Eva and I remembered it being nice in Salzburg, but not this nice. When we were here in August we ended up with drizzel the entire time we were here save the time we were on the bus doing the Sound of Music tour. But today...well we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

It's funny that every time my parents come over it seems like the bring good weather with them. Yesterday was an exception I suppose, it was all mist, drizzle, fog, and rain, but since we were in the car for most of the day it didn't really matter. It's true that you couldn't see much, but it's also true that we weren't out in it. It was even nice while we were at the concentration camp. The words nice and concentration camp looking like awkward companions in a sentence.

But today it was blue sky and all Salzburg. Blue sky like I haven't seen in a long time. The sun was out and we ended up carrying most of our jackets. Eva and I didn't know the city that well, only from our adventure several months ago. We knew there to be an elevator to the top of the cliff overlooking the city and though we managed to find it, it was closed for repairs. Our only solution was to hike it. Had we had repelling gear and pelvic harnesses, we probably would have been just as exhausted had we scaled it straight up. Instead we wound our way around the city until we found the well-worn trail that pasted a church and led us on up the cliff. I am always nervous when doing such exercize with my dad around. My mother doesn't worry me as much...she'll rest if she's tired and go on if she's not. My dad, on the otherhand, doesn't lead me to believe he's as genuine with his showing of tiredness.

I realize he's as fit as a man his age can be. But any time you have someone who carries around those tiny pills in an emergency pill-container you shouldn't just brush it off. It aggravates me to no end to see him so impatient and headstrong...his inability to sit still and enjoy things. We no more made it to an overlook then he was off to the next. Part of me sees this as his desire to see as much as he can...and then some of me sees this as is inability to sit still. It's not inner turmoil or something that prods him further...he just gets restless. I've never known the man to sit still through anything except car races around oval tracks, church, and when he's working. Though the first and the last one are pretty intense in and of themselves. Anyone who hasn't been to a stock-car race doens't know how exciting they seem to be. Even I remember going to the dirt tracks when I was younger and being wowed by the sounds of the cars zooming past...and the caked mud flying through the links of the fence. I have since ceased to appreciate it...but if it's your thing, it's your thing. My dad would never buy a cast-model of a certain car or anything, that's completely not his hobby. His hobby, however, is the zoom or the sound or something. So much to learn about my parents and I realize I'll never really know them all.

We walked to the highest point and surveyed the land for as far as we could see. Yes, the hills were alive. No music however, but the hills alive. The mountian tops in the distance were barely covered with snow and the lakes and river below were sparkling clean especially with the sun beating down.

My mother thought it was funny that she had meant to bring sunglasses. I don't even know if I made it back to Belgium with the sunglasses I had worn in Italy. We didn't need them for half of our trip, but they would have been nice today as being sunglasses-less we squinted and added depth to our brow indentions...

There's a castle in the middle of Salzburg that is pretty impressive as well. As mentioned previously, Eva and I didn't do much exploring there our first time around, we simply ran down the old streets and looked at restaurant prices. But the castle is pretty amazing. It's located on it's own small mountain that rizes straight up out of the town. Straight up on all sides with a road winding up to it that is nearly straight up as well. We looked sort of like how ski-jumpers look when they lean into their skiis when they are in the air. So sharp a grade that the castle-maintainers had made a sort of runged-slope over to the right for people coming back down the hill. One false footing and you'd end up at the bottom in a ball.

We paid the entrance fee, but non of the museum fees. We just wanted the prifledge to stand up there, see hte view, walk where castle-dwellers had walked 500 years before, and then take the tram-track thing back down. No use walking the same route as before. For 3 Euro a head we climbed into the gondola and crept slowly over the side. Well worth it.

As if I'm cursed to have bad cramps for the rest of my life, my period also arived on this particular day. I was dead set against it bothering me and drummed up anti-pain thoughts to fight it off. By this time, however, I was suffering a bit. Thankfully, we all were. We slowly made our way back to the hotel for a power-nap before the afternoon adventure of sightseeing outside of town. Eva and I had been so impressed with the area we saw on our Sound of Music tour that we decided we could do the same in our Renault Scenic.

Off we were to the lake shaped like a moon. We stopped and skipped rocks into the water as just made it to the lake in time for it to start turning dark. The water here is so clear that it's drinkable (our tour-bus operatetor had said) and so we repeated the facts we could remember. We were on a road that twisted and turned with the contour of the lake. It looked much like any lake, I suppose, with summer cottages lining the beach at times, and a road that was made for locals only...just small enough for the Scenic to fit through the spaces between tree and water. We lost our sun.

Eva and I couldn't figure out if my parents enjoyed the jaunt or not. We had both enjoyed it tremndously. It made me want to have a lake house just outside of Saltzburg on the lake named after the crecent moon. But my parents sat there comfortably quiet. Were they having a good time looking out onto Austria? Think of it! Austria! Was this fun at all? Wasn't it great to compare what they knew with what they were seeing?

Back in Saltzburg everyone was grumbling about dinner. We had plans to eat at the restaurant Eva and I had stumbled upon in the summer. A quaint restaurant where the locals and tourists mix. We took the car into town (it would only have been a 20 minute walk) and found a parking place not too far from where I surmised the restaurant would be. Every restaurant we passed my dad would say, "We could eat there..." And my impatience started biting at me again. I always have to be on my toes when they are around. I want to please them and I want them to get to know me a bit better. It's a horrible fact that the two don't seem to come together at a point very often. I'm forever stuck in the pretense of being my parent's little girl, and though I love the relationship that connotates, I've got to shake the term Mommy and Daddy, drop the 'y's so I can grow up a bit. I don't know what it will take. Should I drop the terminology that reminds them of their girl aged 0-18? Nothing about me hasn't changed or shifted or grown or receeded. Perhaps I should have kept them up to date all along...it was just too hard, if not impossible.

But they did love the restaurant. We did this time around as well. The most hilarious thing happened while we were there. My dad and Eva had gone to the restroom and my mother and I were sitting there when she started giggling. "Andrea...look at those women" she said under her breath...sort of side glancing obvious, "they are staring at me..."

Sure enough, I looked into the direction of the two women seated in the corner and they really were looking straight at her/us. Obviously so. So much so that I'm sure that they thought she looked familiar or something. (Which they didn't...they were speaking German) But it was hilarious. Once we stared back at them, it was even more funny. Eva and my dad didn't think it was nearly as funny as my mom and I did...and still do.

Back at the hotel we played a round of dominos. I didn't really want to play dominos, as I wanted a stress-free beer at the gay bar we had found our first time in Salzburg. But my parents were adiment about it. Half a game of chicken-foot or mexican-train. Fine.

We had a great time playing dominos. Who needs a gay bar/beer in Austria when you have your parents from the States here to play dominos with?! We played on the peeled back shees of the double-beds that were stuck together. It wasn't the most ideal circumstances, and one that I used in defense of my theory that we didn't really need to play dominos tonight. I'd probably say that every night...which is the problem. I suppose it's somethign I'm learning. Sometimes you just have to make yourself do things you don't want to do...just because it works out in the end to be a great experience.

Nice to learn that from such a simple game with colored dots on white rectangles. I'm sure it will help me leave the house on occasion back when I am in Antwerp and they are in Elkland.

Next stop: Cologne/Koln