Hi friends and family,

Yesterday Wesley and I embarked on "The Sound of Music" tour to embrace the cheesy tourist ploy as well as get out into the Austrian countryside. Our guide was totally tacky but funny and spoke in an accent that sounds like Canadians on "South Park." Yes, we did listen to "The Sound of Music" soundtrack on the bus and stopped at all of the allegedly important film locations. It was good fun.

Wesley: "If we're ever at a party and 'The Sound of Music' was playing, we'd totally be able to impress everyone with our knowledge."
Me: "That would never happen, but hypothetically you're right."

After the tour we went to an awesome beer hall at St. Augustine in Old Town Salzburg. The monks at the church actually brew the beer on site. Screw after-service pancakes. This is the way to go!

We woke up to snow in Salzburg this morning and hopped on a train to Munich. I read in the paper that Obama made a big speech about race, which seems to have been received positively.

Just as soon as we arrived at the hostel, Wombat's, we were off on a free tour of the city. We walked everywhere in three hours and our guide plugged all the Third Reich movement history. We were snowed upon the entire tour, which gave a nice Winter Wonderland vibe, but we also froze our asses off, so it was a give and take.

We're going to be staying in Berlin for the remainder of the trip because there's heavy snow in Switzerland and we just are not prepared for that (Note to self: Go to warm destination next). We're supposed to have light snow in Berlin, too, but at least the temperature is a bit more moderate. Plus, there's so much to see and so much beer to drink here. Picture me with a liter of beer in a stein.

Cheers,
Paolo