Aaahhh relaxation time

Apologies to all those who had the misfortune to read my previous few entries, they may have been written in a slightly intoxicated state... The fact is, that at the Plus Prague hostel the computers were located right near the bar, so it only seemed logical to combine email-writing and drinking to save on time, you know, European cities to see and very little time to do it in, and all that...

So anyway all the excitement is over now, and it almost seems like it never happened... the hectic world of changing countries every 2 days, constant changing faces, getting confused between 4 different languages, rain, worrying about money and trying to cram a whole capital city and outskirts into 48 hours seems a million miles away, somewhat like a dream. Thankfully I've been blessed with a little time to find myself again - I was meant to head to Rome after 3 days in Civitanova, but Prof. Paolo Tortora is taking a few days holiday and I won't be going until Monday afternoon, giving me one last weekend in my host-town. And for once I am actually here for a big event - la notte bianca. This saturday night the city will come alive, with all the shops staying open all night and streetshows etc going on. Can't wait to see what it's like! The weather is supposed to be good, too. There's been one day of rain but apart from that it's been cool but really sunny, like a perfect Australian autumn day. Not really enough to want to go swimming but, definitely to go to the beach and chill out. I'm making the most as I only have a few days of it left!

As for the rest of the European loop - it was a bit of a disaster. We got to Viena and had a morning of clouds, followed by 2 days of non-stop pouring rain. So to be honest, while I had plenty of fun, I don't feel like I really saw anything of Vienna. The first day we did a grap-grazing tour of the Wachau Valley which should have been on bikes, weaving through the grape vines in the sunshine and then playing beach volleyball by the river... as it was we had to do the whole thing in the minibus and there was no chance of getting any river action... Still, we tried some great wines, had a delicious lunch and an entertaining joke-telling session on the way back into the city. We also got to try some AMAZING liquours, of which I purchased 2 bottles, and a crazy selection of jams, most of which involved apricot, the local fruit. Also, it is said the the Wachau region was the first producer of Riesling wines, as the grapes originated from there and there is a Riesling River whose name predates wine production records.

The second day we tried SOOOO hard to do the right thing and see the sights, but it was sub-10 degrees (I SWEAR) and with the rain and the wind we could not deal any longer. We found refuge in a restaurant, ate like starved children (which we certainly weren't after 5 days in the Czech Republic) and dashed into the metro to go straight home. At least my last night was a real ripper though - in every major city we overlap with the Busabout group behind us on the last night, so I caught up with a few people and who should be their guide? The same crazy chick who made our time in Greece so much fun - Nicole!! When I fist started busabout Northern loop I dreamed that she had appeared on the main circuit, and low and behold she appeared on my very last night in Europe, divine providence I do believe! So after a crazy dinner at "Centimeter" where we got through a sword's worth of meat and 2 metres of beer (?!?!?) I hit up the bar and proceeded to get "well-munted" with Nicole, for the last time :)

Getting the train the next day was admittedly quite painful, after 2 hours sleep, when I swear I was still slightly drunk... but thankfully it was fairly empty so I was able to curl up in a little ball for the 7 hours into Venice. Thankfully I didn't have to get all the way back to Civitanova, but only had a 2 hour journey to get to the beautiful Lago del Garda where I spent a very peaceful weekend in a B&B, NOT A HOSTEL :-)

Now I've had time to catch up with everyone in Civitanova, including my bestest mate Ilaria, FINALLY, and I still have a weekend to shake the inevitable cold that has caught up with me since I stopped moving around.

Wednesday was the Geo-Italia conference in Rimini where my honours Prof. presented a poster. It was great to get to meet him after months of emails back and forwards, and also a few others from the University, including one of the phd students who is a bit of a waterpolo champ and lives quite nearby Paolo, so I may get back into swimming sooner than I had thought. Feels much better to be going there knowing a few people who can show me around, and I might be able to go out with. Though honestly at this point the less friends I find the better as time is getting very short on this thesis of mine!

As per usual sorry about the essay, that's just what happens when you only write once a week - it seems like there is something happening every day, I can't keep up!!

Love to all, I guess the next post will be coming from Rome,

Kels xox