Two weeks ago, Jason and I along with our wonderful friends, Brandon & Sarah, took a little drive to Innsbruck, Austria. We rented a tiny little "Thalia" car that was just big enough to fit the 4 of us and our bags, as long as we didn't move once we sat down. The drive to Innsbruck was easy, the only hard part was finding our way out of Prague! Our rental came with a GPS (TomTom), but unfortunately Mr. TomTom hadn't been updated in probably a couple of years. So there were several times along the way when TomTom thought we were driving through trees, when really we were on a major highway. But, we made it work. We drove out of Prague, through Pilsn, past Munich and down to Innsbruck. Pretty easy, really.
We arrived about 6pm on Friday to the small town of Hall, which is
pretty much connected to Innsbruck, but still holds that small town charm and appeal. Hall has several beautiful cathedrals, a little castle, narrow cobblestone roads, and is pushed right up against the soaring, snow covered, shiningly beautiful Alps. It's amazing. I have to say that before moving to Prague I didn't hold too much of an interest in Austria, but now I would count it as one of my favorite countries I've ever visited.In Hall, we Couch Surfed with a wonderful woman named Barbara, and her boyfriend, Hans.
SIDE NOTE: Couch Surfing is a program that connects travelers with local hosts who graciously open their homes to strangers and let them crash on their couch, or spare bedroom, or whatever they have available. It's a genius idea, all based of trust and honesty, and a great way to meet locals and save some money while you're at it. This is only our second time using it- first was in Bratislava- but it's a great program and I look forward to getting more involved with it in the future. Check it out here.
So anyway, Barbara was an amazing host. She has a beautiful, spacious flat in the heart of the old town of Hall. In fact, her flat is so big that Jason and I had our own bedroom and so did Brandon & Sarah. Perfect! Barbara helped us with advice on the best places to ski, and without her great suggestions we probably would have wound up on a little bunny hill or something. That evening Barbara made us a delicious dinner and broke out bottles of wine and beer along with some great conversation. It was even better than if we were to stay at a hotel.
After a good night's rest (minus the church bells which woke us up every hour, on the
hour), we got up early Saturday morning and headed for the slopes. Barbara advised us to go to a nearby mountain called "Schlick 2000", which really just sounded like the name of a razor to us. But anyway, it was the 50th anniversary of the mountain on that day, so we were able to get full day passes for only 19 euros! Sweet deal! The ski area was up so high and over a hill that you couldn't actually see any of the slopes from the parking lot. We took a gondola for what seemed like forever, until we finally reached the top of the mountain. The area wasn't too big, but it had stunning views of rock cliffs and white blankets of snow on the surrounding mountains. The weather was pretty nice, we got a little bit of good sun throughout the day, and we had a great day boarding.
By the time the end of the day rolled around, we were all pretty exhausted, but headed back to Barbara's for some showers and to get ready to head out for dinner. Barbara took us up to a really great, authentic little restaurant on a big hill overlooking all of Innsbruck. And from wonderful Facebook, I had learned that someone I grew up with and haven't seen since we graduated high school (Steve) just happened to be in Innsbruck at the same time as us. Coincidence! So Steve and his friend, also named Steve, came to join us for dinner on Saturday night. It was fun to catch up since we haven't seen each other in oh so long.
The restaurant was great, even though the only non-pork options on the menu were: fried cheese, spinach dumplings, or apricot sugar dumplings. The spinach dumplings I got were tasty, but they sat in my stomach like a rock. I don't know how these people eat this heavy food all the time!
Sunday we had another great day of boarding on a different mountain with clear blue beautiful skies. We went all the way to the top (they had a single chair lift... I've never seen a chair for just one person!) and got stunning views of the surrounding Alps. Absolutely beautiful.
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