Mozart’s Balls Are Delicious

On July 15, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe17 Comments

So far in the crazy travel-heavy month of May, I’d already visited Venice, Rome, Vatican City, and Dublin. For my last trick in May, I also spent a couple of days in Salzburg. I took hundreds of pictures, of course, and I’ve whittled this post down to thirty-eight images that tell the story of my weekend.

Before I get into the pictures, though, I wanted to say this: My first few hours in Salzburg made me despise the city. After I got to the hotel and had a brief nap, I felt a lot better and I started to really enjoy things. Those first few hours were really shaky though, and here’s why:

The public transportation didn’t work. The city’s famed bus system seemed to be using the posted schedule as a vague suggestion rather than an actual schedule. The city also has a very small underground train system which didn’t appear to be running at all. One of the bus lines I tried to use seemed to have a “next bus” time that was about eight hours in the future. There were no easily readable line maps, so when I did try a bus, I wound up in a part of the city that I was unfamiliar with, and I never reached anything even remotely recognizable. I found out later that a lot of this is because there were major streets closed for some sort of vintage car rally. I eventually snagged another bus back to the Hauptbahnhof, and just took a taxi to my hotel.

My hotel was amusing to me. It had upside-down cows painted in the room. The lamp said “Moo!” (Although it said it in German.) And in between the thermostat and the slot for your room card, there was an inspirational message. I’m not sure if there was beer hidden in my room. If there was, I never spotted it.

After I checked in and had a brief nap, I felt much better. I went out to try to grab the bus into the heart of the city for my first evening in Salzburg, and I wound up waiting another 45 minutes for the bus that was supposed to be there in five. I did eventually make it to the old part of town though:

While walking through the town, I spotted this sign. It made me giggle because I am apparently eight years old.

Giant statue of Mozart? Check. This must be Salzburg!

While I was waiting for my dinner to start on that first evening, I saw some people coming out of a church with cameras. I’m always curious about what other people find interesting, so I ducked inside. I’m glad I did; this is what I saw inside of St. Peter’s.

I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but I made a donation and lit one of these remembrance candles. Something about this church moved me to do so. Perhaps it was because of all the musical history in Salzburg. I’m not sure. People who have known me for a long time can probably guess who I was thinking about when I lit the candle.

After I spent a little bit of time in the church, it was time for dinner. As a treat for myself, I booked a seat at the Mozart Dinner Concert in the Barocksaal, the wonderful baroque room of Stiftskeller St. Peter, which is the oldest restaurant in Europe. It’s referenced in a document from the year 803, which is kind of staggering to think about. This is what the Baroquehall looks like:

The Mozart dinner concert is this: Drinks and bread rolls, followed by music. Then a soup course, then a second set of music. Then a main dinner course, and a third and final set of music. Finally, a dessert course. The photo below was my program, both musically and food-wise. The food was amazing.

The performers were talented, personable, and quite funny. This was a wonderful way to course-correct after the public transportation cock-ups earlier in the day. By the end of the evening, even though I still had to wait for the bus back to my hotel, I was feeling much better about Salzburg.

For day two, I started with a nice walking tour of the city. This is the part at which I mention that it was raining the entire time I was in Salzburg. The entire time. From my arrival to my departure, it never stopped. Not once. It did get lighter at times though, and it was a little bit lighter during the walking tour.

Part of the tour was in the gardens at Schloss Mirabell, Mirabell Palace. If you’ve ever seen The Sound Of Music, then these shots will look a little bit familiar. Julie Andrews and the kids went through here during the “Do Re Mi” bit.

The guy in the hat was our tour guide. He was very good. And yeah, it was an umbrella-laden tour. Lots of rain.

I should mention that the “I Heart London” umbrella I bought last summer finally bit the dust on this trip, and I replaced it with an appropriately musical Salzburg umbrella.

Seen on the walking tour: The house that Mozart lived in. I came back to this later.

The house where Christian Doppler was born. I think of him every time I hear “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. He’s a one-man Doppler Effect demonstration.

Another nice view of the old city.

So I’d never heard of Urban Knitting before this trip. Apparently, there’s a lot of people who go around knitting hats and whatnot for statues. I’m not at all sure how I feel about this hobby. It’s strangely entertaining, though.

There’s a fun (but completely fictional) story behind the “Stierwascher” image below. I’ll borrow text from visit-salzburg.net to tell the story, because they can tell it way better than I can.

During the period of the peasant′s riots of 1525, the city of Salzburg was under a siege. Soon the city′s population was running short of food, and fear spread when only a single bull was left within the mighty city walls.

Then the commander of the defending troops is said to have had an idea: he ordered to paint the naturally brown bull with white stain and lead it up and down the city walls on display to the enemy. The next day, they would wash the bull, paint it in black and do the same thing again. The next day, they would paint the bull red, then spotted, and so on.

In the end, the enemy thought that the people of Salzburg were slaughtering a bull every day, expecting that the live stocks were still large enough to feed the troops and people in the city for a very long time. Eventually, the troops that kept Salzburg under siege withdrew, leaving Salzburg to freedom. Under cheer and laughter, the bull was led to the Salzach river and washed until he appeared again in his natural brown. Ever since then, people from Salzburg are called “Stierwascher” – bull washers.

In fact, bull-shitters would be more appropriate with respect to this story. The whole legend is nothing but fiction, the real reason for the name “Stierwascher” are the butchers of Salzburg that were committed to slaughter bulls in public spaces to allow the authorities to control the quality of the meat. The slaughtering was done by the shore of the Salzach River to allow the blood being washed off quick and easily. This is the less romantic, but apparently more authentic root of the “Stierwascher”.

This is a view down the Getreidegasse, a popular shopping street. The close up shot is the detail on the classiest McDonald’s sign I’ve ever seen. McDonald’s was not allowed to put up their traditional supertacky sign here- they had to adjust their sign to conform with the rules of Getreidegasse.

Mozart’s birth house. A museum and gift shop. Kind of interesting, if you’re into musical history.

The walking tour went through a very populated old cemetery near St. Peter’s, and I took a few shots of interesting headstones while we were inside. I think these two shots came out particularly well.

It’s Europe, so of course there are giant cathedrals.

…and big courtyards. The tower in this shot is full of carillon bells that ring three times a day. I was never close enough to hear them at any of those times. Oh well.

The walking tour concluded back at Mozartplatz. My earlier shot didn’t really give you a good sense of just how big Amadeus is here. Both literally and figuratively.

Street musicians. Street musicians in costume. I didn’t stop long, but they sounded good.

This cool statue is in the alcove behind where the last group of guys was singing. The graffiti on the wall behind the statue totally makes it, don’t you think?

I know this is random, but I passed a snack shop at one point, and I have to say that this is perhaps the creepiest advertising image I have ever seen. It’s all kinky and weird with his four-fingered hands and weird stripey knee socks.

Not far from the creepy hot dog figure is a funicular that will take you up to Hohensalzburg Castle. We have already established in this blog that I like high places, so of course I’m going to go up. You can get there on foot- it’s about a 25 minute climb- but it was rainy and wet, so I elected for the funicular instead.

A quick Salzburg travel tip- I paid for the Salzburg Card on this trip. Not only does it give you entrance to a lot of the museums in the city, but it also includes unlimited bus usage for your stay, as well as a ride on the funicular up to this awesome view:

The Salzburg Card also included entrance to the Salzburger Spielzeug Museum. I can’t pass up a Toy Museum! We’ve already established that I’m basically eight years old.

There’s one small problem, though. The toy museum won’t allow you to go through in your normal street shoes. You have two choices. Option one: You can use some of the communal Crocs in the lobby. While these are slightly more stylish than most Crocs, I have sworn never to wear Crocs.

Option two is to put these little plastic booties over your shoes and just wear them around the museum. While this looks infinitely sillier, the choice was a no-brainer. Besides, now I have something to put over my bicycle seat when it’s wet.

The toy museum was indeed full of toys. There was a rather fantastic race car track, for example.

This was the find that got me the most excited. It was in a section of the museum where very small toys were suspended in clear cylinders and there were magnifying glasses nearby to look at the detail.

I didn’t need the magnifying glass though. I’d know this car anywhere, because I used to play with one just like it when I was a kid. This is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the slip of red plastic along the running board is a fold out plastic wing. There’s a matching wing on the other side. One of my siblings had this Matchbox flying car when I was a kid, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

Last but not least, I have two pictures from Mozart’s residence house. The first picture is of some of his musical instruments. I took this right before a woman told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I’m a rebel!

Just before you leave the museum (and exit through a gift shop, naturally,) there’s a place where you can “Mozart yourself.” I thought this was too fantastically silly not to share.

Other than the umbrella, there was one other thing that I brought back with me from Salzburg, and it’s what I was talking about in the title of this post- Mozart Balls. Mozartkugeln, actually. Words cannot describe how delicious this candy is. I’m glad I only got a very small box of them.

Have you ever been to Salzburg? What was your favorite part? Did you take the “Sound Of Music” tour that seems to annoy the locals quite a bit?

Vatican City: It’s Full Of Papal Stuff

On June 13, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe9 Comments

Previously, on “Steven and Michelle Go To Italy,” our peripatetic siblings checked out Venice and Rome. What’s left? The Vatican, of course! This was our first view of St. Peter’s Piazza, a.k.a. Pope Central.

The archways on either side of the Piazza have a lot of columns on either side of the breezeway- they look like this. Pretty impressive, right?

The way in to the Vatican museums was an enormous spiral walkway. I don’t think this was the usual way in; they said something about the usual way being blocked off for some reason. Anyway, this was a herd moment.

At the top, there’s a series of rooms, and this incredible view. From here, St. Peter’s Basilica looks like a matte painting in a Lucasfilm movie, doesn’t it?

This was our tour guide. She’s from Indiana, as it turns out, but she lives in Rome and works as a Vatican tour guide. She has an incredible amount of knowledge. The big bronze sphere she’s standing in front of is a sculpture called Sfera con Sfera (Sphere within Sphere) by an artist named Arnaldo Pomodoro. Our tour guide pointed out that Arnaldo Pomodoro sounds very nice in Italian, but in English, he’d just be Arnie Tomato. This amuses me.

Sfera con Sfera rests on a disk of mercury, and can be spun by a single person. It’s heavy, but moveable.

I didn’t know this when I was in Vatican City, but there are actually thirteen versions of Sfera con Sfera. I first realized it was not unique when I saw a second one at Trinity College in Dublin. I’ll get back to that in a few weeks when I post about my trip to Dublin- we’re still in Italy.

Well, technically we were in The Holy See, not Italy. Vatican City is a fully functioning and recognized country with its own police, fire, military, and post office. It’s the only country in the entire world with a birth rate of zero. But I digress.

The thirteen different versions of Sfera con Sfera are all different diameters. To give you some sense of scale, take a look at the bronze ball atop the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica in the next photo. Now bear in mind that the diameter of Sfera con Sfera is the same size as the bronze ball at the top of the Basilica. Neat, eh?

Let’s take a break from the Vatican to talk about water in Rome. Specifically, open water spigots that are all over the city. There’s two or three in the Roman Forum. They’re on streets all over the city of Rome. The water is perfectly drinkable, and the locals refill their water bottles from them all the time. The locals also know that if you block the flow from the bottom, there’s a small hole in the top that turns it into a drinking fountain, like so:

Meanwhile, back in the Vatican museums, there’s a whoooole lot of busts.

I’m not really going to talk much about these next few pictures. If you’re a student of art, particularly of sculpture, you’ll most likely recognize some or all of these. I acknowledge that they’re amazing, but I’ve never had much to say about sculpture. Here’s some really amazing sculpture, though.

I mentioned that the Vatican has their own fire department, right? Here it is.

The tour of the Vatican museums goes through the Raphael Rooms. The artwork done by Raphael in these rooms is amazing, especially for someone who spent all that time learning to wield a pair of Sai while running around the sewers of New York.

This particular panel, the School of Athens, is my favorite. Nobody is in this crowd by accident. Dude in the blue robe all by himself? Diogenes. Serious looking man front and center in the purple shirt and calf high boots sitting by himself? That’s Michelangelo. Pythagoras is in there. Euclid is there. Alexander is there. Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, all present and accounted for. Raphael painted himself in, as well as his favorite girlfriend. The depth and detail in this fresco is amazing.

I’ve seen Rodin’s work before, several times in several places, but seeing an original of The Thinker always makes me stop and ruminate.

You’re not supposed to take pictures in Michelangelo’s master work, the Sistine Chapel. I’m a rebel. This room is pretty incredible, though.

After the tour, we wound up in front of the Basilica again. There were big banners up because during the Pope’s service the next morning, two nuns were to be canonized. That is, they were to be sainted. I’ve forgotten their names, but I’m sure there’s a Papal website that lists them somewhere.

The Pope’s altar is set up and ready to go.

Before we ran out of time, we took the walk up to the Cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. You know me and my love of tall places. I have to climb. The first part is a short elevator that gets you to this level, and shaves 200 steps off your climb.

From there, it’s still more than 300 steps up, but the view is worth it. Oh yeah.

After we climbed down, we finally went inside the Basilica. The light does this amazing streaming thing that, once again, looks like a matte painting.

I was a little bit amused that the Basilica uses Bose speakers that are painted to blend in with the marble. Very Popey!

No visit to the Vatican is complete without a few minutes spent marveling at the Papal Swiss Guard and their mighty multicolored pantaloons. Members of the Swiss Guard must apply for the position. They must be Catholic, single males with Swiss Citizenship, between the ages of 19 and 30. They must have completed basic training with the Swiss Military.

They must also be able to appear dashing while wearing a black beret, and they must be comfortable with wearing a sword at their left hip, cos it’s there. Hidden in this photograph, though.

I mentioned earlier that the Vatican also has its own Post Office, right? Here’s the front doors. You’re not supposed to take pictures inside, so you can only guess what I did when I went in to mail a postcard.

On our way out of the Vatican, I turned around to take one last picture of St. Mary’s Basilica with the sun behind the Cupola. It’s a hell of a building, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Finally, to wrap up our time in Roma, we went to the pizza restaurant which, according to Trip Advisor, was the number one rated pizza joint in the vicinity. Apparently, being number one means you don’t have to stay open.

Luckily, the place across the street was open and inviting and kind of amazing. It was also called Henry Cow, which I kind of love. I had this pizza. Visible on the pizza are, clockwise from the 12:00 position: artichoke, mushrooms, an egg, prosciutto, and in the center, black olives. It was absolutely delicious, and it was a fantastic last supper. I mean it was a great last meal in Italy.

Have you ever seen the Sistine Chapel? Is that the biggest ball of brass you’ve ever seen? Have you ever had an egg on a pizza? Is soy gelato still technically gelato?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part Three: Zurich, Switzerland

On April 29, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe12 Comments

The Friday and Monday surrounding Easter weekend this year were public holidays in Bavaria. Since I had a long weekend, I decided to do a whirlwind tour through Strasbourg France, Freiburg Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls near the Swiss-German border. I’m going to write about them one at a time, though. Next up is Zurich!

Sunday morning, I grabbed an early train from Freiburg into Zurich. If you arrive by train, you will find yourself in one of the busiest train stations in the world, with nearly three thousand trains a day. Hanging overhead in the main hall, you’ll see L’Ange Protecteur by French artist and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, a French sculptor. I hadn’t heard of her sculptures, called Nanas, until I saw this one. There’s a bunch more in in various places around Europe.

In front of the train station, there is easy access to the street tram system, and from there you can get almost anywhere else in the city. The street directly opposite, Bahnhofstrasse, is a very busy and fairly well known shopping street. I spent some time in the evening walking down this street trying to find the source of a tantalizingly delicious smelling food smell- I never figured out where it was coming from.

I took the tram to the Rathaus stop in order to see some of the more well known sights in Zurich, and that let me out in front of this building:

From there, it was a very short walk to most of what I wanted to see. First I walked up the hill to Lindenhof. This is a hill in the middle of the city, with a really spectacular view. Apparently it used to be a Roman fort, but honestly, this is Europe- what wasn’t a part of an old Roman fort? You can see Grossmünster, the church with the two dome-shaped spires on the right side there. That’s the next place I walked.

Grossmünster was a very impressive structure. I didn’t know until after I was gone that you can actually climb the tower. Blast! I missed a chance to go into a tall thing! I’m sure I’ll be back there in the near future, though.

The door of Grossmünster is ornate and fascinating.

Grossmünster is quite pretty inside, also.

Across the river from Grossmünster is a courtyard area that connects shopping streets (and the climb to Lindenhof) to Fraumünster. There are a lot of clocks in Zurich. I wonder how often one of them is wrong.

Inside Fraumünster there are four glass windows which were painted by Marc Chagall. You’re not supposed to take pictures of them from inside the church, so pretend you didn’t see this.

After a busy day of seeing churches and not climbing them, I stopped for lunch in a tasty place called Cafe Odeon, which has apparently been open for more than 100 years.

I had the Rösti, which is a common food in Switzerland, a fried potato dish which is somewhat similar to hash browns. In this case, I had it with fried eggs and a some vegetables. It was quite delicious.

Easter graffiti! I saw this while I was walking to where the Jacob Coffee Museum is. Unfortunately, the Coffee Museum is closed for renovation. The information I read said that it would be open in March of 2013, but it was most definitely not finished with renovations. Oops!

While I was walking to yet another closed attraction (stupid holiday weekend), I saw this lovely flowering tree. Someone tricked this plant into thinking it was already springtime.

The aforementioned closed attraction- This is the Polybahn, a 19th century funicular that goes steeply up and down one of the hills near the center. I like funiculars, naturally, but this one wasn’t running. Stupid holiday weekend.

That was the bulk of my sightseeing for the day. I went back to the hotel room for a little while to shake off a headache in the late afternoon, and didn’t go out again except for dinner, a little more wandering, and some dessert. Dessert was this amazing piece of apple pie at Hotel Schweizerhof’s Café Gourmet, a nifty little place for a snack across the street from the Bahnhof.

Have you been to Zurich?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part Two: Freiburg, Germany

On April 25, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany17 Comments

After spending Friday in Strasbourg, I got up early the next morning to grab a quick train into Freiburg. The weather had turned, so much of this day was moist and cold and overcast. I had been looking forward to some of the nicer views from hiking up the Schlossberg or taking the Schauinsland cable car, but since the weather didn’t cooperate, those will have to wait until the next time.

I did get to meet Andrew from Grounded Traveler– we had lunch together and he showed me around town a little bit. While walking to the town center to meet him, I passed by these fun little tornado statues:

During my minitour, we walked by one of the town gates, the Schwabentor. It was all scaffolded for construction. This happens a lot.

This is just a regular street in the town center. Freiburg is quite charming, and I’d love to see it again some time in the sunlight.

This is the other city gate, the Martinstor. While not in scaffolding, the McDonald’s logo on the gate has drawn criticism. (McFreiburg?)

My favorite part of Freiburg, to be honest, is the Bächle. These are small canals all over the city. The locals say that if you accidentally step into one, you will marry a Freiburg resident. Andrew says he’s stepped in them many times and he wound up with an American anyway.

One of the cool things about the Bächle, in my opinion, is that the locals have integrated them into their entertainment. I saw lots of kids with little toy boats on strings like these two. Incidentally, this is my favorite picture from the entire day in Freiburg.

My second favorite thing about Freiburg is the stonework in front of various shops around the old city. For the most part, the stonework is indicative of the business it sits in front of, although there were a few places where the business was relocated and the stonework remained. Even so, it’s pretty easy by the stonework to figure out what kind of business you’re looking at. Here’s three examples:

Another general shot of the city, with one of the church towers in the background for perspective of what the weather was like.

The Roter Bären is one of the oldest buildings in Freiburg, and is a well known hotel.

The front of the Rathäuser, the history city halls.

The Münster cathedral, with amazing gargoyles all over the structure. You can climb the tower, but I didn’t want to do that unless it was a clear day- the view just isn’t the same when you can only see a few buildings away.

Note the gargoyles in the center- the one on the left is just sticking his butt out. Hilarious!

Lastly, a short walk away from the cathedral is the 48th Parallel. I live close to the 49th parallel, and I know you can see the 49th in Karlsruhe, but I haven’t been there. I was also unable to see the Prime Meridian when I was in London because the observatory was closed due to the Olympics. But here, there’s a bar on the corner called 48 Degrees. And right in front of that bar, is the 48th Parallel. This is fascinating to me:

How many parallels or meridians have you seen?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part One: Strasbourg, France

On April 22, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe14 Comments

I’ve been trying to perfect the art of packing light for my travels, and I think I did very well on this trip. For a four day, nine train journey to all of the aforementioned places, this was my entire pack, including my DSLR.

I arrived in Strasbourg around 9pm, and made my way to the hotel first to drop off my belongings. I stayed at the Hotel Cathedrale, and was quite surprised when I arrived to see just how close the hotel was to the Cathédrale Notre Dame. The entrance to the hotel is just across a courtyard from the Cathedrale, which made my sightseeing the next day quite easy to plan. Since I arrived into town quite late, I grabbed a quick dinner at The Dubliner’s Irish Pub, a few blocks from the hotel. I saw the pub on my walk to the hotel, and while I wasn’t in the mood to try local cuisine right away, I know I can always count on tasty food in an Irish pub. Plus, this is a great way to start the holiday weekend:

Walking back to the hotel from the pub, I snapped this picture. The entranceway to the Cathedrale is just like one of the large churches I saw in Barcelona, very typical of the time period in which it was constructed.

The hotel also had a variety of gargoyles around the elevators and stairways, to watch over you and protect you while you slept. I slept very well.

The next morning, I had the hotel breakfast (not bad), and walked out to find the nearest tram station. From there, I went back to the main train station, because it has an amazing glass dome in front, and I wanted to get a picture.

From there, I made my way back into the center of town, partially by tram and partially on foot. You can see the tram in the background of this picture of a rather pretty town square.

This building was on my path back to the center of town, and I was utterly fascinated by the giant barrel in front.

After my walk back toward the hotel, I finally went into the Cathedrale. It’s enormous- you can get a sense of scale from the people in this photograph.

Inside, the arched roof is amazing.

I’ve noticed memorials to fallen American soldiers in various places around Europe- it’s rather strange (but heartwarming) to see tributes to Americans in all these other random places.

Inside the Cathedrale, there is an astrometric clock that was built in 1838. There are various moving pieces on the quarter and half hours. At 12:30, there is a “procession of the Apostles” on the upper level, and the mechanical roosters even crow. I’m really not sure how they reproduced the sound of a rooster using mechanical means in the 1800s, but it’s there.

The upper level is Christ- the Apostles move past him at 12:30. The lower level shows mankind at different ages, walking past Death. You can see the old man figure to the right of death in this photo.

In the courtyard outside the Cathedrale, street artists try to get tourists to stop for a sketch. I saw a lot of these on Charles Bridge in Prague, too.

For a small fee, you can also climb up the 332 steps to the tower platform if you like to see things from tall places, which I really and truly do. Here’s what the view is like on a mostly clear day:

Climbing back down the other side, there are some nifty gargoyles keeping watch. I especially liked this fellow:

After the tower climb, I was good and hungry for some lunch. I went back to a place I’d spotted earlier, La Crepe Gourmande, on a side street a short walk from the Cathedrale. I had “Galette Paysanne,” which is a buckwheat crepe or pancake with onions and bacon inside. Oh, and an egg on top. It was delicious.

After lunch, I took a boat tour on the river, in these glass topped tour boats. The audio portion is available in many different languages, including English. The tour goes through two locks, which is a fascinating experience if you like transportation technology as much as I do. The tour went past the ARTE headquarters as well as the European parliament, neither of which are pictured here because I didn’t take very many pictures from the boat. I did get a few nice shots, though, and they follow this one.

Also, since it was a sunny day a lot of people were out on the banks of the L’ill river. People were reading, walking, holding hands, picnicking. It was a nice day for that sort of thing.

All that was left after my day of sightseeing in Strasbourg was a nice dinner- I went to Cafe Rohan near the Cathedrale, and had some local Alsace cuisine. I had Baeckeoffe in a crock pot, which is a beef, lamb and pork stew cooked with potatoes and carrots. It was delicious, and hearty- I’m glad I didn’t skip the regional food entirely while I was in Alsace.

Have you ever been to Strasbourg?

Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV.

Tag: old stuff