Hard to imagine you can go so far in a day

Thank god school decided to give us Fridays off otherwise Ja, Jeff and I would have never made it to Hallstatt. (Well maybe on a Sunday, but that extra day is so key). 

Hallstatt was named a World Heritage site about 10 years ago and you can see why from photos. There are only about 1000 people living in the city, and probably about half the amount of tourists on any given day. I'm going to steal a photo from Wikipedia because, of course - es regnet immer in Hallstatt - it's always raining in Hallstatt, at least when we were there. 

The frequent rain makes it difficult to see the huge mountains in the background. Even just yesterday (a perfect fall day here in Salzburg) I learned of some views from my dorm window so you can imagine this scene with low-lying fog coming off the mountains and me watching with an umbrella in my hands. And gloves covering my fingers wrapped around the umbrella. 

To get to Hallstatt (which is southeast of Salzburg), we had to take a bus - 3 actually. The first brought us to Bad Ischl, a town where no one works at the train station. This makes it incredibly difficult to figure out where we are supposed to go next. We walk into the town from the bus station to find the information center which luckily has the bus schedule...since the bus station didn't. And so, after enjoying some lunch and coffee at the pastry shop, we boarded the right bus, which quickly flooded with school children. Ja and I talked to one particularly helpful girl because we were still unsure if we had to umsteigen or not. Turns out we did, but we didn't find that out until the bus driver was sitting at a stop for some time before shouting "HALLSTATT". We grabbed our things and umsteiged onto the next bus.

This bus was a quickie and we hopped off at the next stop to find ourselves looking at this:

Not bad, eh?

From there we wandered into the church graveyard, where my obsession with foreign graveyards has only been furthered. Best part? Jeff tells me how to use the "Best Shot" feature on my camera. BAM! My pictures are instantly better. Thanks Jeff!

From the graveyard we wander up a path in the mountains to get a better view of Hallstatt and the lake and I take Jeff's photo for his new emo album, due out whenever he pulls it together enough to stop cutting himself.

From this path, the view is incredible, despite the weather. We stand over a waterfall that we saw when we first got off the bus and finally we find a more suitable lookout point in the form of a gazebo.



The three of us set our cameras on a timer and figure eventually one of us must have gotten a good shot. Mine's not so bad.

From the path, we journey back into the city, looking for information on the ferry to take us on our train to Linz, northeast of and therefore east of Salzburg. At this point it is raining a bit harder. Ja and I run into a cat, a bit shy at first but then my day is made when it hops up onto my leg as I was squatting down to pet it. I picked it up. And held it. And it felt like home. Jeff meanwhile, not liking cats, is patiently waiting while Ja and I flip out for a little bit in front of the tram Kasse that brings people up the mountain into the salt mines. 

From there, we come to meet some ducks playing in the incredibly fast current of one of the lake's tributaries. I wish for a tube.

We meander through the lower part of the city. I buy a few postcards and we stop in at a general store where Jeff gets a traditional Austrian hat.

This is Jeff waiting for us after we had to use the €0,50 bathrooms. :(

I tried one on too, but it was too large, so Ja photographed me in a children's sized hat. Sadly, it fit. 

We board the ferry that we thought we had missed and scoot across the lake. Despite the now thick raindrops, I step outside for a bit to take a picture of Hallstatt from the water.

After further transportation confusion (theme of the day), we catch the train to Linz, famous for music and...well actually I don't know. You see, we didn't get there until 6:45 and by then we were all pretty ravished. It was dark out when we exited the train station and so after a little back and forth with orientation, we walk down the main street which seemed to have every kind of store (including a watch store with watches costing more money than I have budgeted for my whole semester) but no restaurants. Finally we find one, a beer hall naturally, and we go inside for a fantastically rewarding meal and a bottle of wine. Jeff gets a quick lesson on wine etiquette. Thankfully, it wasn't poison; it was actually quite delicious!

We literally run to catch the 9:15 train home to Salzburg. Bye Linz, you're probably really nice but we were just too hungry and wet to care about seeing anything besides food going into our bodies!

Probably the strangest train ride home. I thought back on some of the trips I took from Boston to Worcester and the creepos I encountered there. This guy took the cake. Drunk and high off his ass this large black guy oscillated between English and German, speaking mostly with Jeff. He repeated himself constantly, didn't respond either accurately or at all to anything we said and once Jeff turned him down for some  - earmuffs - euphamism: "male bonding time", he quickly became hostile and told Jeff, "Ich schlage dich einmal, du gehst zum Krankenhaus". Roughly, "I hit you once and you'll go to the hospital." Greatt. 

Finally, we arrived in Salzburg (without Jeff having to fight the guy) and got off the train to see drunk teenagers riding around on machinery with Stiegls in tow, three wasted old Scottish men in kilts trying to walk, and a lady pushing around an empty airport luggage cart. Oh god, get me back to my room. 

Overall though, a fantastic day, and now, 3 days later, people are loving the story about Jeff attracting gay guys. If that doesn't constitute a good experience...well then I don't know what does.