Swan County

When I was in Israel, I gave my mom my computer to take back to the US -- it's a little overweight for a four year-old [machine]. As a result, I also stopped posting to my blog. That was the hefty price tag for a lighter bag, a significantly lower price tag though than Ryan Air's would have been for going over the 10kg carry-on limit.

I am in Füssen, a small, undeniably German town where everyone lives in castles, drives a Mercedes, and eats Bavarian Pretzels.  That's probably more feeling than fact.  After twelve motion sick hours watching magic mountains and green pastures filtered through dirty train car windows, I am just a few kilometers from the dramatic mountains that erupt on the Austria/Germany border.  Also, it is cold and raining; staggeringly beautiful.

Today I hiked in the Bavarian Alps and toured fairytale castles.  OMG IT WAS SO AMAZING WHEN CAN WE COME BACK PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!  [There are obvious reasons why everyone I meet thinks I'm at least ten years younger than I am.  And my mom told me I dress like a boy.]
I leave for Munich in an hour.

This trip has been like a brownie ice cream sundae.  AWESOME! But if you eat too fast you'll get a headache and if you eat it all you'll feel sick. Of course, it's so good that you eat all of it really fast. Worth it!

On the topic of delicious food, this has been the most difficult trip for me as a vegan. I'll admit, my purity has been unintentionally compromised [and immediately spit out]. The concept of being vegan is not universally understood and although I have done my best to find English speakers, to translate, to point and gesture, some cultures cannot wrap their head around the concept.  I eat a lot of fruit.

Although, my favorite vegan story:
Venice is a maze. Amaze! Streets expand, contract, loop around, dead end, take you straight into the water. You could wander for days and never retrace your steps; Or, walk towards a specific destination and end up exactly at the point where you started. It's hellishly hot in Italy, the summer sun shoots it's death rays into every nook of the city. After walking around for two days, starving, I heard of a place where I could find something vegan. The first euros I spent in Venice were on a map [best buy ever] so I used the Google Maps list of 59 steps to walk a mere 3km. It's never what it seems. Two hours later I show up at Frary's and it's closed. Yes, closed for the day at 3pm. I started walking back the way I came  ... and sat on the steps of an old church eating sorbetto. I regained the strength to continue my search for food and found a cafe with hummus and tubbelah. I scarfed it and embarrassed about how fast I ate, fidgeted with the menu sitting on the table. I flipped it over and found they had an English version [only the Italian one was posted in the window,  hummus was recognizably "hummus"]. Directly above where it says vegetarian hummus it lists a salad ... With shredded horse meat.

Even though I haven't been updating my blog, I have kept daily accounts of all the funny and fantastic and frustrating moments of this trip. I will compile them as soon as I can! And I will also upload photos as soon as I can find an Internet cafe that doesn't charge 7€ per half hour.

I have a few photos on Flickr uploaded from my phone.