Our Bonfire Hearts

There was a reoccurring song that was played on the radio while we were in Europe.

We would hear it at least 3 times each day.

I'd never heard it before.

Achim was always singing along with it and I got quite addicted to it's poppy tune myself. I finally asked him, after hearing it for the 4th or 5th time, "Who sings this song?"

"James Blunt."

Hmmm. Why have I never heard this before? Do they not play it in the US? If not, I have to share this song with all my friends!

I haved missed hearing it blasting in the car speakers as we drive through narrow streets, green and castle spotted hillsides, or even canyons towered by mountain peaks. So I finally found it on YouTube today.



It made me so happy.

I felt a rush of Austria coming back and I started to giggle out loud thinking of me trying to explain what a bonfire is to Achim.

I've decided that this song seemed to fill a theme for me on our adventure.

#1 - he's taking pictures
#2 - he's meeting all kinds of people
#3 - he's seeing all kinds of countryside
#4 - he's enjoying, thoroughly, his time with friends

That's how it is when Marc, me, Achim and Thomas are all back together again. You can just feel the warmth of our friendships and it is as if the warmth had never left!

Today's the day we got to meet up with Thomas!

But first we must say goodbye to Maria. She wasn't able to come because of things that needed to be taken care of at home and for work. Achim got a picture at breakfast before we left.

They had a beautiful breakfast for us every morning we were there. Maria was such a wonderful host. It was so fun for Marc and I to get to know her. She truly is a sweetheart and has a great laugh. It is so great to keep adding friends to our repertoire (wink). Thanks, Maria, for everything!

Now let me give a quick synopsis of the drive: Achim drove, I slept, sometimes woke up to sing a James Blunt song or Imagine Dragons (ya! so cool to here Imagine Dragons while in Austria and Germany), Marc talked and admired and woke me up every so often to see another castle or other amazing vista. Then we stopped for gas, got out to stretch our legs, take a couple iPhone pics of the spot and got some lunch.

 Yep, the skies were that blue that day. No filter here!

This is one picture I woke up by Marc's cue to snap. Those are not birds flying around, that's how they keep the highways beautiful through some areas is by  putting up glass walls you can see through and little birds are embedded in the glass. Anyway, I was trying to snap a picture of the castle off in the background.

We finally got to Fushl, just outside of Salzburg, where we would be for 3 nights.

Thomas was there when we pulled in and I was so happy to see him and give him a big brother hug. Marc and Achim followed suit. We briefly got caught up and then went to get everything set to go for the hotel and then we went on a walk by the Fushl See. "See" means "lake" in German, so we were walking by the Fushl Lake. We had a great time taking scenic, memorable and some laugh out loud funny pictures with our phones!

This was the church there in the little lakeside village of Fushl and Marc got a great shot of it.

A scene on our way to the lake

Panoramic of the lake... I have a funner one coming up...

I'm showing you the pic and the next three so you can see how you can edit in Snapseed on the iPhone.
This is the original shot.

This is edited to exaggerate color and grandeur which really shows how it felt to look out at that scene.

And here's what it look like on Instagram.

This is one of my favorite picture of the 3 guys. We actually weren't able to get to many as Achim was only with us for one day after this.

We, of course were having fun with the panoramic option again and I just had to save this fail. Achim ran too soon, but it made me laugh till I fell down and still get's my giggle now. He just doesn't quite look like himself... Ha!!

This is how it was supposed to turn out. Achim was the cool one who got in there 3 times!

After enjoying the scenery a bit at Fushl we decided to head out for dinner. Thomas suggested a great place, kind of a secret place, that he'd been to before. It was an awesome steakhouse! It even had great atmosphere!. Here we are at our corner table.

Conversation was great and we had some good laughs.

They brought out our appetizers and I just had to stop and take a picture of it...

those are quail eggs...

quail...

eggs...

still in the shell...

still...

Can you see how small they are? Compare it to the size of Marc's finger. To the right of the egg is a bunny shaped piece of cheese... the steak, though not pictured, was FABULOUS!! Great food!

I forgot to mention that Monday, in Europe, is still part of the Easter Holiday so everything but the restaurants and gas stations are closed down. Which reminds me of another really cool thing they traditionally do in Europe. All the shops close at 6pm each day and on Sunday's they are closed all day. It was really cool to get the feel of the peace during these times.

Of course we had to get Achim and Thomas some "Utah" t-shirts... they had to have some kind of souvenir reminder of our visit with them!

Marc and I headed back to our room and got a little kick out of watching American movies dubbed in German. Tee hee! It was really interesting to only hear English when you were the one conversing. Hearing another language constantly is definitely one of those things that remind you you are in a foreign country.

Until tomorrow, I am going to listen to "Bonfire Hearts" again.

I'm just in the mood for some reason...