tuff

My parents sent word that the town around Vic Falls has now moved to the Zambia side, and the parks and hotel are ghostly. The lifesized chessboard is gone, too.

I have many fuzzy memories and 1 very clear memory of avocados the size of my head.

It’s rare to see a single car up in the Enchantments trailhead lot, so please help keep it low key. Here’s my other deterrant besides asking—the hike in is a total bitch. Your knees will hate you.

http://www.eightfold.net/tiff/wiesn.html

The most relevant excerpt:
“By the official stats, on weekends 700,000 people visit Oktoberfest, or Wies’n as the locals call it. Completing the atmosphere, mentally add raised bandstands with 20-piece oompah bands playing pop medleys or traditional tunes and so much heat from the collected humanity that a tank top is comfy. But in fact, it’s nearly impossible to describe. Within 10 minutes of arriving, we sat at an outdoor biergarten table with Maß’es (the 1 Liter tankards) of festival bier for everyone and the first of many renditions of the two 2004 Wies’n songs: ‘Hey, Baby’ and ‘Country Road’. I’m not joking. An Australian family later told me ‘Hey, Baby’ won a Wies’n theme song contest. And some cold-hearted (or dark-humored) bastard told Germans that ‘Country Road’ is fun to sing in inebriated groups. Which—let’s be honest—it is. So imagine 10,000-30,000 Germans, many in lederhosen, standing on tables with giant festival biers and torso-sized pretzels, gustily singing along to John Denver.

‘Country roads, take me home,
To the place where I belong!
West Virginia, mountain mama,
Take me home, country road.’

It’s hard to convey the absurdity at a proper scale.”

I heard great things, like tuition covered by Sweden’s awesome economic system….

Also, get over fear of open water.