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Pension
L'ubomir and the living room of our pension where the guys slept.It's about time I get into gear and update this old thing again!
This semester has been full of days off and extended weekends, as the Austrians are not the biggest fans of effort and work. Thus, last weekend, we had one of our many four day weekends. After lots of planning and the threat of cancellation due to the weather, Libor, L'ubomir (Slovakia), Veronika (Czech Republic), Bénédicte (France) and I set out on our adventure to Western Austria, not too far from Salzburg. Destination: Salzkammergut.
Considered the most beautiful area of Austria, we went with high expectations. Saturday morning, bright and early, Libor and I set out for the car dealership, where we rented our Fiat Bravo. We then picked up the other three and got underway, driving the 3 1/2 hours west in the pouring rain. Our first destination was Ried, a small village next to St. Wolfsgang. We were staying in a small pension owned by a British couple who didn't speak German. I had dealt with the woman on the phone to arrange for our place to stay and whatnot, though I'd never spoken to the man. Upon arriving, he and I chatted, and he
The Ladies
...in the kitchen. Juuust kidding. But that actually is the kitchen. On the left is Veronika, straight from Prague, and on the right is Benedicte, straight from Paris. commented me on my outstanding accent in English. He told me it sounded like I was really from America. I laughed and said, "Well...yea." He'd apparently thought I was Austrian. Anyways, the place we were staying in was really nice, it was a small apartment with one bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen/dining room. Veronika and Bénédicte shared the bedroom, while Libor, L'ubo and I were left to our devices in the living room with a mixture of pull-out beds and sleeping bags.
Saturday was nice despite the weather. It rained just about the entire day. Of course, once we'd arrived in St. Wolfgang, it decided to rain everytime we were outside the car, but the second we stepped foot inside the car, it would magically stop. After getting settled in Ried, we decided to try to find some of the smaller attractions, and drove around in the villages surrounding St. Wolfgang and Wolfgangsee. We stopped at one point and hiked a little ways up to a pretty big waterfall which was really cool, and of course the entire time it was pouring. We then continued on our way to a place where another waterfall should have been,
The Boudoir
Where the ladies slept. but that was unfortunately closed. We ended up taking a spontaneous one to two hour hike up the side of a mountain where we could overlook the entire lake through patches in the cloud cover. We then headed back down the mountain , and into the small village of St. Gilgen, where we played tourists and walked around seeing everything. After grabbing a kebap for dinner, we were all soaked to our cores, and decided to head back to Ried, where we relaxed in the apartment and just hung out for the night.
Sunday, we woke up to absolutely gorgeous weather. The change between the days was absolutely incredible, blue skies, bright sun, it was a different place. We decided to walk the 10 minutes to the Schafbergbahn, an old train that runs up the side of one of the biggest mountains in the area, Schafberg. Along the way, we stopped along the banks of Wolfgangsee, which I can't even describe. Like most things in Austria, and in Europe in general, words fail to describe properly. Thus, a lot of what I have for you will just be my pictures yet again, because I don't
First Waterfall
Lubo and the first waterfall we discovered. think I could do any of it justice. Anyways, we hopped aboard the Schafbergbahn, WHICH was actually featured in The Sound of Music if you recall, and, after a 40-minute ride, arrived at the top. Unfortunately, we couldn't all sit together on the trip, as it was full of Germans and Japanese, like all of Salzkammergut. I had the displeasure of sitting with a group of old German couples who were some of the most obnoxious people I've ever met, and were not aware that I understood every word they said. They were also a teeeensy bit racist, but we won't get into that now. Anyways, we arrived at the peak!
Upon arriving at the peak, we also arrived in another season. At the foot of the mountain, we'd been enjoying summer weather. At the peak of the mountain, we had plunged back into January. We trod through the snow, slipped on the ice, and finally made it to the actual point of the mountain, where were literally in the clouds. We could see the peaks of the other mountains in the area shooting up around us, and every so often, a hole in the clouds, allowing us to
First Waterfall
You can see by everyone in his picture [particularly Libor in the foreground] just how soaked we were. gaze down on the summer scenes below us. It was one of the oddest and coolest things I've ever seen. After relaxing in the snow for a bit, having a few snowball fights, and even sledding down the side of the mountain a little bit , we set out on our hike down. It took us about 3 1/2 - 4 hours to hike back down, but it was well worth it. For much of the time, we were sliding through the snow, which was a lot of fun. We frequently stopped to sit on the edge of peaks, overlook valleys, gaze at the seas, just take it all in. It was amazing. About halfway down, we stopped by a rest point where there was a little restaurant, and the girls grabbed a snack while Libor, L'ubo, and I sat on a bench on the very edge of a valley, with the village of St. Wolfgang and Wolfgangsee lying before us, framed by the mountains on all sides.
When we made it to the bottom, we continued on our way and took a stroll
The Dashing Young Buck
He makes his appearance yet again. into St. Wolfgang, now enjoying the summer weather. It was a really pretty little village, and we couldnt've asked for better weather to see the lake and the mountains in. We took a rest on a dock and sat with our feet in the water for a while, relaxing and soaking up the sun after our hike. Afterwards, we ended up walking back to our apartment, where we cooked and ate in the backyard which was a nice little garden. After that, we just hung out for the night.
Monday morning we woke up to rain. We packed up our things, got in the car, and said auf Wiedersehen to Ried and St. Wolfgang. We headed for Halstatt, our next destination, but ended up making a small detour in Bad Ischl, where the Kaiser had had one of his vacation homes. It was a small city, nothing particularly special, but nice nonetheless. We wandered around a little, and then continued on our way to Halstatt. Upon arriving in Halstatt, we first sought out our place of residence: the campgrounds. That's right, ladies and gents, we were camping in the mountains of Austria in the rain. We got our place
West Marine
Foul weather gear is not just practical in a nautical setting. and had a quick lunch, and then headed into Halstatt. It was an incredibly tiny city, but sits right on the banks of the lake and, because there're the mountains right on the banks of the lake , the city actually expands up the mountain. Halstatt is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in Austria, and there's not too much I can say, just that it's true. We wandered around the city, and then continued on our way to one of our further destinations, Gosau. We headed to Gosausee, which is a lake about 20 minutes away from Halstatt. We took a stroll around the banks, and then continued on the more challenging hike up to the second Gosausee, which lies at the foot of the mountain Dachstein, the highest mountain in Steiermark . Here again is somewhere that I can't even describe, it was just absolutely gorgeous, as you can see from my pictures.
Afterwards, we continued back to Halstatt and to the camping, where we had our most interesting experience yet. We didn't have much food at that point , and
The Shower
It's hard to tell, but Libor is actually under the waterfall [Lubo's in the foreground]. Libor then went a little too far and actually was totally under the water and got drenched. we were down to soup and some random other things. Veronika boiled water at the campsite in a tea boiler, and then the 5 of us sat huddled around the pot, each with a spoon, eating our dinner. We then took a little trip back into Halstatt to see everything at night, which was really quite eerie. There weren't that many lights, there was nobody around, it reminded me a lot of Venice at night. We then headed back to the campsite, where the girls took one tent, and the guys the second. We wrapped ourselves up in plenty of clothes, zipped our door shut, climbed into the sleeping bags, and prepared ourselves for our night.
Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early, as you can imagine. It was naturally raining, though the night wasn't toooo bad. We had all just wrapped ourselves up as tightly as possible and as small as possible to be as warm as possible. Our plan for Tuesday had been to head to Germany, to a little city right on the border, Berchtesgarden, where Hitler had his summer house. Due to the awful weather, we decided instead to eat breakfast, slowly pack-up [and
Outdoor Church
The group at the church. by slowly, I mean as quick as possible as it was pouring], and head back to Graz, stopping along the way if we found something of interest.
We ended up stopping in the city of Gmunden, and wandered around there a little bit. It had luckily stopped raining, but even so, the weather wasn't too spectacular. We stopped in a little cafe for a little pick-me-up of hot chocolate and Apfelstrudel, and then headed to the city's castle, which was located on a small island. Anyways, my camera then decided to die, so I don't have too many pictures of Gmunden. After Gmunden, we headed on back to Graz, returned the car, and settled in for another week of school.
Enjoy my pictures!
Also, if you want to see a great video and get an idea of just what exactly it is I've been up to these last 10 months, go to the following link!
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hillary
non-member comment
jealous
Wow, very jealous. (Except for the camping part.)