rose's random rambly writings

Here's my second attempt to post this.
When I had posted this earlier, I noticed there were four instances of the post saved. Believing that the one on the top would be the last, most updated, one I deleted the other three. Of course, the ready, published post wasn't on the top and so it was deleted .
I couldn't find it in the cache either, so I had to write the whole thing over again
Here goes...

First of all, I must admit I wasn't very sorry for leaving this country.
This is the view from the airport as I was waiting to board the aircraft on what should have been a nice, sunny summer day in July:
However, my mood switched swiftly as I set foot in Rimini in that boot shaped country further south in Europe. As I landed in the evening, I decided to postpone the martini search and decided to go out and have a drink instead...

During the next couple of weeks I...

• ...got a chafe from a pair of my flip flops! I didn't even know that was possible!
  
• ...took a bus to the world's oldest sovereign state. Extra bonus points to the whoever can guess which one that is...
  
• ...was amazed over the number of items with pictures of despots sold in said state. I mean, selling wine and beer with pictures of Hitler, Lenin, Che, Mao... not to mention all the items with Mussolini and some of his catch phrases. That's just not a gimmick anymore . If anybody has an idea what that's all about, please let me know as I'm really wondering.
  
• ...slept on what shall only be know as the concrete slab hereafter. I woke up every night, numb on the side I was sleeping on. One night I woke up on my back, having lost all feeling in both my hands !
  
• ...switched stupid concrete slab to a one-room suite in a really cool design hotel in the old part of the city. I slept like a baby there .
  
• ...bathed many times in the ocean. Funny waves .
  
• ...once again had to realize that my school Italian isn't good enough for longer conversations, but it does make it a little easier to be understood.
  
• ...saw lots of people riding on electrical bicycles and now I want one too!
  
• ...wondered whether there were more doves or Russians there.
  
• ...stumbled upon a market in the city one night. It was pretty cool - like a flea market mixed with arts&crafts. Among other things, I noticed there was a booth selling furs. It was 28° out and I wondered who on earth would want to buy a fur. Especially on a hot midnight in August .
  
• ...took a train to Ravenna - once the capital in the Western Roman Empire. This was the one day it rained, but it was still a nice day with lots of walking around/sightseeing.
  
• ...ate lots of heavenly ice cream!

These things didn't make me less observant, though. Keeping my eyes open made me find a poster of a Martini circus that was coming to town (unfortunately I didn't manage to take a picture of it), Martini bicycles and Fiat Sartinis (obviously a bad mis-spelling ) among other things.
But lo and behold! Searching does pay off, and on the last night I finally found it!I rewarded myself with an appletini :yum: .

Of course, all things must come to an end and when I got back... well... it sort of felt like the circle was closed. Weather wise, that is .
There really isn't much to say about the second part of my vacation. It rained the whole time, and the most exciting thing that happened was when a couple of deer ran out in front of the car while driving on a narrow mountain road on a dark, rainy night.

In a way it's good to be back, though. I missed you and I'm eager to see what you've been up to .