the hills are very freaking alive.

I spent all of last week in Germany and Austria after a rash yet excellent decision a couple weeks ago that what I really needed to do with my life was visit Suz in Bad Ischl. This visit expanded to include a couple of days staying in Freiburg with my former Mitbewohnerin, Inga, where I also met up with Cheryl and Jane; the better part of three days in Bad Ischl, Austria with Suz; and then a day and some change in Salzburg crashing at Amanda's place.

I made the decision early on that this was going to be more of a people-visiting vacation than a seeing-things vacation, and I think that was totally the right decision. Anything I wanted to see and didn't just means I'll have to go back soon, which, oh darn. What a horrible thing to be forced to do!

Ten Really Awesome Things That Happened, in No Particular Order

1. Wandering down the path on the banks of the Dreisam between Littenweiler and Wiehre, Freiburg:



2. Drinking coffee in the sunshine with Inga, Freiburg:



3. Hanging out in Zähringen, Freiburg and meeting Jane's (then) 12-day-old niece, Lia, who makes excellent faces:



4. Eating lunch by the lake in the Alps outside of Bad Ischl, Austria:



5. Being growled at by a swan that decided it wanted our lunch more than we did, outside of Bad Ischl, Austria:



6. Going on a hike by a lovely lake in the Alps . . . along the edge of a highway.

Suz: You never said you didn't want to be on the side of the road!
Me: That is accurate.



7. Hiking up a never-ending mountain, and being rewarded with an excellent view of Bad Ischl:



And an even more excellent view of Radler and Strudel afterwards:



8. Somewhat purposeful Sound of Music tour, Salzburg:



9. Eiskaffee at Stein Terrasse, on the seventh floor deck of Hotel Stein, Salzburg:



10. Second night in a row of the Biergarten Augustiner Bräu, Salzburg:



We were approached by a bunch of (halfway cute!) guys from outside of Salzburg while sitting at that very table. It was wildly entertaining and also super frustrating to realize that while my German might be very good when it come to Hochdeutsch, Austrian Dialekt is a whole different ball game.

Guy, to me: Blahbiddy blah blah, blah?
Me, to Amanda: Um . . . help.
Amanda: He wanted to know what your name was.
Me: Er. Right.

It's all about what you're exposed to, but still -- yikes!

It's been a little rough coming back into NYC's time zone and work schedule, but I'm managing. Katie and I made our escape from One Liberty Plaza right at 5:30 (practically unheard of!) and went to see Star Trek with Ana. All I can say about it is, dear Lord, go see that movie. I catch only the barest of Star Trek references and have seen maybe two episodes of the original series, both in tenth grade Modern European History with Mr. Oberdorfer, delightful Trekkie that he is -- and so I was a little worried that the movie was not going to be my thing.

Oh. But it is. I knew enough to know that there were plenty of references I was not getting, but this in no way prevented me from loving the stuffing out of it. It's action-y and flashy and wildly hilarious, and did I mention that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are really attractive? Because they are.