Springing

I knew something was changing when I began to see only the lower half of all the Austrian men's calves... Yes, the man-pris are in full bloom and you know what that means, spring in Austria. After a few weeks of ugly rainy days where it was too warm to go skiing but too cold to do anything else, spring has finally arrived in full force. It really sucks that we have to leave this country (in less than a month!) just as its in its most beautiful. Nevertheless I have been taking full advantage of the beautiful weather and this amazing place.

I discovered that I could be in an alpine meadow overlooking the Inn River Valley in less than 20 minutes from my dorm. From there stretch out many other trails that wander in and among the Alps. Because of this I have made it a point to go on a 1-3 hour hike at least once a day and I can't get enough of it. One of my favorite things about hiking here is the fact that sprinkled among the trails are a number of Alms and Huette which are essentually small traditional log cabins that serve food and beer to hikers excusively. Some of these places don't have roads leading to them and need to get their supplies hellicoptered or hiked in. There is nothing like an ice cold beer and/or a crisp apple struedel in the middle of a hike.

One of my favorite places to hike to is called Hoettinger Bild which is a small baroque chapel about a hour straight up the mountain behind my dorm in the middle of the wilderness that people like to make mini pilgramages to. Apparently its main feature, a sketch of Madonna and Child, is in some way holy or miraculous when some student found it or sketched it on that spot (I'm not really sure but thats what I got from all of the paintings in the chapel). Along the way I always say hi to the cows, sheep, and cream-colored ponies that are always roaming the hills of the alps. In my living here, I have come to appreciate the smell of manure and I will probably always associate it with this year (in a positive way).

Last weekend I realized was going to be really my last free weekend to travel while here and so I decide to make it to a place I always wanted to go to, Hallstatt.

Hallstatt is in the Salzkammergut, not very far from Tirol but not very easy to get to. It is the tiny town on the alpine lake that pretty much any travel book on Austria or any travel book on western europe usually has on the cover. The town was founded several thousand years ago as the salt in the area was the currency of the world until the past couple years. Since we have a buttload of projects due about possibly the most boring stuff imaginable, and spontinaity in this group is severly lacking, I was unable to recruit anybody to join me in my journey. I was determined to go regardless.

Although the city was amazing and totally worth it, I have totally lost faith and feel somewhat shocked, cheated, and slightly hurt by the things the Austrian train system did to me during the trip. We used to be wonderful travel-buddies, they were always on time and good to me with clean cars and comfy seats but apparently something went terribly wrong as the entire company seemed indictive towards me the entire trip. Getting there was not so much a problem, the first few legs of the trip were fine, but then came the last leg, only a 20 minute train ride. I got on the train that arrived at the track and at the time that my train was supposed to take. I didnt realize that I had gotten on a train going in the wrong direction until 20 minutes later when the ticket guy informed me. Apparently a few other Austrians made the same mistake so I didnt feel totally dumb. The wierdest part about this (and why I am telling you this part of the story) is that when we finally got on a train going in the right direction (an hour later), the whole train was a serious party. Everyone seemed to know each other and they were all dancing in the hallways and singing and it wasnt like they were going to the same place, people got on and off at many different stops. When we finally got there, some girl on a unicycle pointed me in the direction of the youth hostel where I played poker with a strange group of Czech cyclists (who were in a very large group that had a very cult-ish feel...bongo drums and bad guitar singing into the night) until I got tired and packed it in. More on the crimes of the train company later.

In Hallstatt, I visited some ice caves (way cool!) where I met some Australians (not Austrians) who were friendly enough to drive me back into town so I didnt have to walk. (I just want to say at this point that I love Australians, EVERY one I have come across this year has been almost disturbingly friendly and unbelievably fun, I dont know what it is about that continent but they are doing something right.) I also saw a church with a ton of painted skulls, had one of the best "interactive" museum experiences on the 'thrilling' history of the city complete with a 3-d journey back into time, went on a salt mine tour with long slides (they take your picture like at Disneyland), difficult to understand miner animitronics telling stories, laser light shows across subterranian lakes, mannekin cavemen with oddly placed body hair and salty walls, I licked them.

Okay so back to the trains, on the way back, I caught a 6pm train that was supposed to get back to Innsbruck by 10. Once in Salzburg I get to the platform where the train back to Innsbruck was supposed to leave. It said on the computer that it was leaving at 9pm, it said on the board in the station, it even said it was leaving on the platform. I got there a few minutes early so I started to read as I waited for the train, then I looked up and the sign on the platform that had just said Innsbruck was blank. I run down to the ticket office to ask the man which track the train was leaving from and Herr Grumpy told me that this train does not run on saturdays. He said that the next one was at 12:44am, great, thats about in 4 hours. So now I am stuck in Salzburg for 4 hours and after living in this city for a month I knew it was already about 3 hours past the time that about everybody in the city decides to run inside and hide from the darkness resulting in almost no nightlife or even just people walking around. I managed to kill 4 hours so I got back on the train (which now should arrive sometime around 2am) and as I am getting on, the man informs me that the route the train usually takes is being worked on so we have to take a 2 hour detour. Great. So I arrived back in IBK at about 4 am Sunday morning, exhaused and about ready to kill the next person I see happily wearing a red scarf and Austrian train uniform... I arrived 6 hours later than I meant to turning a 4 hour trip home into a 10 hour one.

Although the transportation was extremely frustrating I was glad I went but I wish I could've convinced a few others to come with me since I was kind of lonely at parts and didnt really meet any travel buddies in the hostel.

On Wednesday for Gemeinsames Essen, all of us with Trachtenkleidung (Lederhosen and Dirndls) decided to suprise Guertler by all wearing them. It was basically me, the lederhosen pimp, with 6 other dirndl ladies. We thought it would be fun to embaress him at the restruant when he is forced to associate himself with a whole bunch of Americans wearing traditional Austrian clothing. We weren't doing anything else embaressing other than just wearing the clothing. It was fun and though he didnt show it, he was a little embaressed or suprised (we decided that Guertler likes to give suprised but does not like to be the reciever). However the walk to/from dinner was a different story. EVERYONE on the streets was staring at us, making comments or laughing. A group of Indian tourists actually stopped to pose with us when we were walking through the Altstadt! Usually an Austrian walking through the streets in traditional garb doesnt get a second glance, its a part of everyday life, but for some reason, they could tell we didnt belong wearing them or something. I guess they couldve just heard us talking....

Anyways, we are leaving for a field trip to Estonia and Latvia tomorrow and I am excited to check out these Baltic states. Itll also be nice traveling on someone elses adjenda and not having to worry about issues AND we get to stay in hotels. The concept of a private bathroom while traveling is still kind of foreign to me... Anyways the internet is supposed to be great and I can easily take my computer so I think I will so expect more posts in the next few days.