Hallstatt

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Sarah and I decided to go to Hallstatt on the recomendation od Rick Steves. I was glad to have heard the word. This was the most serien lake and mountain adventure I think I have ever been a part of. You get off the train to nothing but a lake. There is a little ferry you need to get to go to town, the whole time your antisipation mounts as you look across the lake to see a little town built into a cliff onhe water. The lake is large but the only ripple is from the ferry coming to pick you up. You get Deja Vu as you look into the water and see everyhing twice. Sarah and I had meet a man from Florida on the train and he would not shut up telling us stories and we were sick of him, but even Randy could not mess up my mood as I crossed the mirror. The town was so small it was very easy to find the only hostel in town, it was not open yet though so dropped our bags outside an had a walk (Randy is sill tagging along). We go to the two churches in town and have a look from their cliff perch. The catholic one has a side room we went in that housed the skulls of the dead after they are dug up after about 20 years to conserve land. They are painted with different designs to mean different things. We snake away from Randy at this point and look around town ourselves and it is a great relief. We got some strudle and cappachino at a little cafe and it was delisious. We saw Randy and tried to lay low it was a good game of hide and seek we started. We went back to the hostel to check in and got a room. We settled in but got cornered when the cat to our mouse was given our same room. He told us he found a new friend from Cali and were hoping to see less of him with this, so we read for a little until he left. Then we had a walk too. We got spotted by the redneck and his 'girl' he meet, which turned out to be a woman his age of about fifty. She, Carol, was very cool though. She was an adventure writer and was telling us about her trips and what was good in town. She was a big kyaker and hiker so I really liked what she ha to say. She also seemed to have better way of dealing with Randy and some how got him to shut up part of the time. It was good to hear something other than southern philosophy on war and... more war. We eventualy ditched out because Carol was hinting she wanted to do some writing, a hint Randy could not even hope to grasp. We saw some cool island park and more of town. We got a bite at a nice little pizza shop since it was cheap. It was strange the music was a scratchy radio station and the clientele were teen smokers. We headed back to the hostel for a quick stop and we delayed by stories of hidden Nazi gold. We were headed out for a drink on Sarah's last day and ran into Carol how was looking for the cat to check something he had. We pointed her in the direction as she mentioned how odd our roomie was. We told her we were getting a drink and she could join us and then tried to dash before the cat got our  tounge. We sat out side overlooking the lake, it was tops. Carol came with a tail and we all had a drink. It was good to talk to Carol more and I got he info and hope to look up some of her work. Then we all went to bed. Randy was leaving early by luck but decided to say goodbye with a story even though we were both sleeping. We woke and found out when Sarah needed to leave by to catch her fight then I talked her into hiking up the mountain. It was not that bad of hike, for me at least, and was totaly worth it to see the amazing views. The whole way up we read of the salt mine ab the top but did not go in for 16 euro. We took a different path down and followed a steam that turned into the little waterfall behind our hostel, I forgot to mention that. We had a more of a look around and I put my feet in the drink. Then I sent Sarah on her way. She was a good sport about traveling and we had a real good time. One funny thing was that evryone thought we were dating, sarah kept trying to talk me into going with it and telling people we were. I kept messing it up and telling everyone no without thinking. But on with the story, I saw a camp site and decided to give my tent I have been lugging a go finaly. I set up then god some snacks for dinner and had it on the island park, this became the teenage hangout around the end of my meal. I went back and put my tent to work. Hallstatt turned out to be a very dewy place and everything was wet. With the late sun rise of the mountains not much dried but it was all in all a good time. I packed up and decided to have a walk up the valley. Very good decision. It was not a hard hike at all and I found some amazing stuff. Surounded by cliffs and streams bellow you could not help feel great! I passed a steam that was running slow and someone had stacked rocks in the form of danger about a hundred times all over the place. I felt warned and did not touch this one. I continued on to find why. This was the "glacer garden" and was prone to flash floods. However, the danger made this beautiful. Where I read this was the most unique rock pools. They were a conection of bath tubs cut into a solid piece of lime stone. A slow trikel came into the cystal water through the green of the moss that held them. Each pool had rocks that were like at the ocean that had been ground smooth, here the process was slower and only worked during the occational flash flood. There were a few tunnels through the rock where a constant rain fell on the pile of golf and soft balls. It was so great  and calm it is strange to think it was all caused by such violent waters. I took a different way down and found giant boulders that fell ages ago. Each of these were dated and had alters to a saint on them. I got back to town only seeing three other hikers and felt I had seen the other great side of Hallstatt that most do not know of. I got my bag and hopped the ferry so I could hop the train. I am now on my way to Innsbruck. 

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