Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Quite Random Remarks

There is chocolate cereal here. Now, I know you are thinking of Cocoa Puffs but don't -- this stuff is nothing like that and is referred to as Chocolate Muesli, and goodness gracious, is it ever delicious. It has different sized flakes (like Muesli cereal) which are a golden and chocolate colour, and then -- here's the kicker -- there are actually thin, little pieces of chocolate floating around! For the first week, I was eating this cereal, all the while thinking to myself how amazing it was, before it really occurred to me that it was chocolate. Actually, I didn't know what it was until I asked someone, and they told me it was Chocolate Muesli. You can imagine my elation.

Shops here close for lunch. Nearly all stores close from noon until 2 pm. So, instead of stores working around your schedule, you must work around the shop's schedule. Labour laws here are stricter and much more in effect than in Canada. People also work less days, as there are more holidays and less long hours. A good thing? For you to decide.

The hotel I am working at just finished its renovations, so there are now nearly double the amount of rooms. They are getting another girl from Rosshaupten on July 1st, so everyone is holding their breath for that. We've been working very hard since the opening, but now we are getting a breather. Although, I really can't complain about last week, since Trink Geld (tips) was in slight abundance in the rooms, as well as a bar of chocolate.


Sophia, Heather, and I hitchhiked to Austria on Monday. Sophia and Heather are both in the area; Heather lives in Füssen and works in a restaurant in a nearby village. We were biking, and the idea of hitchhiking to the nearest Austrian town suddenly popped into my head. I yelled out "Stop!" to tell the other two behind me to stop, so as we don't crash into each other. We stopped, and I told them about my idea. They thought it a little outlandish, but we decided to give it a go. We locked up our bikes against a nearby tree (just off the bike path), and we walked to the side of the road. We were all nervous but excited. I said I didn't want to stick out my thumb. They said that they had no problem doing that, as long as I did all the talking to the driver. I said that I had no problem doing that. After all, I am beginning to feel much more comfortable speaking in German.
We were surprised that after fifteen minutes, we were still waiting for a ride. Shouldn't it be easy for three attractive girls to get a ride? However, we did see a lot of full cars, and it's more difficult to pick out three people instead of just one or two.
Just as we were beginning to lose hope, a man in a shiny black Mercedes stopped. He looked like a business man, and the inside of his car was all fancy and covered in leather. He even had an auto-map thing installed in his car! We were all very impressed. He first thought we were from London, but then I explained that we were Canadians, working in Germany for the summer and wanting to see the area. I told him how much we loved the beautiful, Alps-filled area here.
Reutte, the town that he brought us to in Austria, isn't, in my opinon, as pretty and quaint as Füssen, but it looked like it was ladened with breathtaking hiking trails. We walked around the town, visited shops, and we vowed we would be back on a cooler day for the hiking. We then bought ice cream, which induced nearly an hour of silly laughs and giggles. We hitchhiked back in a cool car (don't know the make) with two guys playing loud music. It was a great day.

Something we did learn was that chicks, as we have been calling them, due to Sophia's influence, never even look twice at hitchhikers, and we doubt we will never be picked up by one of them.

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