#personal highlights

I slept most of the ride

I barely remember anything. The weekend before we left for our vacation was quite busy so I had been tired. Plus I was too excited to sleep during the night.

The first italian pizza and ice cream after 3 years.

The very nice cat that came to me for some share of kindness and affection.

Our trip to the old city of Sirmione and the boat trip around the tip of the island Sirmione is built on.

The really delicious (and damn hot) hot chocolate.

Rimini (4th to 14th july)

Our rooms

We had originally booked a double room (for my parents) and a room with two separate beds (for my brother and me) that were supposed to be as close together as possible.

Our rooms were next to each other (big plus) and two double rooms. Which was not a big problem since my brother and I get along really good and we already shared a double bed during other vacations.

The actual problem was that we’d have to share a blanket because there was only one big one for the bed. I already saw either of us waking up because the other one had stolen the blanket. The fact that the bottom end of the blanket (in fact only a sheet because italy in summer is warm) was tucked under the mattress proved itself very useful because it kept the sheet in place.

In the end, the biggest problem my brother and I had to face about our sleeping situation was the fact that most of the time he would lay on the sheet (or lift it to get some cooler air under it since he’s always warm) while I prefered to have it pulled up all the way to my chin because I like my warm blanket cocoon.

Or that I invaded his space while beeing asleep. Which caused him to lay on my shoulder at some point. That guy is quite heavy, especially when asleep.

The food

The food was great. We had a breakfast buffet every morning. Some elements changed from day to day (sometimes even during breakfast), others were always there. The only mild disappointment was the fact that they didn’t serve scrambled eggs, I had been looking forwards to it really much.

Starting at about 4 pm, snacks were served at the hotel’s pool (on the roof). They included: honeydew melon, water melon, little pieces of pizza, hot dogs (I saw them only the day we arrived), sandwiches with ham and halved tuna burgers. The burgers were my absolute favourite.

The really clever waitress in the breakfast room who knew after two or three days what I drink at breakfast.

For a better understanding: there were always about four members of the staff in the breakfast room. They cleaned up after people left and brought the guests the drinks they had ordered. You could get different kinds of juice from the buffet, but if you wanted coffee, tea etc., you had to order them from one of usually two waitresses. A barista drew some really awesome patterns in the milk foam of the cappuchinos. Like these ones:

The pics were by my parents.

The unintentionally funny moment when you notice the second waitress at the breakfast room has a different definition of your favourite drink from you.

Again for better understanding: I love a nice cup of cold milk for breakfast. The second waitress (not the one I mentioned one point above) defined ‘cold milk’ as slightly heated and foamed up milk. My definition of ‘cold milk’ is straight from the fridge cold and not foamed up milk. She was pretty embarassed about the difference between our definitions when I spoke to her about it, even though I assured her that it wasn’t that bad.

I simply can’t get down warm/hot milk unless it’s hot chocolate.

The really cool, pirate ship-themed restaurant we went to.

The staff’s uniforms looked as if they were pirates. It included bandanas and eye patches (that were not worn over the eyes but still!). The boss wore a tricorne and carried a unlit pipe with him. One evening, they even had somebody dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow who imitated his movements really well! Plus their burgers were really delicious. We went there twice.

The side trip to San Marino

San Marino is independant, similar to Monaco. The historic city on a mountain is full of little alleyways. It’s geared towards tourism a lot so there are souvenir shops and gelaterias all over. I found a really pretty (and pretty cheap) snow globe for my collection.

The Harry Potter fan shop and the Harry Potter booth

My parents (who had already been to Rimini twice) already told me about the shop. And of course it was on my list of places I definitely wanted to see from inside. We had a few problems to find the shop at first simply because it had moved. They had mostly stuff from Harry Potter (including the sword of Godric Gryffindor!) but also some Assassins Creed, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings/Hobbit.

At the booth my mum mistook a picture of Thorin (only his face) with Hagrid...she also wanted to say something about Gollum (I assume very much she thought he was Dobby) but my inner fangirl couldn’t take it and I corrected her. She was the one to introduce me and my siblings to Harry Potter by reading the books to us and we went to the movies together since we were too young back then to watch them without a parent...

Being able to smell the sea again

I really love that smell. For me it’s connected with holidays because we spent many holidays by the sea. When my year made a class trip to one of the german islands (somewhere around 2008 I think) some of them said the sea was stinking...

Watching crabs at some stones near the pier

The trip to the weekly market with only my mum

The weekly marked was actually twice per week, on wednesdays and saturdays. After our first trip (Saturday the 7th) to the market (with my dad and my brother) mum and I decided that we wanted to go there on our own again. Also because my dad can get rather annoying after a while on such a trip. We both found some really nice clothes for little money.

Having the chance to go swimming in the pool after a trip

It wasn’t that hot (round about 28 to 30 °C) but after walking around in the sun for two hours, you sweat buckets. No chance to avoid it. Having an AC in your room (especially when you aren’t used to it) is nice. But nothing helps you to cool off as good as a swimming pool. Even though it was mostly cold enough that you needed to swim for a bit to avoid freezing^^

The incredible cuddly cat that even climbed in my lap.

I really love it when I get the chance to pet a cat or dog. But I never met a cat as cuddly as that one. I barely kneeled down, when the cat came to me and almost instantly started rubbing itself against my knees/legs. It even climbed in my lap to get more. My idiot brother had nothing better to do than take a picture of it. I finally had to gently push down the cat because it had climbed in my lap while I was on a street. Not a busy one, but still a street. It had left little paw prints on my white skirt because of course something like that always happens when somebody wears white.

La notte rosa

‘Summer Silvester’ as a employee of our hotel called it. A gigant summer festival with eating-booths, fireworks, stages for live music and whatever else belongs to that kind of festivals. At 8 pm? Nothing. It’s empty. Return at 10 pm and everything is crowded. 90 kilometers along the coast, not only in Rimini.

The riddiculous large pizza that was easily 35 to 40 cm in diameter.