St. Rupert and the Eiskogel

The trail head to Eiskogel

This was the cabin that we stayed in.

Ruby and I cooking it up in Austrian Cuisine!

Grüß dich!
It has been quite a week/weekend.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty mundane... lots of reading and homework, a voice lesson, and classes. But Wednesday, things got interesting...
First we had Austrian Cuisine, this week we cooked fresh fish, pumpkin soup, potato patties, and Sazburger knockels. They were all amazing and it was quite a class!
Wednesday was also the start of the St. Rupert Festival. This festival was to celebrate St. Rupert who came to Salzburg in the 8th century and promoted it, and founded a town there. Anyway this festival took place in the large town square. There were rides including a ferris wheel, bumper cars, and other carnival rides. They also had lots and lots of food and different local makings. During the night, the town turned into a huge party and there were tons of people everywhere. It was a fun time filled with meeting many locals and talking some German!
On Saturday we embarked on a two day trek of a mountain range just south of Salzburg and very close to the Eisenwelt Ice caves that I visited last week. We started from the trail head at about 11:30. The trail was not too bad, and moved through some beautiful forrests up the mountain. After an hour or two we had a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains, and could see where we were staying. So the first day we hiked for about 5 hours, until around 4:30 when we reached the cabin that we were staying in. It was quite modern, and the sleeping arrangements were really cool. Basically it was one room that was a huge bunk bed! We ate some food and walked around the area, which is also a pretty famous ski resort in the winter (one I hope to visit). We had absolutely perfect weather, low 70's and Sunny both days! That night we met a group of German firefighters from Bavaria who were up for the weekend to hike the mountain, and also a local man who was going to parasail in the morning. We talked with them, and the parasailer even did some magic tricks for us. We got to go out and view the stars, which from the mountains were quite breathtaking. We also realized that the echo off of the mountains was incredible! You would yell and you could hear yourself 3-4 times, the first being almost as loud as you! The next morning we woke up at about 8 to some traditional Austro/German brekfast... meat and bread. We set out at about 8:30 for the summit. Today was extremely steep and at times very slippery. The first 2 hours were pretty grassy, with some trees and such. But after that it was all rocks. Most of the time we were climbing at a 45 deg angle or better and at times it was so steep you had to just climb. After a total of about 3.5 hours we reached the summit and it was quite a view. I myself (due to my fear of heights) was pretty freaked out, but it was still amazing! After about 45 minutes for lunch we headed back down the mountain. It was a long steep and painful (on my knees) 3 hours. But it seems to be the ultimate workout, on the way up you strengthen your calves and quads, and on the way down you get all the muscles around your knees. I should be in prime shape for track. After that hour we stopped at a small hut for some refreshments and food. Then we finished our trek down the mountain to the train station and a ride home. Overall the trek was about 9 miles and 5,000 feet of climbing over two days. It was pretty awesome to see so many Austrians hiking, this and skiing are truly their past times. Children as young as 6-7 and older people up to 70-80 were hiking the mountain. There were people running up, a man with no shoes, and a few people that went up with their dogs. It was a wonderful experience, and its too bad it was our last week, however, as long as the weather holds out I plan to do at least two more mountains in the area. After this long weekend I headed home, had a wonderful dinner and watched the Bills game.... not good. And this week promises to be filled with papers, reading, outlines, and lots of work to do. I am hoping to make it to Oktoberfest this weekend, but it depends on how much work I get done during the week. Hope all is well in the States and thanks for reading!
Tschüs!
-Christoph-