Why does my shirt smell like a public restroom?

---

Geo: 47.6025, 13.667

Rough sleep last night - I'm not used to sleeping in a room all by myself, after all these hostels! Or maybe because these old, characteristic homes remind me of the Pension Colon, where I had that supernatural experience, and make me think there will be a repeat!

Part of being so tired today was reading the Da Vinci Code until 1 AM last night - it's easy reading after "A Tale of Two Cities", because of its large print, non-archaic language, and simple sentence construction. It's like going from reading an encyclopedia, to a children's book, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I managed to read 150 pages of it in about two hours last night, whereas 150 pages of "A Tale of Two Cities" probably would have taken six hours or more.

Today is going to be a slow one - I took my time at breakfast, a rather large spread - assorted bread, fruit turnovers, red/green grapes, some good melon, apples, kiwis, strawberries, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomato, good-quality cold cuts (real turkey breast, salami, speck), hard-boiled eggs, cheese (brie, camembert, and others), juice, cereal, yogurt.

I didn't sample everything, but found the cinnamon bread a little stale and the grapes to be sour. All the meats and cheese were also kept in a little fridge that dried everything out, and the fridge also had a funky, musty smell to it. The coffee tasted pretty bad with the fruit, but was excellent with toast and the yummy home-made preserves (apricot, orange marmalade, strawberry, raspberry). Another highlight was the juicy, fragrant melon.

For some reason, one of my shirts smells like a dirty public restroom, even though it was freshly laundered in Fussen just the other night. I wondered if some kids were messing around with my clothing when I wasn't looking ...

Though the forecast calls for today to be a scorcher, the plan is to hike up to the Waldbachstrub waterfall. I had hoped to start the hike earlier to avoid the heat, but before I knew it, it was already close to 11:00. I picked up some supplies for a light picnic - bananas, muesli bars, garlic/herb cream cheese, water, and a salted bun.

After completing about a quarter of the hike, I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up backtracking almost all the way back to the trail head. D'oh! I was pretty pissed off at myself, and the high temperatures (low 30s?) didn't help, either. Luckily, there was a lot of shade on the trail, and areas near the waterfall were quite cool, with a fine mist of refreshing glacier water suspended in the air.

It ended up being a good hike - short, beautiful, and easy, just like I like them! Somewhere, I can hear Mary laughing and accusing me "That's exactly how you like your women, too!" Mary, Mary ... always making inappropriate comments to me ...

I ate my picnic at the top of the waterfall - it turned out to be an insufficient amount of food, but was enough to get me back down to the bottom. A couple of older ladies from Hallstatt also had a picnicked at the top, and we ended up chatting for a bit. People seem to be quite friendly here.

Half of the waterfall was shrouded in shadows, and the other bathed in light - the contrast was beautiful, but unfortunately, my camera couldn't quite capture it. It's a shame; while still nice, the pictures didn't turn out anywhere near as good as the real thing.

I've always found waterfalls to be strange, in how they showcase two extremes. From afar, it appears to be pure, and has a certain tranquility, as it cascades over the top, and falls in unison to the pool below. But from up close, it's a raging tempest of chaos as it pummels the rocks below, its movement too complex to describe. From either perspective, it's still an incredible sight to witness.

Back in town, the heat was oppressive and I had run out of water long ago, so I needed a cold drink. I wanted to climb into the store's freezer section and have a siesta ... I wandered back to the guest house and actually did have a siesta, but didn't end up sleeping much, instead reading for the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner was an early one, at the Restaurant Braugasthof - the lakeside location was great, but the food was suspect. I went back to the guest house to read in the garden, until the bugs started nibbling on me. I continued to read on the balcony outside of my room, until it became too dark. I kept reading inside until I finished the book.

The funniest part of the book had to be when they talked about how some ancients believed that "Man is spiritually incomplete until he had carnal knowledge of the sacred feminine". I can imagine the pickup lines in bars "Hey baby, wanna help make me spiritually complete tonight?"

---

Photos

a2
A poem about the Waldbachstraub.

b
Beautiful scenery on the hike.

b2
More beautiful scenery on the hike.

c2
Picnic time: The cream cheese was yummy, but there was WAY too much salt on the bun - Hallstatt is famous for salt mining, and they obviously like using a lot of it.

c3
The muesli bars were surprisingly fragrant and good - or maybe it's just because I've gotten sick of eating the kind that I always bring to Europe with me. Either way, I need to start carrying more little snacks like this around with me.

f
I suck at taking photos of myself - this was the seventh try and it still didn't turn out, so I just gave up. As a side note, today was a good day to work on my bad farmer's tan.

f2
c

g2
Earlier, I was upset that I had forgotten my swimsuit, and would be unable to take a dip into the waterfall. But after dipping my feet into the water, I didn't care - it was frigid, and my feet instantly felt numb! Blasted glacier water!

h
Some of the best shots weren't even of the Waldbachstrub itself.

j
j

k
k

l
Back in Hallstatt

t
I hate sleigh beds! Too short, it was uncomfortable sleeping in it.

u
View from the balcony outside my room.

v
Dinner: My food was served to me less than two minutes after the waitress punched my order into her hand-held terminal. Obviously, it wasn't made to order - if I wanted fast food, I would have looked for a McDonald's! It potentially could have been a decent meal, but what kind of restaurant has so little self-pride that everything is sitting in the back, ready to be plated and served on a moment's notice?
The potatoes weren't half-bad with the dill cream sauce - but I suppose these are items that are difficult to screw up, and can be kept warm indefinitely. The stuffed char was WAY overcooked, and the portion was small. It was stuffed with a spongy meat mixture, and suffered from an overly zealous dusting of salt. The salad was drowning in dressing, and looked more like vegetable soup. I wasn't very impressed with this meal.

w
One of the weird flies that are always buzzing around town.

x
After the disappointing meal, I suffered another disappointment - some crappy pear gelato. Yesterday's was great, but tonight I wanted to sample the gelato from the other eis shop in town. A mistake, so I attempted to correct it by returning to Giovanni Eis for a second gelato.

y
Mozart Balls are little chocolates made in Austria, and Giovanni made a gelato flavour out of them. It was a little sweet, and I didn't like it that much, but the gelato quality was still good, just not to my taste.

z
Hello once more to "A Tale of Two Cities". Having finished the Da Vinci Code, I exchanged it back for my old book since it's lighter. Now I just need to find another book exchange.