The Austrian Alps are a vast and enormous mountain range that dominates the Austrian countryside. It has snowy peaks that can elevate up to and beyond 3,000m above sea level. They are ideal for snow activities, sports and competitions, and hold some of the most breathtaking views in the world. One wrong turn in these Alps though can lead to big trouble. Big, big trouble. I learned this the hard way. After spending around two hours snowboarding on the Stubaital mountain, enjoying some of the finest snowboarding runs and conditions, I got bored of the few runs that I had been doing, and decided to go down a different run on what was to be one of my last before heading back to the hotel. The run was great, with many drops and straights where I could pick up speed, and at the end of it I saw what I had been dreading. If you’ve been snowboarding or skiing, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Those anchory things that you put around you that then take you up the mountain. I hated them and I just could not do them. I had no other way though, and mercifully attempted this one. Sure enough, about halfway up, I lost my balance and had to let go. So there I was stuck with the alternative of going back down in horrible snow conditions, or go up a track that was not far away from me. I chose the latter. I started to make my way up the track and it soon got worse and worse. Not only was I climbing up an increasingly steep mountain, but I had to carry a snowboard as well which meant I only had one free hand. Soon enough, the track turned to ice and was impossible to grip, and the snow around the track was literally up to my chest. I was moving about 5 meters a minute. My fingers and toes were freezing, but I was also sweating like crazy. I was lost, and there was no sight of anyone.
Innsbruck and the imposing Austrian Alps behind
I can’t remember a time where I physically could just not continue, and didn’t want this to be the first. I tried to make my way through the chest-high snow, but it was just impossible. Then when I tried to grip on the ice I just fell down the last 5 minutes progress I had made. Going up was no longer an option and had wasted all my energy and lots of time. Time for the clouds and driving snow to roll in, and it soon became zero visibility. And yeah, I was still lost. I decided to go back the way I had came on my snowboard, but gripping on the ice was impossible and I was basically free-falling. Eventually I was flung into the chest-high snow, and must have hit a rock or something because I was stuck and felt like my knee had snapped. Now I was injured, exhausted, cold, lost, and couldn’t see anything. After digging myself out, I kept going down the mountain and finally found my way, which meant walking back up the run I had originally gone down, then getting back onto the main run, boarding 7km down the mountain which just physically killed me. Saying I feared for my life would be an exaggeration, but I was scared. Very scared. The positives though were that I got to get a snippet of my very own Man Vs Wild episode, and the part where I was snowboarding was amazing.
The view from the main run of the mountain.
Today the mountain ranges turned to wine fields as we made our way to Italy, where we experienced the hottest temperature on the trip so far (8 degrees). A stop in Verona, the town where Romeo and Juliet was lived, introduced us to what Italy had to offer: Great history, great food, and scary looking Italian people. Italians like to stare at you, sometimes it’s an evil smirk but most of the time it’s just staring, and I don’t know why but I was mistaken for being Italian about 3 times in Austria, and in Italy. The outskirts of Venice to be honest was really plain ugly but once you get into the town and the little canals you see why people visit it, but some of the people who come here for the romantic trips and pay excess amounts of money for the gondolas don’t really get the full experience when there is a group of Asian tourists taking photos with their typical ‘peace’ symbols in front of all the landmarks that these romantic couples pay to see. This is also known as ‘owned’.
This part of the trip is all about extremes. Extremes, both intrinsic and extrinsic. For starters, we ventured our way up the Swiss Alps, standing atop of Mt.Titlis (lol), at 3,020m - the highest point I have ever been in my life. The mountain also had a glacier cave which was pretty cool, and was also the place I met my new and only friends so far on this trip. A bunch of 3 malaysian women who giggled everytime I looked at them, and ended up getting some happy snaps with them. When in Rome. The Swiss looked upon Jeremy and I with maybe the most concerned looks their neutral minds had ever produced, as we decided to take the chairlift to the summit of the mountain, where the temperature read a cool (...) -21.5 degrees. And I don't know if you've ever been in -21.5 temperatures at 10,000ft above sea level, but basically it goes like this: It is so cold that the slightest bit of water, saliva, whatever - freezes in an instant. All you need to do is keep moving, but the air is so thin that you move for 3 seconds and you are puffing worse than a fat chick climbing stairs. It is hard, and cold. Very cold. However, on our way back down the mountain the snow started to lessen and the sky opened up, giving us a view on the valley that we were venturing to, and it was stunning. We returned to Lucerne to get a glimpse of what was really surrounding us. Lakes, Mountains, Snow, Rivers, Incredible architecture, History, Wildlife and an incredibly well-functioned city.
Switzerland
It turns out my dad does have friends, who happened to own the hotel and adjacent restaurant that we were staying at, and invited us out to dinner, at their restaurant, which meant free food and drinks, and treated like royalty from all the staff. Did I take advantage of this by ordering as much as possible? Of course. We did get to learn about some Swiss culture and enjoy really quite a nice evening with some brilliant and interesting locals. The only slight problem was that when the guy told a joke, he laughed and looked at me for about 20 seconds, so I had to laugh the whole time. Awkward. Today we made our way out of Lucerne and headed to Liechtenstein - the smallest country I have ever been to. It was a perfectly clear day as we made our way through the asphalt spaghetti over, through and around the Swiss Alps. Now some of you might be wondering what the hell and where the hell is Liechtenstein? Well it is an 80 square kilometre country nestled in between Switzerland and Austria. The capital city of Vaduz has about 15,000 inhabitants. I can safely say that the main street of Ivanhoe has about 5 times as many shops and people in its main street than the country of Liechtenstein has in its capital city. It was bizarre. Though without mentioning the fact that Vaduz is a beautiful little riverside 'capital city' surrounded by some of the most stunning mountain skylines in the world would not do Liechtenstein justice. It was phenomenal.
Liechtenstein
The final extreme came in Innsbruck, Austria - our current destination. It's where I can say that in the last 2 days, I have encountered the most beautiful views and countryside that I have ever seen in my life. Innsbruck, again, is a city nestled by a river and completely surrounded by the Austrian Alps. It's culture, history and tradition shines through the beauty of the town and the kindness of the people. Innsbruck is unlike anything you will find in Australia, guaranteed. I really do have to ramble on about the perfection of Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. I can not fault anything about it (except maybe the awkward laughing man), and a day snowboarding in the Austrian Alps is planned tomorrow, which could just be one of the greatest experiences of my life. A stunning and remarkable part of my journey.
The next part of our trip meant that we had to travel the whole way through Germany, spending the night in a town called Heidelberg. We rolled out of Maastricht smoothly but soon found ourselves going the wrong way. We eventually made it to our lunch stop, before going the wrong way again. Then we made it to our next stop, after going the wrong way again, and then going the wrong way one more time meant we were 5 hours behind schedule. I'm not going to lie but I didn't have the highest of expectations for Germany, and sitting in a car for 9 hours driving up shit creek (real name: rhine river) didn't help. The one positive of the day is that a fast food combo in Germany consists of a sausage, chips and a beer. It went down well in front of Dad. The town of Heidelberg itself was quite nice, but I started to notice that Germany is, well, trying to be a little too 'hip' for its own good. As in, there is construction going on everywhere, they are trying to make everything more modern and I suppose 'western', not that they aren't a western country, but it's almost as if they are trying to Americanise the country. The natural beauty (as you will see below) is absolutely stunning but then there's the odd building that makes you feel like you're in a greener version of West Epping. There was a minor scare this morning when Dad nearly collapsed and looked like he needed to go to hospital. An hour of sleep later he was perfectly fine though and we kept going. We visited a castle in Germany in the driving snow, but unfortunately it cleared up as we headed towards Switzerland. Not going to lie again, I had amazingly high expectations for Switzerland, and as we were driving along the highway in Germany the trees began to be lined with snow, green fields were turning white and the hills were starting to form. I had a feeling that as soon as we got over the Swiss border, we would be surrounded by fields of snow in the foreground and the stunning Swiss alps in the background. I was right. Not even beer could save Germany now, Switzerland was so many levels higher than Germany and I couldn't wait to keep exploring the country. We got into the town of Lucerne, at night (unfortunately), as the town is on a lake completely surrounded by the Alps. All we saw was a couple of lights and a river, but it does mean tomorrow is going to be incredible. On the street outside a hotel there were two guys dressed up - one as santa and one as the easter bunny. They were getting people to sign a petition to abolish the other person - probably the biggest war Switzerland has ever been a part of. Oh, and here's a new one: on one of the bike lanes, there was what I can only describe as a "bicycle booze bus" operating, where policeman and the Swiss army would flag down cyclists, check their gear and see if they were riding under the influence. Seeming as you can buy beer in the vending machines here, I guess if they were caught they would have to drive home? I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.
Before this trip I had only been to 3 countries: Australia, USA and New Zealand. Today alone, we started in England, caught the Eurostar to Calais, France, picked up our hire car and crossed into Belgium, before reaching our destination of a riverside town called Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Starting your day at 4:30am in London and ending up in a small town on the Maas river doesn't come without its problems. For starters, a senile 58 year old driving a left-side operating manual on the right side of the road meant that driving 20km/h was scary. Basically he was retarded. We stopped at Brugge for an hour or so, and it just hits you how far away you are from Melbourne and just how different everything is here to Australia. And quite frankly, everything is better here. Except the weather. And friends. Not that I have any friends here.... Maastricht is yet another amazing place, surrounded by the Dutch countryside which is just phenomenal. The whole city is lined with small cobblestone streets, but part of the Dutch's carbon emissions footprint was that Maastricht banned cars from moving around the city. So you literally have to park away from the town, and walk or ride. There are a million cyclists everywhere, and it was kinda funny to see some young girls riding into a nightclub...something that would interest Stephen Butler. I enjoyed that call.
The day's nearly up and it's 0 degrees outside, high chance of snow in the coming days, I've taken some hekkaz photos and felt it was worth sharing that I was in 4 countries, just today.
It has been an insane 48 hours or so since I left Melbourne, I really have little bearing on how long I've been gone for, because the plane trips and time zones meant that we ended up having 3 breakfasts. I spent 15 hours in between two babies on the plane, contemplating their death and my case for insanity. We only spent 3 and a bit hours in Dubai, but just from the flight in and the little bit of time spent at the airport, I can say that Dubai is an absolutely stunning place that I will want to go to again. We finally got into London at around 11am on the 21st November, and the first thing you notice about London is that it is so very fucking cold. All the people are kind of like me, they are rude walk fast and don't care about anyone else. Which was pretty cool. The streets are beautiful, the city is jampacked with historical buildings and locations, and everything here is amazing. The people all have sophisticated clothes on, which makes it tricky to determine the bogan scums, nothing like the good folks from West Heidelberg. When I am out and about I am enjoying every minute of it, but when I have a little bit of time to think about where I am and how long for I start to realise how much I miss those important to me. Though for now I have to get used to it. After all, for the next 2 months, this is home.
It's not long until I leave and go to Europe. At the moment there are no flights to London because of the Airbus situation, but that is highly irrelevant to anyone so yeah. This is where I'm going:
