Determined and Persistent

Hey all,

Still in Pisa – booked until Monday – foot getting better and walking close to normal, at least when wearing boots – still a bit tender on bare feet. But staying around to Monday to at least partially follow the doctor's advice – he said 10 days – modified it down to 8 when I looked distraught – and Monday would be 7, or at least 6. But am about to go nuts if I stay still much longer. A bit flat too - I think at least partially because I am back in civilisation. Photo 1 is the kind of place I had a coffee and cigar at in Corsica. Photo 2 the same in Sardinia. Photo 3 is where I had a coffee and cigar today, talking to K. It is a big adjustment.

Finished Blood's a Rover – very good, but kind of glad to be done with it – he is relentlessly bleak. On to Three Men in a Boat – which has made me laugh out loud several times today, causing people to stare.

My room was nearly full last night – a nice young Polish couple who were here for the night – came back at about midnight – the male half of the couple was so pissed I was amazed he could stand – I was laughing at him – he said “I. Like. Vodka,” a phrase which took him at least 30 seconds to get out. While not exactly drunk the female half of the couple was definitely frisky – she dragged her near comatose man off to the bathroom with a distracted air about her. Polish women are determined: despite his state she persisted – they were in the shower for an hour. A pool of water spread from under the bathroom door into the room itself. It took them nearly five minutes to figure out the lock on the way back out. She put him into the lower bunk where he finally passed out, his task complete, then climbed up on to the top her self and promptly went to sleep, no longer distracted.

Then some spooky looking guy in a suit with no luggage in the bunk above me – he came in, peered around in a sinister kind of way, hung his jacket on the bunk, climbed up, went to sleep. Almost certainly an apprentice hit-man, working his way up. Also, the Dutch dude in the bunk across from me had found himself a perky little companion by the time I woke up – somehow they managed to occupy the same cot sized lower bunk. True love.

All gone today. Now I have five Americans (one is Canadian, but it is only the Canadians who think there is a whole lot of difference), four of whom are studying in Holland, the other is on holiday from the states and is either the brother, or the boyfriend, or the friend, of one of the girls. I am unclear. They all seem nice but may be a little intimidated by the skinhead Australian in the room with them.

Would be interesting to stay somewhere like this, in the one room, for a couple of months and just document all the different people who cycle through the place. Still, glad I am about to move on.

Cheers, B.