...continued from last post.

September, 2008:
The first thing which happened is that everyone came back from holiday and my working hours were suddenly reduced to normal. I was able to offload a lot of work to others, and well... sort of went on holiday for a bit at work. I guess you could say my motivation wasn't quite all there. I'd lost my muse, as it were. This phase lasted for most of September, and I whittled the month away trying to relax a bit, spending time with Moni, going home early now and then, and not caring about work too much.

The highlight of the month was my two ex-flatmates Sean and Tanya coming to visit for almost a week. Since we were flatting together they started going out, then were engaged, and now are moving to London for a stint. We spent a bit of time together, discussed the good old days, had dinner at Moni's, and went to see the fog at Interlaken. It was good to see those guys again. Sean wrote me a while back and posted pictures of his stay at my place on his blog.

October, 2008:
A lot happened in October. I graded in Kung Fu to the 3rd grade. Moni was interested to see where I get all my bruises, so she came along and watched.
Went bowling with some guys from work, and Sefi, our competent team leader at work. Was actually really cool, despite that my bowling is beyond salvation.
Went with Thomas, Jürgen, and another five random Austrians to Dublin for five days. Everyone thinks that when you go to Dublin that you do nothing else than drink. Well they're right. Mostly. During the daytime we went out to Howth on the peninsula outside Dublin and walked around, took a tour around Dublin, visited a grisly historic prison, and finally the Guiness brewery of course. Evenings were spent mostly around Temple Bar, and downing glass after glass of black Guiness goodness. Actually, since then I haven't drunk a single Guiness. Can't think why.

By day...	...by night.

Monday: Get back from Dublin.
Tuesday: work + Changeling (roleplaying).
Wednesday: work + Echoes of Heaven (my game, Dnd).
Thursday: work + Jam Session.
Friday: work + Rollout
Saturday: Fly to Rome.

Yup, a restful week of work to help me relax, and then off to Rome with Moni. I'd hoped to try Couchsurfing as a guest rather than a host, however Rome's rather popular and nobody had space for us. We did get a tip from someone that his Aunt was starting a B&B, and was taking people for 50 Euro/room/night. No problems! So we stayed with a nice Italian woman who didn't speak a word of English, but was a great host. Moni's broken Italian saved me utterly, as I had only my electronic translator which painstakingly spits words out one at a time. A good friend of Moni's made an 'insiders' map to Rome for us. It had the main attractions, plus some insider tips, good restaurants, ice-cream bars, etc. that we ought to check out. And check out we did. We missed the Cistine Chapel and maybe one or two other things, but I think we got everything else. The Colosseum, the Forum Romanum, the Caesar's palace, the Vatican, the statues, the ruins, the old buildings... heaps and heaps and heaps of history packed into one buzzing city. We took tours, walked a lot, stopped at restaurants, and took a lot of photos. We got caught in monsoon rain one evening which soaked us completely (despite our feeble umbrellas) and flooded the streets. We eventually found refuge in a great little bar we found. (A branch had fallen off a tree and landed on a car outside the bar.) Afterwards we went to a nice little restaurant. There was a power outage, so it was a romantic dinner-by-emergency-lighting. Nice ambience.

Markets	Palatino
The Colosseum!

Other things that impressed me were the streets. The driving is completely chaotic, and any open space is per default a parking space provided it doesn't block trafic (this includes intersection corners, pedestrian crossings, and adjascent to other paralell-parked cars). To cross the street on a pedestrian crossing you must a) make eye contact with the driver, b) boldly step onto the road, thereby stating your superiority, and c) be ready to jump the hell out of the way in case there is any contest of wills. It's really like that. We went everywhere by subway, and the thing that is most different in Rome vs Zürich is that in Rome nobody waits for the passengers to get out before others start pushing in. It's just a scrum of bodies pushing past each other, either trying to escape onto the platform, or a desperate push to get to that one free seat before the little old lady over there gets it. I think I'm just spoiled.

The ruins.
The Aqueduct	Fontane de Trevi.
St. Peter's basilica	St. Peter's square (Vatican city).

Yes, we saw a lot in Rome. When we left it was still raining heavily, though it was quite hot (around 20 degrees, and I had to change my t-shirt). The mother of all thunder storms was happening as we took off, with lightning crashes every ten seconds or so. It dissipated once we got above the clouds, but arriving in Zürich we saw that it was zero degrees and snowing. "Welcome home", said Zürich.

We went back to Europa park before the end of the month, too. There were far too many people there to really enjoy it, but it was the Halloween special and well... it was okay. After that trip though I was thoroughly buggered, and ready to take a weekend off.