A little hole in the wall Austrian town...

I wanted a little Austrian town away from the tourists, so I went to the local vacation region called Salzkammergut, pretty much a lakeside paradise! I took a detour leaving Salzburg to see the town of Hallstatt. My guide said it was a treasure, and it was! The train stopped at the Hallstatt station, and you have to take a boat across the lake to get to the town. The boat only had about 4 people on it, including me, so I was happy it was going to be non-touristy. The views... ah, the views. The town is lakeside, cradled in the majestic arms of towering snow-capped mountains. I can see why locals vacation here (see the pics, but I'm sure they don't do it justice...). I got into the small town and walked the entire length of it in about 5 minutes. A few shops, a few lakeside restaurants, and a few churches. That was about it. What I came to do was the trip up the townside mountain for even more majestic views. I went to the funicular to have it take me up the mountain, but the operator said they just closed! What? At 2:30pm? Ok. I asked about the hiking path up to the top, and he showed me the way. Destined to get to the top one way or another, I took off on foot. It was a decent path, but very steep. It was a little over an hour of steep uphill climbing, but off to my south was a view from heaven (see pics of the water). I kept going, and made it to the 'top', at least the top of the trail. It was about halfway up the mountain, and the view! Well, again, see the pictures. After enjoying the view from the top, I hiked it back down and made a run for the boat dock to get to the train station. Words can't quite explain what I saw today. This was a completely different scenic adventure, and it was well worth the stop. The people in Hallstatt were very nice, but there just weren't many people around at all. I may have seen 30 people total in the town! I wanted to get to Vienna before nightfall, so I hit the train and continued on with my new found memory of the magic Austrian town by the lake in the mountains.

Getting to my hostel in Vienna, I met Bearrna (rolling the r's), from the Ivory Coast. He just finished his PhD, and was giving a presentation to a conference in Vienna on the water table and quality in Ivory Coast. Very interesting. I also met Seb, who was in my hostel in Salzburg! We laughed and talked about Salzburg a bit. I badly needed to do some laundry, so it gave me some time to catch up on this blog, and finally upload some pictures. I also got to go eat, so I found a Turkish restaurant and had a Kebap (like a Greek gyro, sort of). Very yummy!

Finding computers has been an adventure on it's own! In 10 days、I have used Mac, Windows, Linux, and today, Ubantu. Finding a computer that will allow USB drives has been a challenge also, as well as paying by the hour for Internet access. I am glad that I am a fast typer!　After 10 days (really?), I can make a few statements. Italians and Austrians are very friendly. They walk EVERYWHERE. I think I have lost weight because of all the walking, even for me! I LOVE the train system and public transportation here, it is NOTHING like the States. It actually works here! I love trying all the local foods. No, I'm not eating McDonalds. :-) Traffic in Italy was nuts, but it is more refined in Austria, more like the States. I have met a lot of great people, I just don't have the time to describe all of them. I have not felt scared at any time, and I am enjoying myself greatly! It is funny to see that beer and liquor costs less than a Coke. I am getting run down a bit from all the exercise, and my shoes smell from the sweat! Ha! The meals have gotten much more hearty after leaving Italy, more of a meat and potat終えs meal. Also, the keyboards have been different, with strange characters and letters switched at times (imaging typing with the Y and Z keys reversed!). I hope to sleep tonight! I will explore Vienna tomorrow.

Tschuss!

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Part of trip: Indianapolis to Europe

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