Frankfurt

from bratislava i flew to frankfurt for one final romp before aupairing recommenced. hard to say goodbye to the slovaks (i just had to do it in montana, and now all over again so soon), but in frankfurt i got to see my friend kelly. she just started a new job in frankfurt, so together we explored the city and scoped out some typical frankfurt eats. and we danced, two nights in a row, which was absolutely vital. with four kids in my life, i've been feeling about a decade older than i should...nothing that a garish german disco can't solve.

Bratislava

after our hike, the slovaks took me back to bratislava, where we spent a few days walking around the city and sitting in wonderful, dark, smoky bars. bratislava has a beautiful medieval old town surrounded by a bunch of very modern buildings. i dig it. peter likes it because of the "mess." i have to agree.

for lunch on my last day in bratislava, peter made me the national dish of slovakia in his dorm kitchen. bryndzové halušky, which i've been hearing about since june, is potato dumpling with a sheep cheese called bryndza, with something like kefir to drink. he was convinced that an american wouldn't like bryndza, but it was delicious (though not vegetarian...peter used less bacon fat for my benefit).

then we went to Hrad Devín, a castle on a cliff over the Danube, which had an extensive history before it was destroyed by napoleon's troops. and then to Slavín, a memorial to soviet soldiers on a hill covered in huge fancy houses that overlook the whole city. it was dark, and we ate chocolate and drank grapefruit juice, and i said goodbye to bratislava, for now.

(the bottom picture is peter's)

Tatras

there was a moment in slovakia when i was absolutely content.


germany is fine, and i have some small adventures, and i learn some things.
but i am always missing mountains.


the tatras form the border between slovakia and poland - part of the carpathians. peter wanted to climb a mountain, but i came too late in the season, and there is already lots of snow and avalanche danger. so we hiked something else, 13ish kilometers down a road and up a snowy slope to an amazing alpine lake. the ground was covered in ice and frost crystals and crunchy frozen moss (andrej said it looked like finnland). peter packed pastries. i ate wild blueberries off the bush, and they were frozen. we filled out waterbottle from a mountain stream. there was no path, but peter knows these mountains...



exactly what i needed.

new on my hypothetical do-before-i-die-list: go back to slovakia and climb the Kriváň.

Slovensko!

i have now visited slovakia, the first thing accomplished off the list.

bratislava is only an hour away from vienna by train, so i got there early, blood surging with a week of austrain coffee, excited to see some familiar faces from glacier park. my slovak friends met me at the train station, looking much more dapper than how i knew them in the woods in montana.

andrej and peter were stellar tourguides. we had lunch in bratislava, then took another train to peter's region in the Tatra mountains. spent the evening in Liptovský Mikuláš, sampling oh so much slovak alcohol and some delicious poppyseed and breadcrumb dumplings, then took a bus to peter's home in Liptovský Hrádok.

(the top picture is peter's...he's a genius)

Vienna

i realize now, as i upload my trip photos, that all i did in austria was eat and photograph food. in vienna, suz and i met up with two other college friends, and the first thing we did was go out for turkish food. a spinach and egg pide with an Ephes beer is maybe my favorite meal in europe. and then we went to a baklava shop and got an assortment to go. and the next day we had spinach börek on the street at the naschmarkt. and there was curried hummus and Mozartkugel and topfenstrudel and greek breakfast and so much black tea and so many cups of coffee. you could say i'm a sensualist, or maybe just a glutton.

sometimes we stopped eating...
on halloween we carved a KaiserFranzJoseph pumpkin and visited Falko's grave. celebrating american holidays abroad always promises a certain amount of hilarity, and this is one halloween i'll remember. i also visited the Hundertwasserhaus, watched an 80s chick flick about figure skating, and learned as much as i could of the very complicated viennese coffee lexicon (when in doubt, go with the Melange)

and then, finally, it was time for slovakia.

how we roll

and then we were back on a train
headed to a halloween party in vienna
with a typical suz-and-katherine-picnic
(beer and raw carrots, that's how we roll)
in a train compartment full of caricatures

i love trains.

Bad Ischl

from salzburg suz and i took a bus to Bad Ischl, where suz taught last winter. Bad Ischl is in a mountain valley and very picturesque. best were the men and women walking around the market in traditional austrian garb. i like austria. i think we may have a future together.

we did a little hike to the summit of the "Katrin." the summit was in the clouds, and we found some eerie misty cliffs to climb around on. suz and i have history of climbing rocks in inappropriate footwear. we warded off the mist with some pear schnapps and got off the mountain in time for another sugar fix...

if you're at all interested in cake tourism, suz is the best tourguide in austria. the Konditorei Zauner in Bad Ischl was the royal bakery during the austrian-hungarian monarchy, and it is totally delicious and beautiful. i had "Kaiserkuchen" covered in chocolate marzipan ruffles and another fancy coffee on a silver tray. and suz ordered an Ischler:

it may look like a moonpie, but it's worthy of sainthood.

salzburg

my first day of trains took me to salzburg and to my friend suz. suz and i studied in freiburg together, and now she's teaching english in austria (as are several of my college friends, which has me schemeing...)

in salzburg we ate pumpkin soup and drank fancy coffees on silver trays. ate too much dumpling and went on a digestion hike up to salzburg's castle. imbibed "beery delights" in an old monastery. and felt generally close to mozart and maria von trapp.

train leaving grey

i just got back from my really wonderful trip through austria and slovakia. i'll get it posted up in here eventually, in bits. right now i'm still decompressing from an unusual amount of adventure.

in the beginning i spent several days on trains, subsisted on coffee and peanuts and bell peppers. i love to travel by train and usually slightly regret getting to my destination. this train ride was a particularly good one, through some fall colors much more impressive than what we have in freiburg. and i was immeasurably happy to see the first mountains spring up between munich and salzburg.