Day 2 - Hallstatt

Day 2 saw a pressing desire to reach new heights. So we decided to see the peak called Krippenstein.

Not my usual mountain hike, since everything is designed for maximum comfort and easy access. So the only effort involved in making it to 2100m was a financial one. The cableway trip was equivalent to a ride in an amusement park for me: all glass around you, the trees and houses getting smaller and smaller, the occasional jerk and sudden change in height... quite thrilling.

Very very small fir trees:
Once up there, the view is breathtaking. Peaks and glaciers and rock and snow wherever you look, with the Dachstein standing imposingly in the distance:

Seen from this point, the height we had walked to with so much sweating the previous day seemed like a stroll in the park.

A hike around to the other side of the peak takes you to the "5fingers", one of the main tourist attractions. They are what their name says: 5 miraculously engineered fingers of steel extending over the edge of the cliff and scaring you with their transparent floor.

One of the fingers has a gilded frame fixed to a pole, which is meant for framing the beautiful scenery. ... Right
After doing the compulsory tourist things, we scattered all over the mountain top and took to all kinds of siliness.

I'm particularly proud of this pic:
And this one's funny, it looks like we're pasted onto a poster:

After we were done with the silliness, we descended to about halfway down the mountain, where the caves were. There are tens and tens of caves in these mountains, some are for tourists, some are meant for professionals and some are totally off bounds. Unfortunately I had put my camera away since the sign said no photos, but it turned put the guide did allow you to take pics. The ice cave was awesome, I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer than the tour allowed. It was beauty I cannot compare to anything else I've seen. You could try going here for some pics.

These little houses below are all little museum, each concerning a different aspect of the Dachstein: plants, animals, history, exploration etc.

The day ended with a brave attempt to bathe in the lake. It had gone cloudy and windy in the meantime, and there were big (and cold!) waves. So I lasted for about 10 minutes in knee deep water before I fled to the comfort of polar fleece.

I'm back

Dear hypothetical readers,

I'm back from one of the best holidays of my life, in the pretty little town of Hallstatt, Austria. It was quite possibly also the most physically-intensive holiday of my adult life. I wish I had a week to recover now.

Up at dawn and sleeping whenever done with nighttime photography, not a minute of that sunny week was wasted: walking, climbing, cycling, sightseeing, more walking, even more walking, omg not walking again...

I think this is how life should be spent: as if you only had 5 summer days left until hell. In this case hell being work, bills and a poorly managed country with no bicycle lanes. :)

In the following days, I will give you several posts with pics carefully selected to make you very, very envious. Enjoy!

Hallstatt - day1

Day 1 began in a way that was to set the tone for the rest of the week. Too excited to sleep , we got up at 6:30. We soon realized that meant 5:30am local time. Oh well, at least there was nobody on the playground at that time. So the obvious choice was to sample swings from yet another country.

Ahh, nothing like swinging in your pjs at 5am!
Especially when you have this view:

With that crossed off the list, breakfast was carefully avoided so as not to rouse the other inhabitants of the camping ground, and an orientation walk through the town was also crossed off the list. Come to think of it, the catchphrase of the entire holiday was "nevermind, we'll eat when we come back".

The town looks like this. I'm pretty sure in months to come I will spend many motionless minutes staring at this picture.
It was great to walk around at that time, there was complete silence and not a tourist in sight.

Later that morning the sleepyheads joined the group and we went on the first trek, on a path above the town, following the course of a very long waterfall all the way up to the historic salt mine.

This is just a segment of the waterfall that starts 1600m up the mountain and falls in the town centre.

The town from above:
The trek leads you to the site of the Hallstatt necropolis. It always fascinates me to be in a place where the presence of ancient peoples is so strongly felt. The spot where the first grave (of over 2000) was found now holds a reconstruction of that grave, inside a small black boxy building.
On the ceiling, a movie was projected, enabling you to see through the eyes of that skeleton: the burial, and later, in the 1800s, the archaeological discovery.
The necropolis site is now shaded by this bridge, built for the sole purpose of offering tourists a better view of the lake. Of course it had to have a glass elevator! And of course they made me go in it twice!

~To be continued, in a logical sequence, with day 2 ~

The genesis of adventure

In the beginning, there was a wheel. It lived, quietly but obtrusively, in my hallway.
Then one day, it was joined by a frame. And they lived even more obtrusively in my hallway, blocking access and looking out of place.

Then slowly, other pieces came along: a seat, boxes of springs and chains and shiny things and other parts I could not name. It was becoming too much, they were taking over my house, I had to do something! But then a nice gentleman came to my rescue, and turned the horde of invading metal parts into a shiny new bicycle for me to use!

...Except at the moment it's using me. Straining all my long-forgotten muscles and aching bones and old joints. It's killing me! I like her, though, she takes me to nice places.

Like these hills we explored this weekend. The weather has been very unstable lately, with storms and floods, so we didn't dare stray too far from home. But nice places were found nonetheless.

The greatest reward after going up the umpteenth hill was a row of sour cherry trees, absolutely loaded with fruit!
Being so far from any village, I just assumed they weren't anyone's property, so I gave myself up to some enthusiastic foraging.
But picking from the ground soon became unsatisfactory, so I had to get to the core of the issue.
I picked as much as we could fit in a backpack, and I ate as much as I could fit in my stomach.

After admiring the view a little, I came to the painful realization that (omg!) I also had to cycle back home.

I'm shattered. Everything hurts like hell, and I just want to lie down and sleep for 3 days. But the trip was fun, and I do have cherry cake. I could get used to this whole bike thing.

Another unexpected visitor

To continue the series of delightful animal encounters, let me present to you this little ball of fur I found right at my gate, shivering in the rain. He was in terrible shape, sneezing and barely breathing. I took him in, wrapped him up, warmed him and fed him. And loved him instantly.
Unfortunately we were only friends for 24 hours. But it was a lovely 24 hours. It felt more cosy and homely to sew long into the night with a cat snoozing at my feet.
I know I can't afford a cat, and that I'm allergic and that the landlady wouldn't allow a cat, but why, why couldn't I keep him!

It was heartbreaking to give him away, but I gave it to another cat mother who adopted him instantly. He's healthy and happy now, I checked. But why, why couldn't he be happy and healthy in my house?

An unexpected visitor

I love it when real life events resemble sitcom scenes. And I experienced a bit of that yesterday afternoon.

It was just a relaxing sunny afternoon and I decided to cook dinner. In the middle of it all, a friend rings for linguistic assistance. So there I was, chopping, stirring, seasoning, while holding my phone between my shoulder and ear and translating psychology terms from Romanian into English.

What were supposed to be a few words turned into a half-hour long conversation with whole pages being recited, analysed and translated over the phone. All the while, I was chopping-stirring-seasoning away.

For some reason, in the middle of the thyme-scented conversation, I looked up to see naught but a swallow perched up on the gas pipe! I instantly envisioned desperate fluttering, feathers flying everywhere and a breathless bird hitting itself against every glass surface, as birds do when they are trapped inside a house. So I opened doors and windows to ease her access, The swallow? She had no intention of leaving.
Instead she flew down onto the side of the stove, and then right on top of the wooden spoon sticking out of the pot. I ran for the camera, all the while maintaining a high level of professionalism on the phone, and started snapping away. The swallow? Not bothered in the slightest.
My landlady decided to come right at this moment, only to see me speaking foreign languages into the phone squeezed between shoulder and ear, while taking pics of a bird sitting on my stove. With a quick "um, how about I come back later" she was gone.
The swallow? After offering a lip shot to the camera, she gracefully pooped on my stove, then flew out the door like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The phone conversation ended soon after. And the food turned out great.
I feel like this post should end with MLIA.