Another funny sign

This one made me throw my head back and laugh
hysterically. It read:

Back to School Sale

Hahahaaaaaaaaa

The first day of school was a couple of days ago and
for the first time in FOREVER I didn't have to be
there! Reality is finally sinking in (sometimes like
lead).

Anyway, I saw that sign in Berlin after typing my last
novel. And I think many of you will be happy to note
that I'm at a "standard" keyboard, so no games with
the z/y switcheroo.

>From Berlin we arrived in Prauge, home of affordable
dining and drinking, and more church spires than you
could shake a stick at. (I tried. Got a cramp in my
elbow.)

In Prague, I caught up with a friend of a friend from
the SF Softball circle. It was great walking through
the city with Pam. She pointed out a whole bunch of
sights for me to explore later on in the weekend (some
of my cohorts on the bus paid 9eu for a similar tour).
It was all fun in games until we crossed the river
and faced about a million steps up to a park. "Sure,
I can do steps!" I said cheerfully. It helped knowing
that we were on our way to a beer garden with cheap
cheap Budvar (Bud Weis Er) and sweeping views of
Prague. To our delight and surprise, we were also
treated to a pretty cool fireworks show. Just another
Friday night, I suppose.

On Saturday, I finally got to show some skin again, as
the rain that followed me in Amsterdam and Berlin
seemed to finally take off. I soaked up a few rays of
sunshine in Town Hall Square, listening to, of all
things, a dixieland jazz band busking. After every
three songs, they'd stop for a whiskey/cigarette
break. Consequently, each of the guys who sang
sounded like Louis Prima crossed with Harvey
Firestein. And because of that (or inspite of that) I
couldn't tell if they were singing actual Czech words
or just skatting like Louis Armstrong liked to do.
But they were great!

I also took a minute to watch Prague's Astronomical
Clock. That was sort of like the facade of It's A
Small World meets the penny arcade that used to be
under the Cliff House. Only crappy. One minute of my
life sacrificed to the vacation gods, but I DID get a
great picture of all the people around me gawking up
at the thing. :)

Day two in Prague was less sunny. Our hotel was way
out of the city center, so I took my time in heading
back to town, and met up with Mr. and Mrs. Doubtfire.
As cute, older couples go, these two were top notch.
They were traveling around with another tour group,
and needed to know how to get into the city. Me,
always happy to speak English with people, told them
I'd lead the way (I was heading to the same place
afterall). Anyhoo, they were really cute, and very
sweet. They were all sorts of amazed about a young
woman traveling alone. "We'd never do that in our
day," she said. "Couldn't have afforded it," he
added. "We're supposed to be able to afford it?" I
asked. We parted company with kisses and hugs as
though we'd known each other for 20 years instead of
just 20 minutes.

On my second wander through Prague, I crossed the
jam-packed St. Charles Bridge (think of John Voight
hitting the water in the beginnnig of Mission
Impossible) and cruised around the shadow of Prague's
castle (the biggest in Europe?). And, oddly enough, I
had another really good Mexican lunch.

We left Prauge in the rain and got to Vienna in the
rain. And the rain lingered for ages. I had an extra
day in Vienna, so I killed it by doing laundry and
reading 2 books. When I finally did head out into the
city, I walked around the Schonberg palace, past the
Opera House, and the home of the Vienna Boys Choir.
Unfortunately, the boys get July and August off, as do
the opera singers and just about anyone else you'd
want to see in Vienna. So I did what any other person
woud do and spent much of the next day at a cemetary.
(At least I knew that people would be there!)

This place was gi-gantic. Over 2.5 million people are
buried here. (I can't recall the name of the place, as
if you hadn't noticed.) There are plenty of average
joes and janes, huge sections of graves marked only
with Stars of Davids, and a very stately, groomed area
that is the final resting place of some famous guys
named Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, and Bach. The new
sections of the cemetary were really nice and gave me
no creepy feelings whatsoever. But what fun is that?
I felt inspired to head over to the very old and
overgrown section for a wander around. Some of the
graves were marked with dates back in the 1700s.
Other graves weren't legible at all. And still others
had fallen over, crumbled or, been removed completely.
Ivy grew over most of it, and if it weren't
daylight...well, let's face it, if it weren't
daylight, I sure as hell wouldn't have been there!...I
wouldn't have been surprised to be reliving the night
of the living dead or something like that.
Imaginations are dangerous in places like that!

And that was Vienna. No sausages. :)

>From Vienna we went to Salzburg for two nights. Along
the way I met up with a guy (Ian) who became my travel
buddy for the rest of the week. Together we did the
Sound of Music tour of Salzburg (entertaining EVERYONE
with our (horrible) renditions of the songs). This
was such a great tour. We got to see all of the great
sights from the movie: the Mirabell Gardens, the
abbey, the churches, the gazebo, and the beautiful
house on the lake. The only thing we didn't get to do
(to my and Ian's chagrin) was twirl around on a
hillside....something we were very willing to do
because, amazingly, the sun was out! But that wasn't
part of the tour.

We had dinner that night at what we thought was
Salzburg's famous Augustine beer hall. Actually, it
was Augustine's less-famous and slightly higher-priced
neighbor. But we had a great spread of Austrian food
(schnitzel, hams, cheeses, potato salads) and
monk-made beer.

The next day, Ian and I set out on yet another
organized tour (after spending the morning walking
through Salzburg's old town) to an ice cave in the
Austrian Alps. Can I say that it was cool? It was
cool. It was 0degrees cool. And this time I was
happy that it was rainy and foggy because I wouldn't
have wanted the view from the cable car ride that went
about 1700 meters straight up. The cave, well, it's
an ice cave. In its entirety, the cave goes about
72Ks back into the mountain, but only the first
kilometer is icy, so that's where we stayed. One k
in, one k out. 700 steps in (50 of which were at a 45
degree climb) and 700 steps out (luging ...luge-ing...
was not an option). It was fun, well worth the money,
and as promised by our guide, we got to keep our
souveniers (sore muscles) for several days after. At
this point, 1400 steps and 2ks is nothing, but it was
the 45 minutes of hiking up to the cave that gave me
calves of steel. Santorini's got nothing on the Alps!

Okay, so we finally got out of Salzburg's rain and
made our way to Munich's rain. At this point, none of
us were aware of exactly how much rain was falling in
the region. So, rather than being concerned, we were
still feeling mostly inconvenienced.

Bavaria! Beer, pretzels, cream. (Who needs brown
paper packages wrapped up in string?) We headed to
the Hofbrauhaus almost immediately for a glimpse at
the original beer hall. Bavarians are experts at
denial. Unless you lookup at the ceiling and study it
closely (or read a history book) you'd never know that
this was where the Nazis got their start. There are a
few painted-over swastikas on the ceiling, but
otherwise no mention of Munich's past. In a way, this
is a good thing, so I was told, because it lessens the
number of people who still support the Nazi party from
coming in and protesting and/or celebrating. So
instead they fill the HBHaus with oompapa music, men
in leiderhosen (had a dance with one), and beer
drinking merry makers. Good fun, even though we were
being laughed at by the locals for trying to slog
through the language to chat with the guy who "owned"
our table (same guy I danced with, actually).

>From the Hofbrau we went to a more authentic and less
touristy beer hall where Ian and I split meat loaf and
mac and cheeese. Very much a German specialty! For a
twist, they served the cheeseymac with crispy fried
onions on top. Yummy!

I must confess that I am back on a German keyboard and
the urge to do the z/y thing again is overwhelming. I
started writing this from Nice, but now I find myself
in Switzerland. Today was my second 3-country-day out
of the last 5 days. I don't know which end is up
anymore.

I'm going to give this thing a break for a while, but
will continue soon with the rest of my time in Munich
(complete with a trip to the Magic Kingdom), a quick
stop in Venice, and a very short night in Nice. Plus
I'm sure I'll have some good Swiss tales to tell.

Until then, happy whatever day it is. I personally
have no idea. :)

Love,
Michele