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Well, I'm in Bavaria, and it's raining. This is not fair! Bavaria is a tourist destination for many Germans - think British Columbia and you have a rough idea of what it's like (though it is, in, y'know, Germany, and there's less pot.) I'm staying in a small town called Sonthofen (I'm actually staying in a smaller town, Bihlerdorf, thirty minutes by foot from the train station, but whatever.) It resembles Vernon, BC, where my folks live, in many ways, if a little wetter. Now, Bavaria, during July, is supposedly a land of warmth and sun; after the heady cities of Berlin and Prague my plan was to go here and hike. It's a good plan; I bought a couple maps and followed a few trails already. I can't fault the plan in that regard. The hills are beautiful; there is a nature reserve, literally on my doorstep, that actually shows what wild German forest is like; the food is cheap; and the local beer is okay. But it's rained for the past two days and is cold as hell. I went out into the nature reserve yesterday, and that was a great way to find that my boots now leak - I'll have to have that looked at when I get back to Kingston. I've taken it easy today, and have explored Sounthofen a little; it's interesting how much you can glean from a society from the way it shops. Germans love discount shopping; there are no less than eight discounters or supermarkets, four specifically for food and food alone. I'm not bothering to count stores that sell clothing, though I did find a store that sells lederhosen (surprisingly cheap, still outside my budget). In fact, after checking up on the internets, Wallmart had to pull out of the German market because of over-competition. Wallmart. Reflect on that for a second. But contrasting the vast discount market, when you head into downtown, you find the kind of high-end store you'd see in the Eaton center: fruit and imported food vendors (yay figs!), knife sellers, bakeries, cafés, camping supply, etc. The supermarkets and discounters are concentrated in one area; the high-end stores in another. It is a literal five minute walk from one to the other. I've also been talking to a few of the students here; there's the class trip problem at this time of year - Germans schools send their kids out on a trip for two weeks every July. I found it in Berlin and now here as well, so that's something to consider if you ever tour Germany. But here, out of town tourists are a rarity; I am literally the first Canadian that many of the kids have met. I'm afraid I haven't given a great showing - in conversation I am actually quite boring, when I avoid my geeky pursuits. But I did correct one presumption: Germans seem to think that Canada is mad on lacrosse. Clearly our game is curling. Cheers for now; if the weather's good tomorrow, I'm going to take the train to Oberstdorf and climb a mountain or something.
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Rose Sounds wonderful, shame about the rain but it is fun to see areas in different weather! Hope the sun shines tomorrow so you can explore and tell us all about the great hiking....