Tour of Austria: (Accidentally Salzburg) Hallstatt and Graz; also Halloween!

Once again, scroll to the bottom for pictures.

After my final midterm Thursday morning (Europe Beyond the Nation State), four of us from that class left straight from the test and went to the Westbahnhof train station – Allison, Ashley, Katie Mixon, and myself. Two of our other friends, Michelle D’Arpino and Julia Orrange (yes that is her last name and yes it is spelled with two “r”s – we were both eating orange slices once and she finished hers rather quickly causing me to make a sarcastic comment - she responded equally sarcastically: “my last name is "orange" – I obviously know how to eat one”), also met us at the station. One more friend, Liz, was also supposed to meet us, but the communication about the trip was thus far sub-par. Though we called her before we left, she didn’t get in touch with us until our train had left. Needless to say, we felt pretty bad, and she wasn’t particularly happy with us.

Anyway, we were on our first train and under the impression we needed to switch trains at Salzburg. So we went to Salzburg (check that one off the list). Turns out, we needed to switch a few stops before Salzburg, so we had to get on a different train and retrace our tracks. Yet another friend, Carli Smith, was supposed to meet up with us in Salzburg but she wasn’t ready, so it turned out just six of us were going to be in Hallstatt the first night instead of 8 (which worked out super for me, but I’ll get there later). We got on the train at the right platform and sat down. Ashley decided it may be prudent to ask and make sure we were on the right train. She came running back shaking her head and making a really scary face. Evidently we were on the wrong train.

She ran and got her bag. The rest of us started to get ours as well but we didn’t really hurry like Ashley was because we didn’t think it was a huge deal. Then the train started moving. We ran to the door where there was an OBB (the train system in Austria) employee by the door holding it open as the train was moving. He reached for Ashley’s bag, at which point we all thought we were going to have to toss our stuff and jump. Luckily, the guy yelled a couple times and the train stopped. Finally we got on train #3 (where we sat in the young child play cabin), took it a few stops, and transferred to train #4. As soon as we got on we made sure to ask if it was headed to Hallstatt. Once we were reasonably confident we were going in the right direction, we sat down and relaxed. Katie made our lodging reservations at a bed and breakfast, and the husband was kind enough to pick us up from the station because we got in about 8, it was dark, and we had no idea where to go.

I’m realizing this post is going to be really long, so my apologies in advance, but I figured it may be prudent to give a brief explanation of Hallstatt. Hallstatt is a small Austrian village in the Alps. It is completely surrounded by mountains, it sits on a lake, and is exactly what you would believe an Austrian village should look like. It is also an UNESCO World Heritage cite. To add to the beauty of Hallstatt, our two days there came right in the middle of the change to fall, so the slopes were covered in shades of red, orange, yellow, and green trees. Hopefully the pictures do it some kind of justice, but I’m afraid that may not be possible.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast named the Haus Lidy. We were the only guests there (in fact we found out that the day after we left they close down for a month for vacation), and we had three rooms. Two of them were labeled “Kinderzimmer,” which means the room for children, and one was labeled “Wohnzimmer,” which translates roughly to the master bedroom. Since there were six of us, we split into groups of two – Julia and Michelle took one kid’s room, Ashley and Allison took another, and Katie and I took the master bedroom because it had a king size bed and a set of bunk beds. All the rooms had bathrooms, warm comforters, a balcony, a TV, and plenty of space. It was SUPER fortunate for me that Carli couldn’t come with us that first night; she was supposed to be the sixth person and Katie’s roommate and I was going to have to find another place to stay. Luckily, I got to take her spot and I did the right thing and gave Katie the king bed, while I slept on the bottom bunk (don’t worry mom – no more top bunks for me).

After putting our stuff down, we walked 15 minutes into town to find some dinner. (For those of you who read this and have been to Colorado with the Blythe family, Hallstatt is similar to La Veta in size and layout, and different in every other way possible.) Because Hallstatt is so small, almost nothing was open, but we found one bar where we were served käsekrainers (I think I’ve mentioned these before – they’re bratwursts with melted cheese inside, and they are so so so good) and soup. The bartender told us this was pretty much the only bar in Hallstatt. Sure enough, 30 minutes after we got there, about 12 young people showed up. They told us they came to this bar almost every night. At one point the bartender walked in and addressed the other students in English using pretty crude language as a joke, and we all laughed. She felt really bad once she realized people who actually spoke English were sitting in the room as well. After making new friends for a little while, we decided we’d had a long day of travel and we were all ready to sleep.

The next morning we ate breakfast about 9. It was traditional Austrian: a soft boiled egg, semmels (rolls), ham and salami, apricot jam, butter, tea and coffee, and orange juice. The room in which we ate breakfast was really cute, and the wife/proprietor who served us was so nice. We took our time enjoying the food, and eventually we made our way into town. Though the day started foggy, it slowly cleared off into a gorgeous, sunny, and warm enough day. We also happened to run into three other IES students, one of whom was Evan, one of my roommates, who had neglected to tell us he was also going to be spending about a day in Hallstatt this weekend.

First we spent a little bit of time in the Hallstatt museum where we learned mostly about the history of salt mining in the area. Then we decided to undertake the hour-long hike to the top of one of the ridges (under the impression that we could take a lift back down afterwards). We went to the store and bought pretzel-like bread, apples, chocolate, cheese, and water. The walk/climb was a little more difficult than we imagined, but we walked past a fantastic waterfall on our way up, and the views were absolutely amazing.

At the top we encountered snow. Of course this would eventually lead to a snowball fight, but first we enjoyed the view, took pictures, and sat down to eat our lunch. Julia and Michelle surprised us – they had also lugged a bottle of wine all the way up to the top of the mountain in their backpack. We had about a two-hour break up there where we just lounged, ate, and enjoyed the view. None of us really wanted to go down. Finally we decided we should make our way back down before the sun went behind the mountains. It was at this point that all five girls with snowballs ambushed me. Fortunately, super athleticism runs in the family, so I’m reasonably confident I dominated the snowball fight. Going down the mountain didn’t take as long as going up did (obviously), but we decided it was generally easier on our legs to just let our momentum carry us down – so we ran most of the way. Luckily no one fell.

Once we got down we went back to our place to rest for a little bit and pick out a place to eat dinner. On our way out we met up with Carli who had just arrived on the train. We all ate a really early dinner, and then decided that it wasn’t worth trying to find a new place to go out, so we went back to the bed and breakfast to watch a movie (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Afterwards we were all really tired from all of our exercise, so we just went to bed. Carli slept on the top bunk in our room. It was interesting to have pillow talk with someone besides Pat for the first time in…3 months?

The next morning we got up to eat about 8 so we could catch the 9:15 ferry across the lake and the 9:30 train. Part of the track was under construction, so we had to get off the train and get in a van that took us on a windy mountain pass at about 57 miles an hour. Fortunately it didn’t last that long, and we got on another train that took us to a stop where we had to transfer to another train to get to Graz (our next destination – and if you’re counting, we’ve now been on 7 trains). Graz is in the Styrian province in Austria, which is a gorgeous area as well. It is the second largest city in Austria.

We arrived at about 12:30, and Patrick joined us a few minutes later. Julia and Michelle had decided not to go to Graz (because they had already been once), so Pat rounded our group back out to six. We walked about 20 minutes to our hostel, the Jufa, where we had 3 rooms. Pat and I were reunited, and Katie and Carli stayed together. Once again we set out to explore a new city.

The center of the city was about a fifteen-minute walk from our hostel. We walked in front of the city hall, and then down the street to the Armour Museum. Touted as the largest collection in the world, it boasts over 32,000 pieces. At first we were skeptical. However, there are 4 floors simply littered with guns, swords, and pieces of armour. There was even horse armour. It was a really neat museum.

We at lunch at a little local place where I tried the schnitzel. The berries that came with it were very good, but the schnitzel itself wasn’t quite as good as Schnitzelwirt. Afterwards we walked around the old town, and then decided to climb to the top of the fortress. After hiking the previous day, this wasn’t particularly easy, but the views of Graz from on top were amazing. We also got to watch the sun set behind the mountains, which was also really pretty. We walked down before it got completely dark and decided to head back to the hotel to hang out for a while and try and watch a little bit of the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear”. Unfortunately my Internet connection wasn’t good enough to pick up the streaming, but we read some about it. Since we had eaten lunch so late, we left to go find dinner around 9. We all decided we really wanted kebaps, so we went in search of a place to get one. The first guy turned us down and said everyone was closed. That was a mistake.

A couple blocks down we ran into a store where a Turkish man politely ushered us in. We all ordered one, and then Pat and Carli decided to share another one. Pat asked if he could make it himself, which the guy let him do. He loved Pat. Then again, who doesn’t? But Pat, like Mal in Florence, made his own kebap. Eventually we asked the man to point us in the direction of the best nightlife. This took us back by the first stand we had walked by, where the man there was now serving someone else. Without consulting each other, we collectively booed as we passed by. Eventually we asked some other young people where the best places to be were. They didn’t provide a whole lot of help, but we ended up taking an elevator to an upstairs club area, at which point we climbed the stairs and ended up on the roof. We hung out there until we all got cold, and then just decided it wasn’t worth wandering around anymore, so we just went back to the hostel and hung out before bed.

The next morning (the 31st) we got up and at breakfast an hour earlier than we meant to because the time fell back one hour here. Oops. We picked up the 10:26 train and were back in Vienna by 1 that afternoon. I immediately took a 4-hour nap, and then got up to prepare for Halloween. November 1 is a national holiday in Austria, so we didn’t have any classes the next day. We had a bunch of people over to our apartment, including Kelvin Bates, a friend from Davidson. He is studying in Geneva and was in Vienna this weekend. Unfortunately we only got to see him one night. We then went out to hear Tobi (one of our program directors who is 28) and his “hip-hop group” perform at a club. Finally, we called it a weekend and went home to sleep late in the day on Monday.

Sorry this post is so long. I’m going to include a couple final thoughts:

Study abroad is an interesting phenomenon. I can’t speak for everyone, but to me it feels a little bit like the first semester of freshman year. I’ve spent plenty of time building friendships with people with whom I believe it is worth spending time. Yet, unlike freshman year, once we all leave for winter break, we won’t ever be in the same place at the same time again. And it’s likely that I won’t see most of them ever again anyway. There are a couple I share mutual friends with back at home, which makes it slightly more likely. But still, we have six weeks left. It’s starting to all seem a little bit like it isn’t worth it to continue to try and build on these friendships. Obviously, I will continue building anyway because that’s who I am. But it makes me miss people from back home, and it makes me a little sad to wonder how much I’ll talk to people I met here, if I talk to them at all.

Sorry for the depressing endnote. I love it here. And I love the people here. On Thursday Pat and I leave for Istanbul for 4 days (we are aware of the suicide bomber attack that just unfortunately killed 32 – it wasn’t close to where we will be, but we will use as much caution as possible). When I get back, two friends from home, Laura Jerzyk and Quinn Rodgers are coming to visit (along with maybe a friend from Davidson). The next weekend there will be three or four Davidson people in town, including Pat’s girlfriend (and my good friend, I might add) Katie Lovett. The weekend after that I’ll be attempting to see Brussels, London, and Paris. The last two weekends of the semester I plan on spending in Vienna with everyone here. And I’ll make sure every minute is completely worth it.

The "Kid's Car" on the second train

Fog in the early morning over Hallstatt

Enlarge as many of these as you want. It was so pretty

From left to right: Julia, Allison, Katie, Ashley, and Michelle

snow...Snow...SNow...SNOw...SNOW!!

View of the lake and mountains with the town at the bottom

The girls in front of our bed and breakfast - the Haus Lidy.  Carli, who joined us late, is on the far left.

Pat and Allison in front of the Rathaus in Graz

At the Armour Museum

A view of Graz from the fortress

Carli and Pat with the kebap man who let Pat make his own kebap!