The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Moosic...(and Bells)

4.7.10--Brauneck Berg

Happy 4th everyone!  I celebrated the birth of our country by climbing a 1540 m mountain in Bavaria!  It was pretty tough, but I'm really glad I did it and didn't wimp out and take the Seilbahn (lift--literally, cable train).  It was quite an experience, and now I can put it on my list of accomplishments.  =)  It took about 3 1/2 hours, after we briefly went the wrong way and had to turn around.  I was the last one there, but whatever, I enjoyed it.  Slow and steady wins the race.  There are lots of cows all over the mountains, and you can hear their bells from miles away.  We stayed overnight in the Brauneck Gipfelhaus (Brauneck was the name of the mountain; Gipfel=peak, and Haus=house).  It was fun; after a nap we explored a bit more, had dinner and a few drinks, and sat around a campfire and roasted marshmallows.  The marshmallows here are werid...they roast differently/not as well.  Perhaps its because it's less fake ingredients.  Dunno.  Also, apparently Germans don't normally roast marshmallows--usually only bread or sausage.  Roasted marshmallows are definitely an American thing.  It started raining, so we went inside, and after a bit of hanging out, we went to sleep.  The girls were all sleeping in one room, and the boys in another.  We had really really creaky bunk beds [and not just 2 beds per contraption, either--it was a mega bunk bed.  The girls had 3 on the bottom, 3 on the top, with another regular (1 on top and bottom).  The boys had 1 giant bed contraption with 14 or so on the bottom and top, respectively.]  Anyways, the beds were really creaky, so everytime anyone moved even the slightest bit, it was super loud, so sleeping was difficult.  It was alright though.  Quite fun.


5.7.10--Brauneck Berg

Today after breakfast, we went on a short ~3 hour hike on some more mountains.  We got up to 1712 m!  Some of the views we got were so spectacular.  I felt like spinning around and singing like Maria von Trapp, but then I would've fallen and plummeted to my death.  It was awesome though, seeing the world from such a great height really puts a new perspective on things.  It was really nice weather, quite foggy, but only on one side of the mountain, so the views weren't terribly ruined.  It was only 60- or 70-something degrees, so although I was sweating, it was not from the heat.  Much cooler than yesterday.  Also slipperier, but whatever.  I only fell twice.  After a while, it started raining, but not too hard, so it was still bearable, if not pleasurable and refreshing.  It wasn't until we took a break at an Alm (little cafe/restaurant/bar thing for hikers and hunters--lots of them all over the mountains) that I started to get cold because we were just sitting there in our cold sweat and cold rain.  Then it cleared up and we resumed our hike, ending at the restaurant where we ate lunch.  I had Kaiserschmarr'n, which literally means "emperor's mess."  It was delicious--it consisted of cut up pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar, with applesauce with lingonberries on top to dip it in.  Tasty stuff.  To drink, I had a Russ (Wiessbier-Cola) which was interesting, but also pretty tasty.  When it first came, it looked like a coke float, because of the foam.  After lunch, we took the Seilbahn back down the mountain, which only took 10-15 minutes, and we got to see our previous path from above.  It was pretty crazy.  On the drive back home, we went through Austria for a short bit, and then later I saw some more cows, along with some other animal, a yak or a buffalo or something.  It was really hairy and had the big horns.  Saw a few horses too, but mostly cows.  Now I'm back home, and I've gotta finish up some homework for tomorrow.  Bis später!




Also, I put up the next batch of photos: Köln!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048097&id=1135320260&l=9e06ecc617