Back in Landeck

Saturday we just relaxed, just lollygaggin' and readin'. Christoph had new jokes to try out on us.

The night before we had left for Italy the four of us stayed up late telling joke after joke. Christoph was frustrated that he couldn't translate German jokes he knew into funny English versions. One got us giggling though:

Two chocolates--a caramel and a noisette (nut chocolate) sat on a wall. The noisette sneezed and fell off. The caramel looked down and said, "Are you alright?". The noisette replied, "I think I hurt my nuts."

Most of the time, we would just look at him blankly when the punch line was said to many of his jokes:

God was talking to a rabbi who was dissapointed with his son and his life direction. The Rabbi said to God, "I understand you had son problems too--how did you deal with this?" God:"I made a new testament"

Huh?

will and testament is how you say this?--- oh! funny....!

Most of the laughter was over translation frustration--and from the general joy to be had sitting and being silly with friends.

Sunday we hiked to the little cabin that has been in Gabi's family for decades. It was cold, cold. The hillside, the countryside on this hike, this terrain not 10 minutes from their house, never ceases to overwhelm me with its beauty--and I've done this hike about 6 times in 20 years. Americans have a warm nostalgia for the movie "The Sound of Music", Austrians either don't know this movie, or, if they do, they despise it. Gabi told me when I told her how this walk looked like it came straight from the movie, "I remember when you forced me to watch this AWFUL film!"

As my friend Rachel pointed out in her bloggings on her recent trip to Austria--it's mandatory for every American visitor to this quaint country's hillsides to twirl in the manner of Julie Andrews as Maria Von Trapp, with arms outstretched, head thrown back, and belting "THE HILLS ARE ALIIIIIIIIIIVE WITH THE SOUUUUUUND OF MUUUUUUUUSIIIIIIIIIIC!"

Don't be surprised, however, if locals within hearing vicinity cringe and cover their ears.

When we arrived we made a fire outside and roasted sausages over the coals. The farmer who leases the land around the cabin had recently sprayed the hillsides with a manure slurry. The aroma was so pungent it made my nose itch. Something about the smell mix of smoke, sausage, pine trees, meadow and manure---not something I'll be able to easily duplicate in Seattle...

Back down the hills to home, Jeff and I cooked an Italian meal for the family: Pasta with tomato sauce and bacon, Italian red wine, salad. It was a hit!

Then down to Katharina's and Michal's for tea and dessert--they had wanted to visit with Jeff and I. The table we sat around was the same table and kitchen I sat at the first time I visited in '88. I learned Austrian drinking songs at this table! (at the innocent age of 16). K and M are very involved in Celtic fantasy games where they meet up with other people who all dress and act in character, having grand adventures and epic battles. Kati dresses as an elf, Michal, as a Celtic warrior. I think they are as addicted to this as people I knew in college who were addicted to Dungeons and Dragons...

Yesterday (Monday) we lazed and ate again--G and C took us to a restaurant as this would be the last opportunity for us all to have a grand feast together. Later we went to Elisabeth and Roman's where we spent the night there so that we could have one last session with them of good conversation.

Our last full day in Austria is today. Tomorrow we leave on the train at 11:30am for a 6.5 hour ride back to Frankfurt. We spend the night in a hotel there, then on the plane on the 9th for the long journey home.

The time has passed quickly--but also very slowly. It feels like an age ago that we surprised Gabriele at her party.

I am ready to be home, ready to tackle the projects again, ready to be in my own bed, ready for my familiar routine. Traveling is grand, is educational, is necessary--but home is mandatory.

Not quite done with my adventures, more stories to tell, possibly. Then if you like, you can check in periodically and see how the adventures of mundane, everyday existence, full of predictability, yet rich with possibility, unfold...what could be better?

Seriously.