Roadtrippin' Europe

I know I've said this before, but you know what's great about living in Europe? Easy weekend trips to other countries. If I drove 6 hours from Denver, I would be in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, or maybe still Colorado, depending on which direction I went. But if I drove 6 hours from Prague, I would be in the beautiful and amazing Austrian Alps!

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.

The Vienna Weekend

Me at the Schonbrunn Palace

So a couple weeks ago now, we had a nice 4 day weekend which we decided to spend in the beautiful city of Vienna. Here's the great thing about living in Europe: access to many amazing cities just a short bus/train/plane ride away. We took an overnight bus to Vienna on Thursday night and arrived bright and early at 5:00 AM. Well, it was early but I don't think we were feeling so bright at that time of day after little sleep on the bus...

So after checking into our hotel at 5am and taking a 2 hour nap on the couch in the lobby, it was time to set out to see the city at 7am on a Friday. During our 3 days in the city, we saw some beautiful and amazing sites. I have to admit that I didn't actually know that much about Vienna before visiting. I really didn't know what to expect from the city. But I was certainly impressed. The best word I can think of to describe the city is: grandiose. There are amazing palaces, beautiful government buildings and ancient cathedrals galore and everything is big and impressive. And it’s a city of music! Obviously so many great composers have come out of Austria (Beethoven, Straus and Hayden to name a few….) and that history is still very present in the city today.

We spent our time in Vienna walking around taking in as much of the city as we could. We were on the go basically non-stop from morning till night during our full 3 days there. We saw too much for me to remember or even tell you about. But some of the highlights include:

St. Peter’s Church

Taking in a classical concert with an orchestra, opera singers and ballet dancers

The amazing gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace

The Great Hall of the National Library

The copula in the State Hall

And to me, the very best was our first night spent wandering around the city. Outside of a beautiful government building we found a great circus that had set up some semi-permanent attractions. I really wanted to see the circus (it looked so inviting!) but we decided against it… maybe if they would have had elephants it would have been a different story. :)

But anyway, the circus had a great tent with lively music set up right outside a beautiful white building with a great clock tower. And outside of the tent there were stalls set up selling ethnic food from all different regions of the world (although they had hamburgers as the food from Mexico. Hmmm, not really what I would call Mexican food). We dined on some great Indian food and got to do some good people watching.

After dinner we wandered on to see some more of the city at night. We stopped into a church in the center of town, which was hauntingly still and silent. There were just a few other people sitting in the pews in the dark candlelit room, listening to the recorded chats playing from the alter. If you know me you know that I am not a very religious person, but this experience was moving even for me. It was so peaceful and seemed like such a wonderful refuge, it had a perfect atmosphere and I could feel the spirituality in the room.

Leaving the church, we wandered through the streets and happened upon a lone violin player, filling the quiet streets with his music. We stopped and listened to him play a few songs. I couldn’t imagine anything better. After that, a nice glass of wine sitting outside a café was the perfect way to end a perfect day.

Karls Church