Six-hundred-forty-second Post
Day 6
That light snow I drove through yesterday? Well, now the mountain pass is shut down due to snowfall!
Today is Liechtenstein day, and I had to take a slightly more circuitous route to get there, as a result of said pass closure. Not that I minded; one of my favorite parts of this trip has been driving over, between, or through mountains.
Mountains-especially forested mountains-really speak to me in a way no other natural environ has ever seemed able to do. Part of me wonders why, exactly. Is it because it is pretty much the polar opposite of what I grew up in, back home in Corpus: drab beaches and drab neighborhoods and drab, drab flatness.
One of the only times I would get out of the city for extended periods of time was when my family would go on trips to Colorado, as we did every three or four years growing up. Even then, the mountains called to me.
And yet, it's pretty much certain I'm going to spend the rest of my live in drab, flat North Texas, because that's where my friends and my job are. So I'll get to visit scenery that stirs my heart every couple of years and, for the rest of the time, make do, I suppose.
Ausfahrt is the German word for exit (or maybe just specifically highway exits?), but every time I see a sign for one, I just giggle "ass-fart" to myself and carry on with my day.
Day 7
Last night's accommodations were pretty spare, but I still managed. I think I'm starting to burn out on this trip, with all the up-and-down walking and my appetite still not being back to 100%.
I've been removing destinations and shifting others around, and sleeping 10 or 11 hours a night. Today I went through some of Germany and into Austria for the second half of my vacation. Got on another suspension bridge, toured some more castles, and got to see a really nice display of weapons and armor at Ambras.
Also got a parking ticket, because the stupid parking machines don't take cards or bills, just coins. Oh well, I'm probably never going back there, so they'll just have to settle for not getting my money this time.
Have you ever arrived somewhere and realize that place is probably way too nice for you? That's how tonight's accommodations feel.
The landlady had to take her son to the hospital, so just left the back door open for me to go on in and make myself home. I'm getting ready for bed and still haven't seen her. I hope this is the right house.
That got me thinking of an idea for a horror movie, where the protagonist rents an AirBnB for the night and the owner just tells them via the app to go in, but never meets them. Throughout the night, they hear things-crying sounds from other rooms, scratching at the walls, someone testing the knob to their (locked) door without saying anything-and in the morning, they leave, still having never seen the owner. At the end, they leave a poor review of the place, while the owner leaves a tenant review saying that the person never showed up.