The Sound of Pillows...

walk through a castle? CHECK.
see a 2-story McDonalds? CHECK.
drink a red bull in the very place where it comes from? CHECK.
eat red curry thai chicken at the restaurant in the BMW museum / factory? CHECK.

it has been an eventful day... and at the end of it, I land in - what appears to be - a bed the size of an olympic pool at the Four Points hotel in Munich Germany.
honestly, I cannot wait to sleep. so I apologize ahead of time for my brief synopsis of what the day brought ('or should I say braut).

wait... what was that you said? you challenge me to a RUN-ON SENTENCE DUEL????!!!

WELL, how could I possibly turn that down after the early start that I had this morning so that I could start our drive off to Salzburg Austria where all the tour buses accumulate and clog up the museum and everything-else-that's-interesting drain with their camera straps, audio head-sets, and obnoxious guide that requests all 84 of them cross the same bridge at the same time that we have to (doh!) in order to get to the most awesomest Festung Hohensalzburg ever that showcased so many torture devices it made me timid to remain in what clearly looked to be a psychotic little town (or at least used to be) before The Sound of Music decided to shoot in their hills - which we didn't visit since I don't believe in twirling in the mountains so freely like that, at least not on an empty stomach, which I then filled with bread and a salat with pesto pumpkin seeds, balsamic dressing, and sheep's milk cheese (I am pretty positive that may have been the best salat ever. and 'pretty positive' for me is something I never say) which then gave me enough fuel to hit the gas pedal and drive another couple of hours without falling asleep to Munich Germany, then walk briskly through Olympic Park and then leisurely to my room where these wonderful down-feather pillows - when turned upside-down then right-side-up whisper my name (like those little tins that moo).

good run-on ja? now where's my medal.

in other news...
...what Munich built for the 1972 Olympics is amazing - architecture ahead of its time.
...castles are far too claustrophobic for my anxiety's taste. thank goodness I toured one finally - I will now retract my bid from that one in Los Gatos I was looking at.
...another plus to walking miles upon miles every day? buying NEW SHOES when my current ones fall apart. yeeeeeeaah buddy.

showering: a waste of time no matter where you are

now that I have finally figured out what day it is... happy Thursday!

to all my California friends: the day is almost over and then, just one more before you can start your crazy weekend plans. but really, I don't think Friday even qualifies as a day. it should really just be called 'Fri'.
I know you all concur therefore... moving along.

after a restless night of sleep for me, I got up to do some necessary laundry in the sink... and then strung the clothes up on a line through the living / bedroom. I am sure the housekeeping crew appreciated all the striped socks and undies on display - and they didn't even leave a tip.
we ran downstairs to grab a quick bite and then headed downtown to catch a Nordkette up to the Austrian Alps.
while the tram was highly decorated with Australian and Japanese tourists exchanging broken HELLO's in each other's languages, there were also some hard-core local slalom bikers joining in on the ride. when there is no snow on the mountain, bike jumps and trails and structures are available and... I am pretty sure you need to be high on not one - but several - different things in order to attempt these trails. good thing drug-infested Zurich is just around the corner!

I digress...
after tramming up 5500 feet in 20 minutes the view was... amazeballs - and it just kept getting better as we hiked the rest of the few feet up to the vista. which is - evidently - the Ibex's most favorite location to lay a poo (photo below. photo NOT of the poo, rather just the Ibex). fortunately we did not see a single Ibex in person (I don't like things with horns. unless it's a unicorn)... instead we were stuck with just the poo on our shoes as evidence that they had been there (and been there recently). thank you Ibex.

we grabbed some very authentic and yum lunch while on the mountain and then I fell asleep back at the hotel... dreaming of picking out a Lady Gaga costume for Halloween and then eventually deciding everything was way too riskay for me to wear and then I woke up, ate some chocolate, ate some salad, sipped a coffee, The End.

in other news...
...showering - it sucks whether I am at home or on holiday.
...sauerkraut is way better in Austria and is entirely different from what I remember my dad purchasing at the hockey game in 1993 when I first tried it.
...you know you are in a wiener-heavy city when the ketchup packets they produce are big enough for one whole wiener. Austrians = so smart.
...to my friend Marisa (the only person to throw a request my way): I give you the closest thing I could find to an Austrian knitted item below. it was in the window of a kindergarten.

check bitte!

ooh Tuesday. no, Wednesday. NO - TUESday. I don't know.
whatever day it is, it has been long.

after a croissant and a latte at a place called Hot Pasta (?) we said Auf Wiedersehen to Zurich and partook in some "loud speaking" at one another in the car while trying to follow road laws and directions from a GPS and Blackberry that refused to talk to any and all satellites in the world until... finally... we were on the highway.
destination: Innsbruck Austria.

the scenery changed immediately from clean bustling city streets to large open hills of green sprinkled with bell-wearing skinny cows. I really expected to see a blonde woman with double braids selling fresh butter on the side of the road but evidently all of them were busy - must be butter-churning season.

I took a stab at driving after we admired all the nutella at the gas station and man - 120 kph is deceivingly, very much-so... NOT FAST. and with all the fixed radar guns and cameras on the road, you do not want to push the limit (I am pretty sure I will have a few tickets in the mail when I get home).
5 (or 10) Gran Turismo-like tunnels later - at a blazing speed of 65 mph - and... destination reached.

Innsbruck is far more touristy than I would have liked - all the old couples wearing matching leiderhosen with price tags still attached and large groups of tour-attendees all wearing matching tacky neck-bandanas make me want to scurry back to my room BUT - the view of the Alps just isn't the same from there.
I am surrounded by snow-tipped lush mountains and incredibly humbled. to think - just last week there I was in my California mole-hole for 29 years completely satisfied with Yosemite - convinced I was lucky to be living so close to it. HMPH.
there's bigger beauty in the world.
and with better strudels too.

tomorrow we take a Nordkette (tram) up the mountain to Seegrube, meander around like we're on holiday and then locate a restaurant that offers a better dinner than the open-faced turkey "burger" I had tonight - complete with 2 pineapple circles and 2 cherries.
and yes - they looked just like boobs.

in other news...
...when receiving amazing strudel with powdered sugar, do not look down and breathe out in awe.
...the McDonald's here really DOES have a Hamburger Royale on the menu. it also is furnished like the nice section in Ikea (*obscure and generally vague photo included below).
...photo / adventure requests? submit them and maybe I'll make them happen. maybe.