyard tour upon arrival. Suddenly a ticket inspector comes around and we had forgotten to validate our tickets at Roma Termini. He wants to charge us 150 euro fine but we just get off the train at the next stop, some small nowhere town called Fabro-Ficulle. We tried to find anyway to get to Castiglion other than waiting 2 more hours for the next train but ended up just chilling at this little restaurant and made friends with the owners. We finally get to Castiglion and walk around, get some amazing coco palm gelato. The girls went back to the hotel for a swim and I met up with Donna Kacmar and to see some of the students work. I head to the hotel 2 hours later to find Alexa in her bikini, sleeping on the roof next to the pool. She had a cherry sitting right in her belly button. It was cute. It was also probably the sexiest thing I had ever seen where a girl still had her clothes on. Alexa has a great body. In that bikini...with that cherry. I stared at her for a while. I played with her nose trying to wake her up. It took a while. Once she did we went for a swim and drank a lot more wine. We went up into town to meet up with Donna again and eventually made it to dinner at Roggi's. We got calzones and another liter of wine. I was already well intoxicated and shouldn't have had anymore wine. After that things started getting blurry. We wanted to go chill in the castle at night and stare at the stars. Instead we ended up climbing some walls, then trees, then roofs of houses. We laid out on a roof and was havign a chat. The stars started to really get blurry as I was way too drunk. She scooted over to me and laid down on my arm. It could have been a really nice moment up there. But instead I totally passed out. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I wake up and she's like, "lets go..." I was far to drunk to safely be walking around on those roofs. At one point we needed to jump across a street from one roof to another. She did it and it was awesome. I decided to just take one giant step to cross the roofs and she got scared and grabbed me and pulled me over. We eventually make it back towards the hotel. She had made a mention of something about "what just happened on the roof." I honestly cant remember what it was. I wish I did. I wish I wasn't so drunk. Before going into the hotel she was like, "lets sit out here for a bit." she was talking about something really personal... I think about her family but I was having problems concentrating and then I suddenly got sick and had to puke. That night could have been amazing. It was great. But I had an amazing opportunity to be in Tuscany, have dinner and drinks, and share experiences with a beautiful girl who I think has an amazing energy and thoughts on life. And I ruined it being a drunk.
I promised myself that I was going to run while I was in Castiglion. It was something I was really looking forward to. I told Donna the night before I would meet up with her (somehow) that morning for espresso... and mentioned it to one of her students that was there that he should run with me. So I wake up completely hung over, on 3 hours of sleep to an alarm Alexa had set for me called "Get kaffffeee and run handsome!!!" I find Donna and that student was there ready for a run. We ended up doing a 10k... though it was really terrible and I was so dehydrated. I get back to the hotel, we all get some food and last minute gelato. Head to Arezzo for some shopping for a few hours and then towards Rome. On the way, we decided to stop by Fabro-Ficulle just for another cheap meal with that family we had before. It was great. We get back into Rome and to our hotel. Laura was tired so stayed in while me and Alexa headed out for another long night of roaming around Rome with cheap wine. We chilled outside the pantheon, then the trevi fountain, and finally the spanish steps. She was a great chat for hours and hours. Suddenly the sun started to come up. The city was so amazing in the sunlight with no one around. We made our way back to the hotel and as we were on the street we suddenly heard "Alexa!" from the sky. It was Laura. It was 6am or so and she had heard us coming. She wanted to go see the Vatican in the morning and somehow convinced us to go along even though we were exhausted. We do that and finally make it back to the hotel to sleep a few hours while Laura shops.
We wake up and decide to show Laura the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon since she hadn't seen anything yet and was having problems finding things on her own. This was our first time in Rome during the day and there was just too many people about. So we found some food and decided to take another nap. We wake up and head to this pizza place we had read about. It was really amazing... and even had a "dont mess with texas" sticker on the outside. Laura is tired from all of our adventures and me and alexa plan to stay up the rest of the night as her flight is early in the morning. We head to the Vatican at first hoping to get into the square which is really nice at night... but now closed. We run into a group of germans which we would later run into several other times throughout the night. We went to piazza navona for a few hours chatting with the germans and then later alone. It was another nice moment to be alone with her... ugh. We make it to the hotel to grab her things and slowly make our way to the train station. I ask to borrow a few of her things (water bottle, sunglasses, book). She all of a sudden makes me swear not to lose her water bottle. She's like, "I James... swear not to lose Alexa's water bottle... or break her heart." I was thrown off on this bit. I thought she was going to say glasses... I didn't really make a comment. It was a nice moment though. So we head towards a few other things on our way to the train station. She wanted to hang out at the colosseum at night one last time. Unfortunately, we made it to the there with only minutes before her bus was going to leave which left us running to the station... after 2.5 bottles of wine. It was sad seeing her off. I slowly walked all the way back to the hotel and got there right when laura was waking up (like 8am or so). I took a 2 hour nap while she went to st peters and a tour of the vatican. I got up and walked around the pantheon again and sketched piazza navona. It was surreal to be walking around without alexa. It was lonely. I liked having her water bottle and glasses though. It felt like a part of her was still there.
Being around Alexa for those days made me realize a lot of things. It's really nice to have someone there in life. Someone always there. I really missed that. Alexa was an amazing partner in our adventure. I really started to have thoughts that I should have around her... and it made coming back to Germany and to our lives very difficult. It made me sad... I still go through withdrawals whenever I have a day that I don't hang out with her. It was a great holiday. It was great just having fun and hanging out and looking at a gorgeous city. I wish Laura hadn't been there as she was more in the way of fun than anything. She was a nagging mom on our trip.
Donna ended up coming to Munich the following week and we met up for dinner. She had talked with Alexa for a little bit while we were in Castiglion and really liked her. While in Munich, she said how she liked how full of life Alexa was and asked if she was my girlfriend. I told her she wasn't and Donna kept saying, "really? really?? Why not? she was giving you those looks. Really?" It was quite hilarious. Ugh.
soundtrack to entry:
Italy was the best holiday I have had in years, and it was not at all the typical way I spend my holiday. I didn't run around and look at all the architecture. I spent almost the entire trip drinking and goofing off. Laura came for a week and a half, which was sort of a mistake that I realized within the first few minutes of our time together. She had gained quite a bit of weight since I last saw her a few years ago. This tells me a lot about a person. I think her time as a teacher has vastly affected her in ways that I don't like. I forgot how boring and unadventurous she was. I thought everything she was interested in doing was pretty uninteresting. We went to a palace where she just walked right through it all and I was actually interested. She has no real interest beyond movies. Its all she talks about, and she doesn't actually stop. Its annoying. It really made me realize I want to give up my movie watching habits. I haven't been watching nearly as many in the past few months as there just isn't time anymore. I think its more important to live your life, rather than fantasize about someone else's.
I met Alexa two months ago at a hiking event in the Alps. We had hung out a few times since then and shes always been a lot of fun. While we were hiking with Sabina (who was visiting from London) a few weeks ago, I told her I was going to Italy for a few days. She said she really wanted to go so I told her to just come along. A few days later she had her plane ticket. It was pretty exciting.
So Alexa gets there a few hours before we do. Upon arrival shes already had some wine and is loving Rome while Laura is coming off her drugs from the flight. Laura wants to stay behind and sleep from our late flight and really late bus, and Alexa and I decide to run out into town and hangout outside the colosseum with some pizza. It was great just sitting there with her chatting. A guy comes up to sell her a flower. We tell him we are american and he says, "I love Obama!" and then we tell him we live in Germany and he's like, "I hate Hitler!" So hilarious. We go for late night amazing gelato and end up back at the hotel around 2am or so. We plan to take one of the first trains out to Castiglion Fiorentino, so get up early on little sleep and make it to the train station. We actually get there with plenty of time... but we were waiting on the wrong platform and completely missed the train. The next one was to come 2 hours later, so we get some great pastries and espresso while we wait. We catch the next train and are all happy and still plan to make a vineyard tour upon arrival. Suddenly a ticket inspector comes around and we had forgotten to validate our tickets at Roma Termini. He wants to charge us 150 euro fine but we just get off the train at the next stop, some small nowhere town called Fabro-Ficulle. We tried to find anyway to get to Castiglion other than waiting 2 more hours for the next train but ended up just chilling at this little restaurant and made friends with the owners. We finally get to Castiglion and walk around, get some amazing coco palm gelato. The girls went back to the hotel for a swim and I met up with Donna Kacmar and to see some of the students work. I head to the hotel 2 hours later to find Alexa in her bikini, sleeping on the roof next to the pool. She had a cherry sitting right in her belly button. It was cute. It was also probably the sexiest thing I had ever seen where a girl still had her clothes on. Alexa has a great body. In that bikini...with that cherry. I stared at her for a while. I played with her nose trying to wake her up. It took a while. Once she did we went for a swim and drank a lot more wine. We went up into town to meet up with Donna again and eventually made it to dinner at Roggi's. We got calzones and another liter of wine. I was already well intoxicated and shouldn't have had anymore wine. After that things started getting blurry. We wanted to go chill in the castle at night and stare at the stars. Instead we ended up climbing some walls, then trees, then roofs of houses. We laid out on a roof and was havign a chat. The stars started to really get blurry as I was way too drunk. She scooted over to me and laid down on my arm. It could have been a really nice moment up there. But instead I totally passed out. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I wake up and she's like, "lets go..." I was far to drunk to safely be walking around on those roofs. At one point we needed to jump across a street from one roof to another. She did it and it was awesome. I decided to just take one giant step to cross the roofs and she got scared and grabbed me and pulled me over. We eventually make it back towards the hotel. She had made a mention of something about "what just happened on the roof." I honestly cant remember what it was. I wish I did. I wish I wasn't so drunk. Before going into the hotel she was like, "lets sit out here for a bit." she was talking about something really personal... I think about her family but I was having problems concentrating and then I suddenly got sick and had to puke. That night could have been amazing. It was great. But I had an amazing opportunity to be in Tuscany, have dinner and drinks, and share experiences with a beautiful girl who I think has an amazing energy and thoughts on life. And I ruined it being a drunk.
I promised myself that I was going to run while I was in Castiglion. It was something I was really looking forward to. I told Donna the night before I would meet up with her (somehow) that morning for espresso... and mentioned it to one of her students that was there that he should run with me. So I wake up completely hung over, on 3 hours of sleep to an alarm Alexa had set for me called "Get kaffffeee and run handsome!!!" I find Donna and that student was there ready for a run. We ended up doing a 10k... though it was really terrible and I was so dehydrated. I get back to the hotel, we all get some food and last minute gelato. Head to Arezzo for some shopping for a few hours and then towards Rome. On the way, we decided to stop by Fabro-Ficulle just for another cheap meal with that family we had before. It was great. We get back into Rome and to our hotel. Laura was tired so stayed in while me and Alexa headed out for another long night of roaming around Rome with cheap wine. We chilled outside the pantheon, then the trevi fountain, and finally the spanish steps. She was a great chat for hours and hours. Suddenly the sun started to come up. The city was so amazing in the sunlight with no one around. We made our way back to the hotel and as we were on the street we suddenly heard "Alexa!" from the sky. It was Laura. It was 6am or so and she had heard us coming. She wanted to go see the Vatican in the morning and somehow convinced us to go along even though we were exhausted. We do that and finally make it back to the hotel to sleep a few hours while Laura shops.
We wake up and decide to show Laura the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon since she hadn't seen anything yet and was having problems finding things on her own. This was our first time in Rome during the day and there was just too many people about. So we found some food and decided to take another nap. We wake up and head to this pizza place we had read about. It was really amazing... and even had a "dont mess with texas" sticker on the outside. Laura is tired from all of our adventures and me and alexa plan to stay up the rest of the night as her flight is early in the morning. We head to the Vatican at first hoping to get into the square which is really nice at night... but now closed. We run into a group of germans which we would later run into several other times throughout the night. We went to piazza navona for a few hours chatting with the germans and then later alone. It was another nice moment to be alone with her... ugh. We make it to the hotel to grab her things and slowly make our way to the train station. I ask to borrow a few of her things (water bottle, sunglasses, book). She all of a sudden makes me swear not to lose her water bottle. She's like, "I James... swear not to lose Alexa's water bottle... or break her heart." I was thrown off on this bit. I thought she was going to say glasses... I didn't really make a comment. It was a nice moment though. So we head towards a few other things on our way to the train station. She wanted to hang out at the colosseum at night one last time. Unfortunately, we made it to the there with only minutes before her bus was going to leave which left us running to the station... after 2.5 bottles of wine. It was sad seeing her off. I slowly walked all the way back to the hotel and got there right when laura was waking up (like 8am or so). I took a 2 hour nap while she went to st peters and a tour of the vatican. I got up and walked around the pantheon again and sketched piazza navona. It was surreal to be walking around without alexa. It was lonely. I liked having her water bottle and glasses though. It felt like a part of her was still there.
Being around Alexa for those days made me realize a lot of things. It's really nice to have someone there in life. Someone always there. I really missed that. Alexa was an amazing partner in our adventure. I really started to have thoughts that I should have around her... and it made coming back to Germany and to our lives very difficult. It made me sad... I still go through withdrawals whenever I have a day that I don't hang out with her. It was a great holiday. It was great just having fun and hanging out and looking at a gorgeous city. I wish Laura hadn't been there as she was more in the way of fun than anything. She was a nagging mom on our trip.
Donna ended up coming to Munich the following week and we met up for dinner. She had talked with Alexa for a little bit while we were in Castiglion and really liked her. While in Munich, she said how she liked how full of life Alexa was and asked if she was my girlfriend. I told her she wasn't and Donna kept saying, "really? really?? Why not? she was giving you those looks. Really?" It was quite hilarious. Ugh.
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