Scooters and Trumpets?

Since slipping into the chair behind the desk, quietly typing notes and listening to the lecturer became part of my everyday life again, my life seems to have made a full circle. What I did become aware of yesterday, was that I was forgetting to appreciate my surroundings, I was getting lost in the haze of study that was starting to envelop me.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when I was walking down the cobble stone streets, pizza in hand (which I have to say was a special treat for my lunch that day), that Hope and I heard the sound of a trumpet. Over whelmed with the beautiful melody, we thought that someone must be practising in one of the apartments above the street. As we approached the school, we found where the sound was coming from; we spotted a man walking absentmindedly up the street, at this point unusually there were no cars hurtling passed, dressed in normal attire, and with a timeworn hat placed on his head. The melody he was playing had no particular rhythm or order, but the acoustics bouncing off the buildings was anything to make your heart melt and realise (with pizza in hand) that you are actually in Italy. What made it even more cliché, was while we were watching him, a woman came to her window and waved her white handkerchief to the man.

A few times, I’ve seen something and thought “That is so Italian! I have to write it down”, but in truth we’re surrounded by this wonderful culture and as days go by, we’re getting more used to it. What makes me laugh the most, are the people on their scooters. Many times I’ve seen people driving a scooter, with a cigarette pursed between their lips, or even better I saw one with a cigar! Often you catch them coming home from the supermarket with their weekly shopping balancing between their legs. Or even better, I saw a man driving a scooter with a newly purchased curtain pole towering over him! It’s fantastic.

Often we’re found at a café just up the hill from our school, here we’re becoming locals. Stopping two or three times a day, most of the time for coffee or simply for a change of scenery. Sometimes, we’re lucky that not just the barman recognises us, but even the local batty old woman comes over to say ‘Salve’! On our walk to the café, it has been known to nearly get mowed over by mosquito sounding scooters or 50cc bikes driving like they’re racing down the hill. One particular day as we were walking back from our coffee break, I overheard a woman talking to a dog saying over and over again “Patatona! Patatona!”, which in English means big potato. Simple things!

It’s not hard to discover beauty, but having only been walking the same street for the past two weeks, it has become rather like automatic pilot mode.

Nutella and Banana on Toast...

It’s unusual for me to write about love. Not because I have not felt it but more so because my body and mind have never been over taken by it. It also seems that many people avoid writing about love these days; I guess under the public eye, it can be scrutinized and torn apart in one way or another. Maybe Shakespeare experienced the same thing with Anne Hathaway; maybe he fought against the forces to express his love for her. Who knows? But I do feel as though the general outlook on love changes depending on personal experience.

The reaction from my friends over the last few weeks, in regards to my new love, is that of either thinking we’re crazy or that the situation is quite romantic. I like to think it’s both.

I had been told by my mum that when I meet the right person, I will know. I remember Tesneem telling me her love story about her husband, that when she first met him she thought “Oh no!” a shock realisation that the person standing in front of her was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. I have to admit, I never thought it would happen to me.

So when I was invited to a party with my flatmate, I never thought that I would bump into the man that I would fall head over heels for. It started with simple conversation about travel and our experiences abroad, by the end of the evening his friends were fighting for his attention. What amazed me was that he could walk away from our conversation to pour a drink or tend to his friends for ten minutes, come back and know exactly where we ended our conversation.

These intense hour long chats continued to fit into our daily lives even when he had returned to Berlin, where he has been living for the last year. Let’s just say, technology like Skype is amazing! We’ve both found it slightly odd just how perfect things seem between us, whatever we seem to have a discussion about, we have a similar viewpoint. They say opposites attract, and after trying, testing and failing that theory, I am more than happy to be with a man that has a similar outlook on life as me.

The day he arrived back in Berlin at the beginning of August, he was on the internet finding me a flight to visit him at the end of the month. It seemed crazy at the time and we were both a little nervous that it would be awkward when we saw each other again, with fear that we were falling for the people on Skype and not the real thing. However, upon my arrival to Berlin, I was greeted firstly by a bouquet of appropriately coloured orange and yellow flowers (my favourite) and a lovely big bear hug. It was a strange feeling, as if we had known each other for a long time. The train ride home was long and with people looking at us strangely, it felt like we still had some ice to break.

After our first meal together and being able to have a giggle at the salad that sprung out of my mouth, totally first date material, the atmosphere was more relaxed between us and we were able to enjoy a lovely walk through the city of Berlin, from the tower to the Reichstag. The weekend continued to be a relaxed and carefree learning journey about each other, as to what to buy in the supermarket, to our similar dare-devil approach to breakfast one morning… yes Nutella and banana on toast works…and is amazing.



I spent five glorious days with this lovely man and I can’t wait to spend so many more with him. For now we have to be patient and see how the next few months plan out for us both. One way or another I will be staying here in Bergamo until July next year, within that time and after…who knows?