Entries from my Travel Log: October 30th
As I write this, I hear a symphony of passing cars, clock tower bells, whistling birds, and soft, rhythmic breathing as my mom takes a mid-day nap.
We’re in St. Johann, Austria now. The sky is clear. The air is cold. The mountains ooze with the colors of fall. This is peace...
Yesterday, my mom and I travelled by plane, by bus, by car, by crazy-taxi, and by foot, and we stood on the soil of three different countries. I’d say that’s quite an adventure.
I mean, a coffee and croissant in Paris for breakfast, then sausages and a tankard of beer in Munich for lunch?
Not too bad.
We started off the journey at the Holiday Inn Paris Bastille in my neighborhood (I like to call it that), the 12th.
After a speedy taxi ride through the empty streets of Paris, we rolled our bags into Charles de Gaulle Airport at 6:30 am to catch our flight to Munich, Germany. Air France happens to (of course...) be on strike at the moment, so we were anxious to find out if the airline had cancelled our flight. When we reached our terminal, a confused crowd of people had formed around the Air France check-in.
Humans as a species tend to dawdle and meander around in mindless packs, confused as to why they are doing what they are doing, but equally sure that all the other bumbling doofusses around them know exactly what they are doing...
Being humans, mom and I joined in for a while; we had heard someone from the crowd say that flights to Germany might be cancelled. Eventually though, we recognized that these particular bumbling doofusses certainly did not know what they were doing. We simply walked up to a different line, checked-in smoothly, and left the growing heard of confused homo-sapiens to miss their flights.
Hey, it’s survival of the fittest, right?
...And so, with a feathery blanket of clouds between our plane and the earth, we made a little dotted line across the map of Europe, landing just outside Munich, Germany.
Munich is awesome. Sorry for the lack of an eloquent description, but it’s true! I loved the yellow and pink bavarian style buildings and the totally absurd amount of clock towers jutting into the sky—seriously, clocks are everywhere. No need to wear a watch in Munich. Autumn had exploded all over the city in bright, bright yellow leaves and the Sunday afternoon streets were empty and quiet.
Munich was very exited to have the Golackson ladies as its distinguished guests. ;) As a special treat to welcome us, the city decided to have its Glockenspiel-twirling-dancing-doll-clock-thing start right as we walked up. I wish that I had a better way of describing what this thing was, but alas, in Munich I am but a mere, ignorant tourist.
Anyway, it was... awesome. Here's a picture that shows the thing that I am obviously so incapable of describing.
After exploring for a while, mom and I made our way to the Hofbrauhous for lunch.
When we walked in, it smelled like beer, meat, and leather pants.
A band of musicians played loud, traditional music, and hundreds of folks sat at long wooden tables filled with food and beer.
...Lots and lots of beer.
So at the Haufbrauhous, we discovered, you simply walk in and choose your seat at one of the long wooden tables at which folks are already sitting and eating.
This is cool and all, but it kinda felt like being the awkward new kid trying to find a place to eat lunch in the cafeteria.
I’d like to say that at this point sat down next to a crew of fun, rowdy German men with whom we because instant best friends and played drinking games all afternoon.
In reality, we chose to sit with a rather boring young couple who seemed very annoyed that we had decided to sit at their table. I later realized that this was because they had, naturally, come to this inherently social and public restaurant to have an intense make-out session. Awkward.
I could see the flat, green land rise in waves as it flowed past my window. The swells grew larger and larger, and just as the waves of hills broke into rocky, white-capped Alps, night fell. We would have to wait 'til morning to see the scenery...
After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived at Alpenland Sporthotel in the ski-town of St. Johann, Austria.
Our room was comfy, and it came complete with a balcony, a funny-looking Austrian bunny outside the window, two cozy feather comforters, one luxuriously soft bathrobe, one scratchy and itchy bathrobe (guess who got the itchy one...), an awesome view, a clock with the incorrect time, and one of those funny bidet things for washing your bum! Score!
In the hotel, if you go one direction from the stairs and you'll find a full sized indoor swimming pool, two jacuzzis, a couple of saunas, an extensive weight room/gym, a tanning bed, and plenty of European people walking around naked in all of these places... because that is just an okay thing to do around these parts.
Go the other direction from the stairs and you'll find an Italian Restaurant, and Austrian Restaurant, pool tables, a bar, and no European people walking around naked in any of these places... because that would just not be an okay thing to do, well, anywhere.
Anyway, we enjoyed the pool and the jacuzzi (and I may or may not have been spotted in the general vicinity of the tanning bed... gasp) and then headed off to bed.
'Twas a fantastic day!
As I write this, I hear a symphony of passing cars, clock tower bells, whistling birds, and soft, rhythmic breathing as my mom takes a mid-day nap.
We’re in St. Johann, Austria now. The sky is clear. The air is cold. The mountains ooze with the colors of fall. This is peace...
Yesterday, my mom and I travelled by plane, by bus, by car, by crazy-taxi, and by foot, and we stood on the soil of three different countries. I’d say that’s quite an adventure.
I mean, a coffee and croissant in Paris for breakfast, then sausages and a tankard of beer in Munich for lunch?
Not too bad.
 |
| This is my mom; she's so lovely. |
We started off the journey at the Holiday Inn Paris Bastille in my neighborhood (I like to call it that), the 12th.
After a speedy taxi ride through the empty streets of Paris, we rolled our bags into Charles de Gaulle Airport at 6:30 am to catch our flight to Munich, Germany. Air France happens to (of course...) be on strike at the moment, so we were anxious to find out if the airline had cancelled our flight. When we reached our terminal, a confused crowd of people had formed around the Air France check-in.
Humans as a species tend to dawdle and meander around in mindless packs, confused as to why they are doing what they are doing, but equally sure that all the other bumbling doofusses around them know exactly what they are doing...
Being humans, mom and I joined in for a while; we had heard someone from the crowd say that flights to Germany might be cancelled. Eventually though, we recognized that these particular bumbling doofusses certainly did not know what they were doing. We simply walked up to a different line, checked-in smoothly, and left the growing heard of confused homo-sapiens to miss their flights.
Hey, it’s survival of the fittest, right?
...And so, with a feathery blanket of clouds between our plane and the earth, we made a little dotted line across the map of Europe, landing just outside Munich, Germany.
Munich is awesome. Sorry for the lack of an eloquent description, but it’s true! I loved the yellow and pink bavarian style buildings and the totally absurd amount of clock towers jutting into the sky—seriously, clocks are everywhere. No need to wear a watch in Munich. Autumn had exploded all over the city in bright, bright yellow leaves and the Sunday afternoon streets were empty and quiet.
Anyway, it was... awesome. Here's a picture that shows the thing that I am obviously so incapable of describing.
When we walked in, it smelled like beer, meat, and leather pants.
A band of musicians played loud, traditional music, and hundreds of folks sat at long wooden tables filled with food and beer.
...Lots and lots of beer.
So at the Haufbrauhous, we discovered, you simply walk in and choose your seat at one of the long wooden tables at which folks are already sitting and eating.
This is cool and all, but it kinda felt like being the awkward new kid trying to find a place to eat lunch in the cafeteria.
I’d like to say that at this point sat down next to a crew of fun, rowdy German men with whom we because instant best friends and played drinking games all afternoon.
In reality, we chose to sit with a rather boring young couple who seemed very annoyed that we had decided to sit at their table. I later realized that this was because they had, naturally, come to this inherently social and public restaurant to have an intense make-out session. Awkward.
Regardless, we had great time. We shared what felt like about a gallon of Hofbrauhous’ original beer, a plate of sausages and sauerkraut, and German-style apple strudel while the band played and the occasional drinking-song broke out at the more animated tables across the big, echoing room.
We walked around Munich for a while longer, but soon decided to get started on the drive to Austria....
Mom drove, I slept a bit, and we cruised through the countryside which was now dotted with white church spires and little villages.I could see the flat, green land rise in waves as it flowed past my window. The swells grew larger and larger, and just as the waves of hills broke into rocky, white-capped Alps, night fell. We would have to wait 'til morning to see the scenery...
After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived at Alpenland Sporthotel in the ski-town of St. Johann, Austria.
Our room was comfy, and it came complete with a balcony, a funny-looking Austrian bunny outside the window, two cozy feather comforters, one luxuriously soft bathrobe, one scratchy and itchy bathrobe (guess who got the itchy one...), an awesome view, a clock with the incorrect time, and one of those funny bidet things for washing your bum! Score!
 |
| So comfy! |
In the hotel, if you go one direction from the stairs and you'll find a full sized indoor swimming pool, two jacuzzis, a couple of saunas, an extensive weight room/gym, a tanning bed, and plenty of European people walking around naked in all of these places... because that is just an okay thing to do around these parts.
Go the other direction from the stairs and you'll find an Italian Restaurant, and Austrian Restaurant, pool tables, a bar, and no European people walking around naked in any of these places... because that would just not be an okay thing to do, well, anywhere.
Anyway, we enjoyed the pool and the jacuzzi (and I may or may not have been spotted in the general vicinity of the tanning bed... gasp) and then headed off to bed.
'Twas a fantastic day!
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