SUMMER HOLIDAYS, day 07: under the influence?

sunday, 20 august. something is wrong. definitely. and in a way that i don't recognise. i wake up feeling dizzyish, but not in a familiar way. it is decidedly odd. it's like ... do you know the feeling when you get off board a ship or boat and the ground seems to be moving, gently rising and falling like waves? it's a bit like that. it's also a bit like watching myself, as if there were a delay in reactions or something. as if i were under the slight influence of some drug. what on earth did they put on my pizza last night? the mushrooms didn't look suspicious! for the life of me i cannot explain what is going on. as we sit in the kitchen over brunch, it keeps hitting me in waves. sometimes i am okay, and then, suddenly, everything swims, or feels slightly surreal. anyway, i am in no state fit to go hiking. so for a while we just sit around, and sepp cannot seem to make up his mind where to let alex take him.

alex shows us a brochure which mentions the alpine coaster, a summer toboggan run, and for some reason, it is called something french in the french note, something italian in the italian note, etc, but alpine coaster in the german article - which alex sums up as: "only in german it's in english." um. he has a point.

eventually, the guys leave to walk up some mountain from hafling-avelengo, and i spend the day resting, reading. it starts to rain rather heavily about 40 minutes after the guys have departed, and i expect that maybe they will be back soon anyway. but they are not. when lightning and thunder increase, and the mountains are all covered in clouds, i get a bit worried. but alex is experienced, so i trust they will be okay, perhaps sitting in some hut.



and i am right - they have nearly reached the first hut when the rain catches up with them, and they sit out the thunderstorm (which lasts a while), listening to a young teenage girl rather listlessly playing her accordion to entertain the guests. and, think back, wouldn't you have loved spending a sunday afternoon playing to a throng of tourists, when you were 13? no need to answer that one.

due to the change in weather, alex and sepp have to abandon their plan of going higher. the pics show that the view from up there is quite spectacular.



they also stop by a little chapel which features this poor gentleman:



they return with the news that there is a dinner invitation from alex' parents, and i am incredibly sorry to have to decline, but i am still feeling a bit funny. but so there's all the more left for sepp and alex who do accept the invitation - as they should. frau pastore has got a new fan since then. sepp gets all starry-eyed when he speaks about that dinner. he still does. no kidding. apparently they have to eat huge portions of mushroom risotto and at least three helpings of dessert. poor guys.

pictures of day 07