Innsbruck, Austria

After barely missing our Paris to Innsbruck train in the morning, we decided that our best option at that point was to book an overnight train from Paris to Munich and then catch an early train into Innsbruck the next morning. Recalling how uncomfortable the sleeper chairs were, we ponied up the extra ten euro for couchettes so we could actually lay down and put our heads on a pillow. We got a decent night's sleep despite being startled awake as young man was yelled at and promptly yanked out of a couchette that belonged to another man who paid for it. The ride from Bavaria to Innsbruck was lovely. We slowly climbed through the misty valleys nestled between rolling hills of countryside that gradually rose into snow covered mountains. We were quite excited to see Carla and Mathias again. After meeting new hosts every few days and going through the "getting comfortable with the new host(s) stage" repeatedly, it was a small luxury to reunite with two of the couchsurfers that we stayed with in London and particularly enjoyed our time with. We had directions copied down and set out to find our way to their flat from the train station. The first part of the directions were to find the Goldenes Dachl, "Golden Roof." Knowing nothing about this thing, except that everyone knows where it is and that it is THE tourist attraction in Innsbruck, we had conjured up images of a grand, shimmering dome mounted atop some prestigious building or church. In actuality, this golden roof turned out to be comically small and shaped like an awning of sorts and quickly became the butt of one of the many running jokes w/ our hosts. "Oh hey, have you heard about the golden roof? Oh yeah, isn't it really old? Yeah, that's amazing." Anyways, after locating this roof we made our way towards their flat, where we actually ran into them on the street corner. Mathias had class to attend and Carla tagged along to pick us up. We made our way to the flat, admiring the soaring alps that sourrounded the city on all sides. Later in the day, as Carla went to class and Mathias returned home, we planned a walk up to a restaurant with some delicious Austrian fare and hefeweizen with Mathias. Mathias and Andy both enjoyed the same dish, consisting of three varities of these ravioli-ish pockets of cheese, meat, and spinach with a brown butter sauce. Marisa settled on an item that was more or less spinach dough quinnels, with melted cheese on top garnished with cherry tomatoes and a cream sauce. As Carla arrived, between classes, we decided on dessert of pancakes cubed and dusted with sugar, and garnished with gooseberries - yum. Everything was quite tasty.

Next, we started up to a few steep walking paths that ran just above the city through some wooded areas and along some farmland. Eventually we made our way down to a pasture filled with sheep. Here, something truly amazing happed. Either these sheep knew Andy and could pronounce his name (AAANNNNNDDDYYYYYYY). Or - we witnessed a moment of Marisa's sanity suspended indefinitely as she pleaded to the sheep over and over, to say Andy's name again. This is debated to this day - you decide. We pet them and fed them for a while, enjoying the novelty of being near farmland. Satiated with this experience, we moved on and worked our way down toward the street that led to the flat. However, before reaching the city again we were interrupted by an 85 year old woman, who upon finding out that we were American, proceeded to poke and prod in her surprisingly decent English,"So, umm, yes, you must tell me, what do you think about Obama? I'm very interested in politics you know, even at my age." And so on and on it went. We responded truthfully and as best we could with rudimentary vocabulary so that we were understood, but it was obvious that Mathias' patience was running thin.. He did his best to break the conversation off, insisting that we muist move on, as we have dinner to prepare and repeatedly checking his watch as the woman struggled to finding the right word. A few minutes into our chat, her walking companion left her to continue on, and even when we told her that we really had to get back, she changed her direction as to properly finish the conversation.

Once back we relaxed for quite a while and then prepared ourselves for dinner. Mathias and Carla were kind enough to make us some traditional food for us as well as another couple that they invited over. Dinner centered around Kässpätzle, a pasta -like dish. It is made of flour and water into a batter, and then run through a cheese grater into boiling water, where it is cooked, scooped out and layered with a specific cheese mixture from Voralberg, Carla and Mathias home state/region. In addition, potato salad, lettuce, homemade apple sauce, and fried onions were served to accompany the Kässpätzle. Prior to the meal, we were warned not to over-stuff ourselves, as too much Kässpätzle will expand in your stomach and cause a stomach ache. As usual, our self control faultered, and we over did it, going back for seconds. Oh well, it was worth it.

The next day Mathias accompanied us on a casual walking tour of Innsbruck, providing us with inetesting commentary and history about various sights and such (including that GOLDEN ROOF, Wow!). We also did a bit of apparel shopping; Andy needed new shoes and Marisa found a nice skirt. The best part of the tour, however, was the tram-like ride that we took part way up the face of a mountain to a point where we enjoyed a terrific view of Innsbruck and its surrounding suburbs and towns. The sky was blue as ever, the air was crisp and refreshing so we decided that a little walk up into the woods was in order. After about and hours walk we decided that it was probly time to make our way back down into town, but not without a stop for coffee and hot chocolate at the tram station first.

Since we never got a chance to cook in London, and to return the favor of dinner the previous night, we thought that we should make our hosts dinner the second night. We settled on making a dinner of Cous-cous with sauted zuchini, onions, garlic, bell peppers. To accompany, we baked chicken and Marisa was inspried to try her hand at making falafel, while also baking a chocolate cake for desert. While enjoying the meal, Mathias decided that some classical music was in order for our meal, and put on a playlist of Bach, Motzart, and Wagner. Not to pat ourselves on the back too hard, but our hosts were quite satisfied and we must admit that dinner was pretty tasty, especially the trial falafel (we are looking forward to perfecting it and making it at home)! Once again, we went to sleep very, very full.