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Innsbruck.
Inn is the name of the river, Bruck means a bridge.
One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I can't believe how lucky people can get to just just live like thatin a city with 2 huge mountains on each side, a turquize river in the middle and all that nature surrounding them. It's awesome...
So yeah, I picked a bad day for hiking... It was cloudy, supposed to rain and snow, and quite cold.
I started by crossing the Inn river to the Alps side (Altitude 560m), then proceeded climbing by foot until I reached the Alpenzoo - the mountain zoo (Altitude 750m).
the weather was supposed to get better later on the day so I decided to spend an hour and a half wandering around the zoo. The most impressive thing I saw there was the mountain deer fighting each other, they put on a great show. I have it on video but it's too big to upload here.
I've seen other interesting animals, they even have a huge brown bear there, though he was a little bit lazy and most of the time just hugged a huge rock...
I enjoyed a woderful garlic cream soup and once again tried the local beer. Feeling refreshed, I decided to climb higher to the village Hungerburger (Altitude 850m), from which the hiking trails to the Alps begin.
The village, much like Innsbruck itself and the entire area looks just like a postcard. It seems unreal, but that's the way it is there - simply normal.
So far - so good! But that's when my real hiking adventure began. I started hiking up to Alzer Alm, a little hut that was supposed to serve food and drinks (according to the brochure). The climb was not that easy, but not so difficult either. I would call it a moderate climb as the weather was nice (cold but not freezing), I had excellent gear on (Thanks Zamberlan - shoes and Vaude - bag), and very warm clothes so I was doing just fine.
Fall is a wonderful season to hike in as every tree around you wear festive clothings just for you. Evergreen trees mixed with trees dropping their yellow, brown, red, orange leaves - it all seems like one big carnival of nature. I kept on feeling as if I'm surrounded by plastic plants with artificial colors.
By the time I reached Alzers Alm (Altitude 1067m) I was really tired and hungry. Unfortunately they were closed! So I had to keep hiking up to a different hut - Bodenstein Alm that was very far away. I had no choice but to keep on going, and the weather was ok so I decided to continue.
At a certain point it happened - all of a sudden I could see snowy trees ahead, small snow piles around me, and then I realized that I just walked into a huge cloud. It was raining lightly and almost immediently turned into snow. The snow became thicker and thicker as i continued climbing up, and from time to time a tree branch caved in to the weight it held and I saw a small pile of snow falling down, It was funny until one of them fell on my head... Well, it was also funny as it was light and refreshing.
The climb started to become more and more difficult as there was snow on the road, snow on my face and basically snow everywhere.
I really wanted to get to the hut, drink something hot and eat, but unfortunately - as I arrived the hut - Bodenstein Alm (Altitude 1661m), totally exhausted (and dead hungry) - it was also closed! Damn Austrian hiking huts...
At this point - it was no longer funny. I was starving, it was cold and I was very tired from the climb. I did have enough wated in my bag, but no food and nothing warm to drink.
What could I do? Walking down would take me longer, so my only option was - going up! The next stop would be Seegrube - the middle station of the cable car, the only way down... But, it was already 4:20P.M. and the last cablecar is at 5:30 P.M. If i miss it - I would be stuck in the freezing snow with no possible way to get down, and no place to sleep at night except for the snowy trees.
This was a very difficult moment. I was inside thick clouds, could barely see anything. I knew I couldn't be too far from Seegrube and the trail was wide and mostly visible, so no danger of getting lost or falling off a cliff. However - I was so tired already and out of energy - I had to stop every 5 minutes to rest! The inclination kept getting worse, the snow was much deeper and at a certain point I just sat down on the snow and rested my head on my backpack for a few minutes to recover some strength.
During my entire climb I met only 3 people, they were all going down rather than up, but on the last part there was no one. I felt like i'm the only stupid tourist to climb the Alps in that weather.
Eventually I arrived Seegrube (Altitude 1905m) around 4:50P.M., which left me enough time for 2 hot chocholates and a wienerschnitzel...
When I saw the restaurant and the cablecar station I felt like a survivor - thinking to myself "Food... I'm saved!!!"
So yes, maybe climbing the Alps alone in this weather wasn't the smarter thing to do... but I was supposed to eat and drink in those huts! And I didn't expect hiking all the way without a proper rest. All in all - I climbed from about 560m (Innsbruck) to 1900m (Seegrube) and I have no Idea how many kilometers it was but it definately wasn't easy.
See? I told you i'll be fine...
In the evening we went to a crazy party in which you had to go dressed as a song's name. Steffi and I tried very hard to come up with a good idea. Eventually she went there as "Pipi Lungstrom" or something like that (A german children book charachter and of course a song's name) and i chose "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglie, which was fairly easy to dress up as. I had to tear one of my shirts, but it was a simple solution. There were all kinds of costumes like "Gangster's paradise", "Kung foo fighting", "Barbie girl" and many german songs as well.
It was a really nice party but I ended up exhausted from the busy day.
The next day was my last in Innsbruck (19.10) and the weather was extremely nice (Damnit!) I should have hiked then... most of the nice pictures I took of Innsbruck and the Alps are from that day.
I would have loved to stay in Innsbruck for another week or so and try all kinds of hiking trails, but it would have to wait for another time ;)
On to Krems where I'll meet Daniella, drink lots of wine and tour the city!
Thanks for reading this long entry guys, your the best.
I was Gilad and I'm wishing you all a nice day... :D
- comments
Stas I always knew you are stupid, now you just prooved it.(Jealous friend) :))
veredm shutafi!I forbid you to do any dangerous stuff!