Seewalchen, Austria

Arriving in Seewalchen, I realized that it was a cute little town on a beautiful lake. I got off the bus and walked to the closed tourist information center. Baffled that it was closed at noon, I found a map and noticed a campground around the east side of the lake. I started hiking toward it, ready to try out my new Bivy sack I had purchased in Innsbruck. I actually had made up my mind during my walk that I wouldn’t stay in the campground, but rather in the forest someplace for free. So, during the walk in the direction of the campground I kept my eyes peeled for a forested area easily accessible that I could stay at. After walking for sometime with no real good opportunities I came across an abandoned building that was under construction. Walking by I thought about staying in it, thinking to myself, “Hey, its got a roof, and no one would go in there at night.” Then I realized that if you actually consider staying in an abandoned building that is in ruins, you might just be a hobo. Passing up that opportunity I kept heading down the road. Earlier I had bought some tuna and fruit cocktail from the grocery store. I found a beautiful area near the shore to rest and eat my dinner. Yes, just popin’ the tops off can food and eating it in a park, I am almost certain that the people nearby thought I was a homeless man, which technically I was.

A fountain made to look like a map of the lake, the spout out is the river

Abandoned building I thought twice about staying in

Continuing on down the road I finally found an area between two lots that looked promising. Carefully timing it so no cars would see me, I ducted into the forest and headed up the hill. I soon realized that I was between two peoples houses, I couldn’t tell if I was on their property or just open forest. Because of this I tried to keep a low profile. I kept quiet and kept my movements as stealth as possible. After finding a suitable area to set up “camp” I began to clear a place for myself and really start to make the area invisible. I found a bit of white cord buried in the dirt which I used to make a perimeter around where I would be sleeping. I leaned random branches, sticks, twigs, logs, grasses and any other forest material up against the cord in order to camouflage my area. I went into a nearby field to grab several armfuls of grasses for my bedding and to further camouflage my sleeping area. The Bivy sack has a section that needs to be suspended off my head, for this I used a bit more of the white cord and three sticks to make a tripod. Soon my “compound” was complete. I took my bladder bag down to the lake, filled it up, stripped down to my “skivvies” and took a dip. The water was surprisingly warm and pleasant. After swimming and filling up my water supply I headed back up the hill across the road and into the darkening forest.

My camp

My bedding

I did some last minute preparations to my camp, like putting my backpack in a plastic bag, etc and then crawled into the Bivy sack for the night. Quick note: You are supposed to use a sleeping bag with the Bivy sack so you stay warm. I did not have a sleeping bag with me. Just me in this sack made out of nylon. As you can imagine, with no real roof over my head it was tough to get to sleep.

Lying in a dark forest in a small town in Austria I started to second guess what I was doing. I have no idea what kinds of animals, insects, snakes etc there are around here. Am I on someone’s property? Can people see me from the road? It’s just a stone’s throw away. What if someone spots me? Are there bears in these woods? Am I in the middle of their path to the water?  Thoughts like these kept me from getting a good nights rest. Hearing a dog barking in the distance would wake me up and cause me to become alert and thus keep me from getting any sleep. After finally getting to sleep I may have rested my mind of the troublesome questions about the area and the uncertainties for about an hour.

BAM! The next thing I know is that I am being abruptly awoken from my slumber by getting hit in the face, the ribs and on my legs simultaneously. Three big blows to my body at the same time causes me to mentally freak out. I begin to panic. For one, I am trapped inside my Bivy sack and turned around to where my movements are restricted. Secondly, it is pitch black outside. I was basically blind at this point. Thirdly I couldn’t move. All of the original thoughts I had about bears, snakes, animals, people all come rushing back to me. This was the first time in my life that I have actually froze with fear. I was facing the ground, trapped inside my Bivy sack trembling with fear. What happened? Did a bear walk through my camp area and trip on me? Is he still there? Was it a deer? The dog I heard earlier? An angry person? After about 30 minutes of not moving I letting my mind “cool off” and I started to think reasonably again. What could have possibly hit me? I then realized that I was turned upside down and twisted in the Bivy sack, which means that I pulled the tripod and a nearby branch onto myself. That was it. No bears, no wild dogs, just a few sticks.

Scared, ashamed and relieved I decided that my mind was not settled enough for the dark forest. So I packed up all of my stuff in the veil of night and headed down toward the waters edge. There was a clearing/ campsite that I decided to try out for a few hours, which was much more relaxing, until about 4:00am when I awoke to a car door slam and a baby crying. Again, my mind began to race in all the wrong directions, (worst scenario first) someone drove out to this lake at 4 am to kill their unwanted baby! No, too far fetched. Someone was going to come down to the waters edge I figured, and at 4 am I suspected foul play. I got out of my Bivy sack and sat up ready with a small flashlight and a big stick, just in case. I had no idea what I was preparing myself for. I was certainly on edge. Being homeless in a strange place does not calm your mind.

Once light broke, I crept up to the street to see what was up there. Of course, how simple, there was a travel trailer parked on the side of the road. Feeling silly that I had caused myself that much trouble I headed back down the road toward the main area of Seewalchen where the bus stop was. I found a small park by the water where I spread out on one of the benches. At 6:00 am I was one of the only ones out and about in the town. I ate some breakfast, and brushed my teeth, and spread some of my wet clothes out on the bench. I certainly felt like a hobo. After cleaning up, I headed to the bus stop and awaited to be taken to my next destination.

Innsbruck, Austria

I arrived in Innsbruck very late at night, with no plans for a place to stay. I knew that I needed to find shelter for some time during the night and I decided to walk around through the town that was obviously sleeping to find a pub that would be open all night, I figured if I found one I could just sit down in the back and maybe catch a small nap. Walking through the town I didn’t find anything too promising. One of the towns squares was under construction, while walking through I was making sure to avoid any rubbish and debris from the construction site and almost stepped on a young man about my age laying down next to a make shift fence. He was laying on his back, half in the closed pedestrian street, and half on the sidewalk. Upon realizing that there was a person laying in the dark, I may have freaked out a bit. It certainly surprised me.

Being a bit spooked I decided that the train station would be the best place for me. I decided to go out to the platforms trying to find one that did not have any arriving trains for a few hours. I found an enclosed waiting area on the platform and rested on the ground. Later in the middle of my sleep I was awoken by some jerk who came and sat down next to me and started eating loudly. He had a loud crinkly bag and some loud snacks. Annoyed, I got up and headed back into the main building. I spotted a bench in the distance that I started to head for, but right before I got there another homeless person took it. It was at that point I realized that I was starting to act like a hobo. Disappointed I laid against a wall on the ground and caught another 20 minutes or so of rest and then looked for another location to rest. Downstairs I found an enclosed waiting room that was warm! I was so happy. I sat down and slept for the rest of the night. Waking up only to find two security guards asking to see our train tickets, making sure that we were in fact waiting for our train, luckily having a Eurail pass I was able to keep resting.

Early in the morning I started exploring Innsbruck, more than I had done the night before. The town is very nice, it is surrounded with huge mountains and has several pretty gates and buildings. During my sightseeing I was on a mission to buy a Bivy Sack for my upcoming stay in Seewalchen and in Switzerland near the Matterhorn. For those of you who don’t know what a Bivy Sack is, let me explain. A Bivy Sack is a protective waterproof “shell” that you can put your sleeping bag into in lieu of a tent. It keeps you warm enough for the night, with of course the sleeping bag, and a pad. I figured, oh its summer it will be warm enough. So while walking around I kept my eye out for stores that might carry such a product. Finding several I went ahead and shopped around and got one.  Pleased and excited about my purchase I headed back to the train station.

Store I bought the Bivy Sack from

Following my fathers suggestion I headed to a small town called Seewalchen. He raved about how pretty it was, so I figured I would check it out.

Salzburg, Austria

Because I have a Eurail pass I can basically jump on any train I want. I desperately needed to go to the bathroom and since almost all of the bathrooms require a fee, I decided “Hey, I can just use the one on the train!” So I jumped on a train headed from Graz to Salzburg. I arrived in Salzburg, after of course using the facilities on the train, and had only 2.5 hours to see the town. With my lonely planet book in hand I followed the streets to the heart of the old town. Briskly walking and taking photos of every interesting building along the way I finally reached my destination across the river, the heart of town. It had narrow cobble stoned streets lined with shops and tourists, several bustling squares and many areas with concentrated amounts of tourist food under the obligatory beer company umbrellas. Several streets were closed due to live performances. I saw a bit of a theatrical performance and heard a bit of another musical performance on a different street. Walking through the narrow streets you can’t help but hear classical music, namely Mozart. As this is his birth town. The town has a beautiful castle adorning one of the nearby hills, even though I was pressed for time, I decided to run up the countless stairs to the top of the monstrous hill and up through the castle for a glimpse of the beautiful city below. At the top I was exhausted, sweaty and panting taking as many pictures as I could of the castle in the darkening light and the views of the city with the river snaking through it. After only a few minutes of being up there, I ran down the hill and tried to make my way back through the hordes of tourists to the train station. I stopped briefly at a fountain that was marked “okay to drink” and took a giant gulp and continued with my near-run walking pace to be stopped by a crowd in the middle of the street watching a street performer, darting down another alleyway I avoided the bulk of the crowd and continued toward the train station. I made the train by the skin of my teeth, but I am certainly glad I went to Salzburg, it was one of the prettiest and most interesting places I have been, I wish I could have spent more time there. 2.5 hours just wasn’t enough.

Graz, Austria

Arriving in Graz via car I was dropped off at the train station where I confirmed my train information for the evening. Upon completion I headed out in the direction of the old town.

First finding a hill Lonely Planet mentioned I started climbing up a few hundred stairs or so to the top to see the clock tower and the beautiful views of Graz. After exploring the gardens and taking some time out to relax I headed back down the hill and wandered around the town looking for a few of the sights outlined in my Lonely Planet guide, one was a beautiful wood facade on a shop, the other was a bit more difficult to find but very impressive. It was a double spiral staircase. It looked like two double helix´s crashed into one another and somehow had cement poured on them. It looked like something Dr. Seus would have made. Also, the river flowing through Graz has a unique cafe situated in the middle of the river. Made of glass it appears to be two shells one up and one down in the water. There is also a building which they refer to as The Friendly Alien. Which looks like something that just landed from the far reaches of the galaxy. I also found the church that has stained glass windows depicting Hitler and Mussolini looking at Jesus while he was being tortured. Unfortunantely it was closed so I wasnt able to see them.

I found my way to a small eatery where I had Schnitzel again! Man I love that stuff. I can see why Arnold Schwarzenegger got so big in his home town, from eating so much Schnitzel!

After a great day in Graz I headed to Innsbruck

Vienna, Austria

From the Largest Natural Arch in Europe we headed to Vienna, the gorgeous capital of Austria. Breaking the theme of getting into a city and wandering around the center, we headed directly to a place to sleep. We found a cheap hotel that was suitable for us plus the addition of 3 others (Carolynn, Allison and Pat). We basically slept the majority of the day, going out in the evening to a resturant our Pennsioners suggested as fairly cheap yet good food. The establishment was Centimeter. A cute little chain of places throughout Vienna serving Beer by the Centimeter. At this place you can order a meter of beer which is actually 8 beers of differing varities. Also they have another beer… 5 liter beer, served in a giant glass that took two people to carry. It was silly. We stuck to our Radler (Lemonade Beer) and I of course had the Schnitzel, while Carmen had something equally delicious, Meat Pancake things with Gravy and such. It was really good. So was my Schnitzel, I wish I had some right now.

After such venture we walked around a bit more and headed back to the station where we rode the trolly around, hoping we could see the city at night via a quaint trolly ride. Unfortunately the lights on the inside of the trolly were a bit too intense creating more reflections than desired.

After seeing some of the buildings we headed back and slept more. Traveling at Schnell Speed does make one tired.

Feeling bad that we slept the whole of yesterday, we decided to get up and make the most of our new day in Vienna. But still being really tired we slept in and didnt get around to seeing Vienna until well into the afternoon. We walked around a bit seeing the magificent churches and cathedrals. Vienna is gorgeous. We wandered around a bit more and then met up with Carolynn, Allison and Pat and headed back to the room. After figuring out a plan for the morning… Carmen and Carolynn to the airport, Pat to the train station and Allison and I heading to Graz, Austria with Allison continuing on to Italy to soak up the sun on the beach. That night we squeezed four of us on the bed and surprisingly we all were able to wake up and get ready in good sequence with only one bathroom. We were then off to the airport while Pat slept in at the hotel room a bit longer. After dropping Carmen and Carolynn at the airport Allison drove me to Graz, Austria where I continued once again on my travels alone.

Taking a picture of myself while doing a handspring

Better luck when Carmen took the picture

View from the hotel room

Bratislava, Slovakia

Getting off the train in Slovakia we are greeted by Michal Rajcan, one of my friends from UNR who is a native of Slovakia. It was nice to see yet again another familiar face so far away from home. He picked us up and we whisked into town where we had a fantastic meal near the Danube River.  I enjoyed some amazing food and one of the first dark beers I had seen in Europe. It was really good, almost “Amazing”, one could  say. From there we went walking around the old town of Bratislava at night. It was beautiful, they have very pretty buildings and a lot of colorful lights on some of them.

Apparently Bratislava, because of their cheap beer prices sees a lot of Brittish tourists who come for the weekend or their “Holiday” and stays a night or two, get trashed and wander around the streets at night being very disorderly and somewhat rude. I saw a few of them while I was there doing all of the above it was interesting to be told about it, and then seeing it a few minutes later.

Bratislava is quite interesting, they have several old communist style buildings around, many renovated old buildings, and 4 funny statues.There is one of just a guy standing “presenting” a building, another of a man leaning over a bench in the middle of town, another of “man at work” where a guy is coming up from the man hole in the ground, and one called Paparazi, where a guy is creeping around a corner, wearing a trenchcoat, hat and taking a picture of someone.

Man at Work

That evening we headed to an office building where we were sleeping for the night. Yeah, staying in an office building. At first I was a bit confused, but Michals mom works for the govt and they have an arrangement where people coming from one town to another can stay in these buildings, it was nice to sleep someplace for free

In the morning we went to the old castle in Devin. It was very old and crumbling which made it even cooler. On the way up to the castle there was an area that had very old and traditional Slovakian middle aged “stuff” one girl was dressed in animal skins, there were stocks, a small area for chickens, and one for sheep, and my personal favorite, chain mail and swords! Mike and I of course needed to try it on and take pictures.

Mike

Along the way up the castle Mike was trying his hand at being a tourguide, telling us how advanced the early Slovakians were

After Devin, we went back to the main town of Bratislava and saw the castle on the hill. It was very pretty, unfortunately it was under construction/ renovation and the entie place was covered up. But from up on the top we could see Austria on the other side of the river, all of Bratislava including their UFO bridge. We walked down to one of their biggest cathedrals and again through old town to see it by day. When passing souviner shops our friendly tourguide, Mike would ask “Want some crap?” Avoiding the crap, we hustled through Bratislava and headed to Banska Bystrica, his home town in the middle of Slovakia.

UFO Bridge

Along the drive we stopped at a small place which had traditional Slovakian food, Holy Cow it was soo Good! Sauerkraut Soup, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Potatoes, Chicken, and this drink called Kofla, it is a soda that tastes like Licorice, the food made me very happy.

Upside down building