Day 18 Halstatt

 I guess I should show you where we are staying here in St. Giligen. This is a photo I took off our balcony this morning. Now lift your jaw off the ground and accept how wonderful it is, because I'm not even used to it yet. I bet the locals aren't even used to this view and how incredible their lives are. Today we took a bus, train, then ferry to our destination of Halstatt. That alone should tell  you how secluded this place is. Which is the beauty of its appeal.

 The ferry picked us up after the bus and train ride.

 Halstatt is basically a town that is built into this mountain, and is famous for its Salt mines. Also, there are many parts of the lake that no one knows how deep it gets. Comforting right? I was also informed that the Nazi's hid some things in it, and supposedly some stuff are still there today. Somewhere.

 This guy is TOURIST OF THE DAY, 

because he specifically leaned out of this shot, so I could get the scenery behind him, even though I was intentional trying to photograph him, and he had a really adorable British accent.

 Some more breathtaking water. Its just too fascinating that these exist. A glacier lake with a whole town built along it. 

 

 We roamed around the town enjoying the Sunday lederhosen, and stencil art. We're almost 100% sure this is Chuck Norris, because people in Eastern Europe LOVE him. We haven't exactly found out why they love him so much, all we've compiled is that Walker Texas Ranger is one of the only shows they play on local t.v. here all the time, and in Slovakia they're contemplating naming a bridge after him. I just don't get it yet.

 

 Some of us decided to rent a motor boat and see our way around this place, on the water.

 Kaitlyn and I

 We couldn't help but thinking that the loch ness monster resided here. At any moment we could imagine a massive snake-like creature the size of a sky scraper coming up from the never ending depths of this body of water and devouring our little row boat like a sunflower seed.

 we had to stop thinking about it. 

 A castle on the other side of the water. 

 It felt so tropical because of how green it was. 

 We got some lunch/dinner after our watery adventure. This little pooch could be the second Tourist of the day.. he'd been partying so hard he past out.

 I genuinely never wanted to stop looking at this view. 

Pure bliss. I love it when i'm reminded that its summer finally. I've been really enjoying our mountain excursions the past couple of days. Its nice to get out of the city areas of traveling and away from the crowds.  

The Alps is the perfect place to do just that. 

until next time...

Day 17 St. Wolfgang hike

 Sorry I've been MIA as of late.. I've been somewhat of a mountain women the past couple of days. Okay maybe not that hardcore, but moved to a hostel here in St. Giligen, Austria. Its basically near where The Sound of Music was filmed. Don't worry we've streamed it and watched it the past couple of nights, just to get in the spirit of Lederhosen, and Adelvice. The first full day we were here the group split up. Most of them taking the ferry around the lake of St. Giligen, while two others and I geared up to hike over a huge mountain to St. Wolfgang (a neighboring town).

special thanks to kaitlyn for letting us use her camera on this hike so I didn't have to carry the big guy.

 Why wouldn't you want to hike while you are in these mountains. Now I can say that I've hiked in the Alps two times.. doing two different pilgrimages. Be jealous. ha 

 

 We were told it was a steep hike but in our heads we thought, yeahhh pssshht, we got this.

 It got WAYYY steep. This picture doesn't show the steepness. I don't even think i could catch my breath for a second to take a picture of how steep it was. 

 Okay it may not have been that bad, but it got intense at parts. The view and the fresh air made it all so worth while. 

 We weren't the only ones on this trek. We ran into a pretty large group of older people. From the ages of 40-70 I bet.

 This is at the top of the steepest of parts. It was called the cave church, along with other names. There is an actual cave inside, as well as chairs for mass, and other things. There was also a book that we signed and were the only English speakers that wrote in the book so far. I checked.

 Sorry its sideways, I'm not skilled as a filmer. BUT, I am skilled at looking like a hot mess on this trip. props to me. Here is where we ring a bell to have good luck. And to make a wish.

 This is right after we got through the thick of the trees and were looking down into St. Wolfgang. 

I love saying wolfgang.. its a great combination of worlds. The Austrian's knew what was up when they named this place. 

 yeah yeah, it looks like i'm falling asleep. I just look like that sometimes. 

 I have never seen a salamander before.. this guy was walking right across the trail, we all got super excited to see him, but it was hard to get a photo that wasn't blurry. He was a fast little mister. 

 self timer.

 The end of the hike, opened up into this.. of course, there are meadows just like this one, everywhere. I just wish we knew which one Julie Andrews pranced through.

 ya, i don't know.

 we're getting pretty good at capturing the cheesy jump shots.

 Wolfgang locals love us. They also love beer.

 We then just walked through the town looking for where the ferry could pick us up.

 I don't think we've ever been so creepy. 

 We walked right into and it was perfect. Our pilgrimage was over and we were feeling pretty grand.

 

The ferry ride was nice to sit back and see how far we had actually hiked, which looked SO long and rough, but we enjoyed basically all of it. So did the Asian tourist that was taking photos from her iPad next to us on the ferry. Later in the day we went to get some food and ran into what we thought was a local wedding, because we think the whole town was there, and half of the wedding party was dressed up in their lederhosen (which fyi, is way less rare to see than we thought) we see these outfits everyday. Its wonderful. I wish America had an authentic outfit we all wore for special events. And no, a wife-beater with overalls doesn't count.