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Published: December 3rd 2012
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Rainy roads of Austria.Today we were leaving for Hopfgarten in Austria. This was one place I wasn’t hyped up about. It’s not that I wasn’t excited for it, I just hadn’t really thought about it before. The drive was fairly short. First we stopped so that those who chose to could do white water rafting. I didn’t want to do it, and I wish we had had the chance to see a concentration camp in that area instead. Those of us who weren’t doing the rafting went to a building where there was internet and a café to wait it out. It was raining and cold, but I had the most delicious goulash soup. It was probably the best meal I’d had yet. I spent some time on the Internet and then took a walk around the little town we were in with Emily. It was tiny, and there wasn’t too much going on.
Eventually we met back up with the rafters, and they said it was so much fun, I ended up wishing that I had done it. So advice to you future Contiki travelers – do the rafting! When we arrived in Hopfgarten we got settled in our Contiki Special Stopover,
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Beautiful Austria which was very nice. I was rooming with Chelsea and Emily. The rooms had bunk beds and we had to use our sleeping bags, but there was a private bathroom, and it wasn’t that bad.
As soon as we got there I had to immediately leave for the paragliding optional. I’m not too sure why I decided to do this optional, as it is very expensive (€115), and I’m terrified of heights. But I’d told everyone at home that I was doing it, so I had to. There were only eight people doing it: me, Haley, Steve, Candice, Chivonne, Holly, Sumi, and Ben. We all drove up through the village in a van and then it was decided that me and Steve would be the first to go up the gondola. We had to carry these huge bags with all our equipment on our backs, and they were incredibly heavy. My pilot’s name was Chris, and he was very nice and funny. At this point I was starting to freak out, but he helped me calm down. (Steve, if you are reading this, this is the point I decided I didn't hate you anymore LOL). It was a grey
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Paragliding! and rainy day, and it just didn’t look safe to be jumping off the side of a mountain. Once at the top we had to hike down the mountain a bit (while carrying all the equipment) and it was very difficult, especially with me wearing shoes that were definitely not meant for hiking (they were the only closed toed shoes I had, since I didn’t bring runners). My poor boots were full of grass and holes by the end. Once we got to the right spot, I got harnassed up, and then we just waited. And waited, and waited. We had to wait for the fog to clear so that the pilots could see the landing spot. And we had to wait for the perfect wind conditions. The fact that we had to wait so long just made everything else scary. I wanted to just get it over with! Eventually, just as I was hoping that we could just go back and I could use the money for something else, Chris said it was time. I had to run as fast as I could and not stop, which was difficult seeing as I had a much larger person attached behind
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Paragliding! me, I was wearing non-running boots, and I was carrying about 50 pounds of equipment awkwardly on my back. Plus the ground was steep downhill and there were holes everywhere. But somehow I managed to do it, and we were flying! It was such an amazing feeling. My body wasn’t feeling nervous anymore, but I kept asking Chris all these stupid questions like “What if we land on a house?” or “What if we never land at all and just keep floating away?” We did some tricks in the air like spiraling which was fun. Chris took photos during the flight of us and the scenery and I later bought them as a souvenir.
We headed back to the hotel and I showered and went on the Internet for a bit before dinner. Dinner was goulash soup – again. But it was just as delicious here. Tonight we were having our one and only themed party night. The theme was cross-dressing, which didn’t interest me much. I didn’t have any clothes that resembled a man’s, I didn’t want to borrow any, and I had already picked out a great girl’s outfit. Nobody else seemed that interested either, so I
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Gender Bender party didn’t worry. But by the time it was ready to leave, surprise! Everyone had decided they were going to cross-dress. So I quickly borrowed a shirt from Ben, drew on a moustache, and put my hair in a bun. I didn’t look too much like a man, but whatever. The party was with a different Contiki group and it ended up being pretty lame, so I went to bed early. I figured I’d get some sleep before Venice tomorrow.
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