the cream rises to the top, but it's spread in the middle

daniel and i wearing our christmas scarves :)

this title, goofy as it seems, says a lot about my time spent in innsbruck, austria. on the other side of the whole of my adventure, i know without a doubt that the time i spent in that city beneath the alps--with daniel, his friends, and later his sister katie, and then erik as well--was the best time i had in my whole month of traveling. it was my favorite place, easily the most beautiful, and the way that i spent my time there was nurturing to both my mind and my heart. it came at the middle of my journey, sandwiched between a rocky start and a gentle slide to the finish; rich, varied, full of love and laughter and homey feelings. and then of course, there was all the cream i consumed while i was there...

getting to innsbruck was itself an adventure: i departed bruges at 5:40 am, arriving in brussels at 7 to catch a 7:30 am train to zurich. that train arrived at 4:30 pm, and i had a two hour layover, departing for innsbruck at 6:30 and arriving at close to 10 pm. all in all, it was a 17 hour journey, and i did it all on my own--just me and my bags, a wonderful book (wendell berry of course) and my ipod. i didn't know how badly i needed those 17 hours alone until i was safely on the train to zurich, had stowed my bags, and was gazing out the window at a sunrise over some part of belgium. i hadn't been alone in so long, that i was shocked by how loud my thoughts were. between them, my music, and a beggar band who serenaded our train somewhere on our way through france, those hours passed without boredom or loneliness.

stepping off that train in innsbruck, and looking down the platform to find daniel waiting for me was such a joyful moment. i feel like it's been a long time since someone has been waiting on the other end, wanting to see me.
i've been lucky enough to be that person waiting several times since being here, but it is different on the other side of it: seeing the joy on daniel's face and knowing it was matched only by my own, was a wonderful feeling. i guess it had been a long time since i'd felt needed as a friend, and i had forgotten how amazing that is. i had also nearly forgotten what it was like to feel at home, and that moment brought that back to me.

if i tried to write about everything that happened in innsbruck: the adventures and emotions and conversations, this post would be days long. so i will try to pick and choose, and reconcile myself to the fact that it will take a lot more thought and writing for me to be able to do our time any sort of justice.

the most amazing thing about visiting daniel was getting to spend time with such a dear, dear friend. basically since i left home, i haven't been able to sit down with someone and just talk about things... anything... anything that was on our minds and hearts, and have it heard. that doesn't happen when you don't know people very well--you hold back, you don't make the same jokes you would normally, you don't even try to address matters of the weighty variety, and you often end up feigning interest in some surface level conversation because that is the only safe thing to do. you're afraid of being misunderstood, and that is an inevitability. you get tired of feeling the need to explain why you just did a happy dance, or laughed at something someone said (and were the only one to do so)... and so you surrender to the flow of everyone else's conversation, and are left feeling parched. we talked about everything really: living abroad and its frustrations, the joys of new discoveries, his job, my frisbee team, how much we have learned that we love america, the future, the past, other friends from home, going home again... daniel and i quenched both our thirsts for conversation, i think.
beyond that, it was wonderful to do simple things, like go grocery shopping, or for a walk, or cook, adventure to the milk-o-mat or drink a glass of wine with a meal. they were all things like that reminded me of being home, in the best way imaginable. i am slowly learning how to create home in far away places. it is harder than you may think, but doable in the end.

let's see... i think i'm going to revert to lists now, because i'm thinking of more and more things to talk about, and don't want this to go on forever. i'm sure at some point in the future i will write about a lot of them anyway, but just now that is a lot to do. so...

small adventures: haircuts, stinky cheese, planet earth watching, kitchen deep-cleaning, music exchanges, sharing books and poetry, waiting for the post, bough hunting
big adventures: skiing in the alps, sledding (and crashing) at night, the milk-o-mat, hiking, day tripping in munich, sampling delicious austrian cuisine, gluwein, streetcar rambling, wendell berry conversations

that isn't even a beginning, but oh well. hopefully the pictures below will help to capture the joy and beauty of my time in innsbruck. enjoy!
cheers,
b

the beautiful city of innsbruck, the alps, der inn, and sunny weather.

view from the streetcar.

between street cars we took a short walk, and found a poem about not littering and walking quietly in the woods. i think i love austria.

another view, this time with shadows and mittens.

our transportation mode of choice.

just one of many reasons to love austria... the gorgeous view over the little town we stopped in for coffee and delicious apple strudel (the real kind).

daniel and i sporting the awesome sleds/toboggans/(i can't remember the german word) that we went sledding on the night erik arrived. they go really fast and we rode them at night down unmarked roads and hills. the inevitable result was spectacular crashes, as my bruises the next day testified. totally worth it.

the day after erik arrived, we all went skiing on one of the mountains surrounding the city. it was my first time, and erik graciously taught me all day long, even getting me out on the baby run before the end of the day! it was a ton of fun. :)

the view from the mountain.

an alpine sunset.

and last but certainly not least: the amazing milk-o-mat. no account of my innsbruck times would be complete without it.