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Quickly, as I am afraid to lose the goodwill of the nice girl letting me use this computer for free.

I am stuck in a gorgeous ski town in the Austrian Alps after my friend Andrew's car exploded on a mountain road with a name like glockenspiel yesterday afternoon. There was no fire but there was a big, loud bang and lots of smoke out the tail pipe... we had a few hours to make friends with the local wildlife, including cows and amorous flies, almost trip over the electric fence on the side of the road and fall down the really steep hill, take lots of gorgeous photos, and generally laugh about the quality of American cars which blow their turbos after only 6 months. The tow truck consisted of a jeep with a tow bar that hooked onto the back bumper, then the tow truck driver's wife got in the car and drove down the hill in front of her husband. It was an interesting setup and we took lots of pictures of that, too.

Even though it is July and there is not a flake of snow in sight, we saw a guy wandering through the streets last night in his ski pants and woolie cap.

More soon, I've been to Munich, Dachau, and some small German towns near the black forest.

Love Erin