Travel Tips

Lindau, Germany

Dear Chris,

Class was boring today and the hours drug by like molasses. The only thing keeping me interested and alert was the fact that afterwards Emily and I had plans to go into Lindau for ice cream. Remember me telling you about Lindau? It’s that picturesque little German island in the middle of our lake. The day was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky, and as soon as class got out we made a mad dash to the train station for the short ride.

It was so nice sitting outside at one of the little café tables and eating together. We felt like real tourists on a leisurely vacation, relaxing in the warm sun as we watched the people stroll by on the little cobblestone roads. Our sundaes were way to large for us to finish, so at the end we switched dishes and tried the other’s.

Today, we didn’t’ t talk about anything important. We didn’t discuss the negativity of the other students, we didn’t talk about our (non-existent) love lives, and we didn’t even mention having to leave in a few weeks. We just enjoyed the day. For at least a little while, I even forgot about you.

I’m glad that I have Emily in my life now. In the beginning I didn’t know how I was ever going to live with her. Now I can’t imagine living here without her. We must fight at least everyday and we rarely ever agree on anything, but I care about her so much. She’s been a lifeline to me here. I’m not sure that we would have ever been friends back home, but here I feel like we live in our own little happy cocoon, apart from everyone else. Chris says that we’re like dumb and dumber and she’s scared that we found each other at last.
After we had our ice cream, we shopped around for a little while and I bought some Lindau inspired souvenirs. I’m adding to Mom’s bell collection. I’m adding to my collection of everything. I’m afraid that I am going to have to buy yet another suitcase to get everything back. The one I have is already filled with souvenirs and I don’t even have my clothes in it yet!
It might sound funny to you, but I am genuinely happy in Bregenz. I think I have found my peace-at least for a little while. I love absolutely everything about this place. I love the people, the lake, the restaurants, the ambiance-some days I just walk around for hours admiring everything. I don’t want to leave, and that scares me. I know that eventually I will have to leave and go home and then I will have to face all the problems that I left there. But here, here I am happy and have no problems. Even the vindictiveness of the other girls can’t keep me down. I made a pact with myself on the second day here that I would not let any negativity affect my good time.
Well, it was a wonderful day anyway. After we left Lindau we went to the Hirsch to eat our dinner (spaetzle with goat cheese!) but since we got there so late there wasn’t anyone there but us. This was good. Near the end of our meal, a very good looking young man came into the place and sat at the table next to ours. He was alone and Emily swore that he looked identical to Ryan Philippe. I don’t know about that, but he was very good looking. He kept catching our eyes and smiling and for a brief moment we discussed trying to talk to him. Eventually, we talked ourselves out of it. I guess in the long run he was just yet another man that I have been scared to chase. But that’s okay. He probably couldn’t speak English anyway.