Europe Excerpt #2: The Awkward Couple

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This summer, I went to Europe for a month. I spent significant time in England, France and Italy, and comparatively insignificant time in Germany and Monaco. I kept a detailed journal throughout this trip, one of the best decisions I've ever made. This blog entry is an excerpt from July 5's entry, which was my first day in Italy's beautiful Cinque Terre region. Other Europe Excerpts:

Europe Excerpt #1: The Europe Playlist - A list of all the songs that got stuck in my head while in Europe, and the stories behind a few of the more interesting ones.

Setting the stage: on July 5, I traveled from Nice (in France) to Cinque Terre, stopping over in Genoa. I arrived in the late afternoon, unpacked my things and then headed downtown. There was some sort of public outdoor concert, which was awful, so I didn't stay for long before finding a dinner spot. This excerpt details an observation I made while at dinner.

"...but the best part of dinner was observing the couple beside me. We had sat down at the same time because there had previously been a big group there, so they separated the tables to make room for our 2 parties. Anyway, it was this North American couple, probably in their low 30s, and from their rings I assumed they were married, but they had the most awkward dinner I've ever seen. This middle aged woman from New Zealand turned around and chatted me up for about 5 minutes because I reminded her of her son, and I think we had more conversation than the Awkwards had all night. Also, they were speaking in extremely low voices, as if they didn't want anyone to hear what they were saying (I couldn't hear them, and I was right next door). Furthermore, they only really spoke shortly after food arrived, leading me to believe the only conversation they could come up with was in regards to the food. There was so much tension at the table, when I tried to leave I got clothes-lined. My guess was that they came to Italy to try to save their marriage, and it totally wasn't working. It's cruel, but I loved every minute of it."

Funny story: I ate a pasta dish as part of my dinner, which was trenette with pesto, cheese and potatoes. It was one of the best meals of the trip, and I just found out last night that a friend from Teacher's College had the exact same dish at the exact same restaurant earlier in the summer.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this Europe Excerpt! There will be more to come another time, so stay tuned.