2/15/07 crazy Austrians

While staying in Maputo the last few days of my trip I met a couple that had been riding their custom made mountain bikes all the way from the tip of Norway and were on their way to Cape Town, South Africa. They had been riding for the last two years and were just a few months from finishing. Meeting these people supersedes anything cool I have ever done... I can't even imagine what they've gone through. These are the types of people that need to be interviewed and monitored during their journey on Discovery Channel or SOMETHING. The trip, when completed, nobody will know of this extraordinary feat of human endurance other than they themselves and the people they meet along the way.

I had dinner with them one night at Fatima's nest in Maputo and talked of politics, Austrian life, and of course Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom they say is NOT at all considered Austrian anymore and Austrians generally despise him because of his views on the death penalty. Austrian life seemed to be modeled after America... In fact, they are holding on to some of the traditions that are starting to die and or get mutilated by narrow minded bible thumpers, such as holloween. I loved hearing of how they have Christmas with "San-te" clause.