get your germany on

today i was a tourist in a city that used to be mine. i'm trying to look at freiburg through new eyes this time, since the people i knew here are not here, and that changes everything about a place. i know my way around intuitively though, and familiar sights take me back to some wonderful moments.

this afternoon i wandered through the market by the münster. i sat inside the church for a while. i ate rhubarb yogurt on a bench by the rathhaus (my favorite food in the world, let me tell you). i wrote letters and drank coffee at Cafe Aspekt, my old favorite studying spot. it was a nice saturday, and i look forward to more of them.

fernweh

i am in freiburg. finally. and i still don't believe it.

freiburg is the city i lived in in college. and it is the reason i started this blog, once upon a time.

this time, though, i have turned in studying and partying for backyard soccer and making sack lunches. i'm living with a german family as an aupair (read: foreign nanny). there are four kids in my care (two sets of twins, in 1st and 3rd grade), and all of them are so-far-wonderful. life never ceases to be completely bizarre.

i'll take some photos of my fantastic new digs after i get settled. for now though, i just finished putting my montana photos online. you can find most of them here.

the good times are killing me

to borrow a phrase from my mother, leaving swiftcurrent is like "poking sharp sticks in my eyes." it was a long and awful drive through north dakota, with a broken heart and puffy eyes. i will miss the mountains, and my beautiful seasonal friends, and delicious taiwanese breakfast sandwiches, but new adventures await.

right now i'm having a short tryst with minneapolis. my friend jess drove here with me from montana, and we've fit as much citylove into the last three days as possible: cocktails and vegan food and biking and new tattoos and retail therapy and dinner with family and old friends. gotta pack it in, because tomorrow i pack my suitcase and fly to germany.

swiftcurrent mountain

yesterday was my last hike of the season - the highline trail, over swiftcurrent pass, up swiftcurrent mountain to the fire lookout, down into our valley, home to the swiftcurrent motor inn. i probably won't be back at swiftcurrent next summer, so climbing swiftcurrent mountain on my last day off was as symbolic as it was beautiful. and i needed some mountain time to clear my head.

we ran into two bears on the way home, and they were not afraid of 5 large humans like i had hoped. we booked it home, bear-calling furiously.

and afterward...went to the cattle baron and ate a buffalo steak. don't ask me why.

sisters in wonderland

sister was in glacier for the final days of summer-ish weather. we did some hiking, swimming, beach-lounging and soaked up some sun. now swiftcurrent is blustery. so it's almost time to go.
1) we hike up Shangri-La, 2) we explore Rising Sun, 3 & 4) we visit my secret beach

siyeh pass

sister came to swiftcurrent last week, and i had lots of days off to adventure with her. on day 1 we hiked Siyeh Pass, from Siyeh Bend to Sunrift Gorge. it's a beautiful pass, and sissy agreed to venture off the trail, up some intense little peak that i cannot find on the map. so wonderful to see MY FAVORITE PERSON IN MY FAVORITE PLACE!