We arrived to
Obertraun, the little village on the other side of lake Hallstatt, yesterday
evening at about 6pm. The train dropped us off, and it felt like we were in the
boonies.. probably because that's exactly where we were. The train station consisted of
a little platform with an information booth and that's about it. Within 5
minutes we were at Haus Alpenrose, which is where we are staying. The village
was completely dark and if it weren't for the information guy who told us that
our hostel was on top of a bakery we would have never found it because there
was no lit "Haus Alpenrose" sign or anything. We basically just opened the door and hoped
we were in the right place. No reception desk, nothing. A man finally came out
and showed us to our room, we later found out that we were the only guests
staying there, being that it's off season and most people visit Hallstatt in
the summer. Doesn't stop us Minnesotans :)
We woke up the next
morning and the first thing that I did was go and look out the window. We were surrounded
by mountains covered in snow. (big sigh). As much as I love the cities, being surrounded by nature sure did feel nice. After we were all ready for the day the first thing we did, since I always need my breakfast, was check out the bakery downstairs. We ended up getting a
peach strudel-type pastry with coffee! Yum. Obertraun is one of those small
towns that has one bakery, one supermarket, and about three restaurants, all
family-owned of course. All of the houses are like big cottages/lodges. Just
cute and cozy. We spent the day in Hallstatt which is the main village on the
other side of the lake. We walked the quiet streets, enjoyed the views, carved
our names in a cute wooden house on top of one of the hiking trails and ate
lunch at the only place we could find open! We were definitely there on the
tourist off season! haha. I'm actually really liking traveling in the Winter though. Just a cool vibe with all of the snow and holiday events and such.
So, that night we went
to the local pizzeria in Obertraun. We walked past the sign earlier and saw
bowling pins on it, so we were wondering if they maybe, hopefully would have a
bowling lane or two inside!? It looked like an extremely small place from the
outside so we thought that maybe it was just for looks. Anyways, we got to the
pizzeria and there was a group of what looked like "regulars"
drinking beer and sharing some pizzas, which I might add are handmade daily. It
reminded me of down town Parker's Prairie where my cabin is. It was a good
feeling. So Zach and I shared a pizza with a beer and then we spotted the two
bowling lanes! It was 2 euro for every 10 minutes and what you had to do was
put your 2 euro in a slot which activated the lane. The balls were about half
the size of a regular bowling ball with only 2 finger holes instead of three.
Apart from that there was a string over the lane to make sure that you threw
the ball under, to prevent the ball from bouncing and the score board was a
chalk board. So we got a kick out of that and played for a while next to a
group of old guys.
This morning we were
going to take the cable car up one of the mountains to a famous look-out point
called the 5-fingers, but we had bad luck as it was foggy all morning. :/ So
now we are on our way to Vienna for some more hustle and bustle city life!! We
will be spending 5 nights there, so it will be nice to set down our stuff and
stay put for CHRISTMAS! Ah! It hasn’t really felt like Christmas to us yet
being that we are always on the move! But the Christmas markets in Vienna are supposed
to be wonderful so I'm sure that will get us in the mood!
Until next time,
- Rachel
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