Too Gut to Pass Up

So....the plan was to keep this blog chronological even after I was behind two weeks.

But something too good came up...I think you'll find the time lapse worth it too.

Leather pants don't exactly resonate well with much of American culture. Functional for the cowboy and the biker (perhaps), but anyone else and people's eyes are rolling or expanding in that definitive 'what where they thinking' sort of way. I'm also reminded of the likes of, say, Dennis Rodman, which doesn't help anyone.

And, of course, I can't fail to mention a certain episode of Friends in which Ross decides to buy leather pants....it didn't go well for him either.

But in the Alps, it's quite a different story. Lederhosen (literally, 'leather pants') were invented to be functional workwear for these Alpine mountain men--they don't get dirty easily and they last forever. And in more recent times they have been adopted in Austria and Bavaria as a sort of regional or national costume, or "tracht."

And because of that, it's not too uncommon to see them around town, and those of us who want to fully adopt the culture, well, we found it necessary to join in.

So last Friday ten of us went Lederhosen (and Dirndl for the girls) shopping. We are so cool.

That night, we had to show them off, so we went to a traditional local hang out, and, surprisingly, a few Austrians spoke to us and were pretty impressed....

Here's the photo evidence. It was worth every last Euro cent.

(also, to the left of me is some random Austrian who decided to join our picture....)