Autumn Beauty

So as you can probably guess from the title, I just had to write a short post to rave about how beautiful I am finding autumn here!  I am also still riding the high of a perfect Saturday, which helps.  The weather was beautiful today - sunny, but still cold in the shade.  And of course all the trees are now beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red, which looked amazing in the sunlight.  I have only recently realised how perfect this autumn weather is for some of the hiking trips I've been drooling over on the internet, but I have sort of missed my window this time unfortunately... Will definitely have to head off on one or two come spring though!

I recently went to Lindau for the first time - the town just across from Bregenz on the lake, but in Germany.  I only went quickly with the regional train, but it was so beautiful that I decided I HAD to go back.  I had also heard there was a great bike/walking path directly from Bregenz to Lindau along the lake, so with such beautiful weather I got on my bike this morning and headed there!

One of few photos from my first brief trip to Lindau

All of the photos in this post are from either Lindau or various points along my ride.  I still find all the bike tracks around here are like a maze that I haven't figured out.  It is great that there are so many, and they are generally really well signposted once you find them.  My problem is generally more that I tend not to be able to find them in the first place!  I usually just stumble upon them and then follow the signs to where I want to go, and then end up taking a different route again when I go home.  After today though I have definitely resolved to ride my bike as much as possible while this beautiful autumn weather hangs around, so hopefully sometime soon I'll get a handle on them!

Harbour in Lindau

The city front along the harbour

Beautiful clear water! 

One of the walking paths around Lindau

I didn't really do a whole lot in Lindau - it was definitely more about the journey than the destination.  The markets were still there when I got there around 12, so I bought a bratwurst in a bread roll and also a bag of apples.  I just can't resist the fresh fruit at markets - it was only 1.50 euro for a 1.5 kg bag, and they looked (and are) delicious!  Then I took my lunch down to the lakeside to eat, before wandering around the town a bit.  There are some beautiful old buildings there, and a wall that I guess used to surround the old town.

The view across the lake towards Bregenz - love the snow-capped mountains!

Obligatory solo selfie - while riding my bike!

Had a strange incident outside a shoe shop with a boy who looked about 12 coming up and pretending to fart on me while his friend videoed it on his phone - I saw him do it to someone else as well.  Makes you wonder about kids these days...  But mostly it was nice, just browsing in some shops and wandering through the streets.

Beautifully decorated building in Lindau

The bike ride was (of course) beautiful.  There were heaps of people, especially families, out walking or on their bikes along the track.  Like I said with the other bike tracks, it was well signposted so really easy to follow.  And anyway it was mostly right beside the lake, which makes it hard to get lost!  Other than just the general greatness of the beautiful weather and beautiful surrounds, the thing I loved most on the ride was going past the little "country retreat" houses.  I am unsure of the proper name for them - we studied them in German at uni, but I can't for the life of me remember their name!!  They are beautiful though!  Basically its blocks of land, that are then divided up into little plots and these little plots belong to different people, and usually have some kind of vegetable garden or fruit trees, as well as sometimes flowers and such, and then a little house - I guess about the size of a large garden shed.  Hard to imagine, because I've never seen anything like it in Australia, but they are the cutest thing!!  When we studied them, we learnt that at least the ones near the (former) main industrial region in Germany were designed as a way for industrial workers and their families to have a place where they could be outside, and grow some food for themselves and just get some fresh air.  Now I guess people have them as little weekend retreat type places, but still a similar idea.

Part of the bike track

Near Lochau - about halfway along the track...

I wanted to take a picture, but being the weekend most people were there working in their gardens, and it felt kind of creepy to stop and take pictures of their places while they were standing there out the front.  I definitely plan to go back during the week sometime to take a few sneaky pics!!

On the bike track right near home

Bike track between Bregenz and Wolfurt

So anyway that was my fun little weekend activity for this week - I wish it hadn't taken me so long to sort myself out to do something like it, but now that I have, I definitely want to do as much as possible before it snows and I won't be able to go anywhere with my bike.  This week will be a lot more stressful, because Barbara is away until Thursday, and Daniel is really busy so won't be home til late each night, so I will have to be here and make dinner every night and try to be extra strict about homework and such this week!  But the reward at the end is that on Friday I fly to the UK for a week while the family head to the Seychelles for the week long school break.  I can't wait! It will be great to be back in the UK again!  And this will be the first of probably a few trips too - I have already booked to head there for the weekend just before Christmas, and I'm sure there'll be more time before I head back to Australia in August!

A Weekend Away

This weekend was a long weekend for me, and so I decided to head on a short trip to Salzburg.  I figured that if I went now while its still autumn I could head up to Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest.  Unfortunately things didn't go exactly as planned, but I still had a great weekend regardless!

I headed off early Friday morning.  It was raining here in Bregenz when I left, which didn't seem very promising, but I got to the train in plenty of time and hopped on and got comfy.  As the train headed towards Arlberg I started to see snow everywhere, and it only increased as we headed up into the mountains.  Beautiful snow covered villages in the mountains made the trip really enjoyable.... up until we all had to get off the train because the heavy snow had knocked trees onto the tracks.  However after a chaotic time of buses and more trains, following people hoping they were from the same train and that I was still going in the right direction, and also a lot of waiting, I finally arrived in Salzburg.

Taken from the window of the train...

I had been stressing a bit with all the delays, because I had booked a tour to the ice caves near Salzburg and I knew I was going to end up missing it.  So after I checked into the hostel I psyched myself to go and beg them to let me change to a different tour.  Luckily for me though, when I got there I found out it had been cancelled because (again due to the snow!) the caves were closed, so I was already getting a full refund.  Left me kind of a loose ends though, so I decided to just walk towards the old part of the city and see what I found.  All in all, while I had planned to use the weekend to see the ice caves, the Eagle's Nest and Berchtesgaden, what I actually ended up doing was quite different!  I went walking along the river and throughout the city centre and the Altstadt, including seeing the Mirabella Palace and gardens again minus all the snow that was there when we visited in January.  It was amazing how different it all looked in autumn compared to the middle of winter!! Here are some comparison shots below of my two separate visits...

(Sorry, its a lot of pictures in a row, but I couldn't get over how different it was!!)

I also made it up to the fortress overlooking Salzburg this time, and was rewarded with some beautiful views over Salzburg and the surrounding area.  Then I did a short tour to the King's Lake (or Koenigssee) and Berchtesgaden, which while being a little too short was also definitely worth it.  I definitely plan to go back sometime and hike a bit around the lake, as well as hopefully get up to the Eagle's Nest!  The highlight though was probably the Saturday night, which I will explain below.

So.  Travelling alone.  Definitely a different experience to travelling with other people.  Sometimes it is excellent, and other times really lonely.  I was definitely experiencing the lonely side when I first got to Salzburg - facing all the problems of delays and missed tours with no one there to commiserate.  Also didn't enjoy going out for dinner by myself.  I ended up doing to awkward reading a book at the table because I had nothing else to do.

The trip only got better from there however, after I began to meet some lovely people - makes a trip so much better when people are nice. There was an Austrian girl in my room the first night, who was from Innsbruck and gave me her email and phone number for when I visit Innsbruck.  Then there were two Australian girls who moved into the room the next day and invited me out for dinner with them after having a bit of a chat.

While we were in the Augustinerbrau beer hall having dinner a Korean girl who was also on her own and came and sat next to us, so we happily all chatted.  Also had a chat to the guy I was sitting next to, who was from Salzburg but said he was heading to Australia for a holiday in a couple of weeks, and coincidentally had been given $2 (Australian) instead of a 10 euro cent coin with his change!  And then we met a darts team (of whose names I remember Hans x 2, Peter, Daniel and Wolfi) that invited us out for a beer and a game with a hammer and nails in a tree trunk.  Definitely very entertaining, and it was nice to go to a smaller local place with some locals.  The one downside was that being a smaller local people, they didn't really enforce any no smoking policy in the pub - we all came out smelling like smokers, which unfortunately I couldn't do anything about until I got home :S

Our group just before we left the beer hall

Then this morning on the train I ended up chatting with the British guy across from me, and then meeting a girl from Bregenz on the second train who I exchanged numbers with so we can meet up for coffee.  Definitely excited about that second one too - I have hardly met any local people around my own age yet, so hopefully this is my chance to make some friends with some!!  It will be very good for my German too, as she said she doesn't really speak any English :)

I also have to just interrupt myself here to say that strange as it may sound, the train trip was not just a necessary part of travelling, but also a pleasure - the Austrian mountain scenery still blows me away with its beauty!!  And I could take a thousand pictures, but none of them have anything on seeing it with your own eyes.  I took plenty of things to entertain myself with, but really I ended up just staring out the window for the majority of the trip admiring everything and feeling kind of inspired.  (To, by the way, the great soundtrack of the new OneRepublic album Native and the Imagine Dragons album Night Visions.)  If you are planning on going to Europe and have even the slightest desire to see some great natural scenery, at least a train ride through the Austrian mountains/Bavaria is a MUST!!

My poor attempt to capture some scenery

Anyway, back to what I was saying before...  One thing both the two Australian girls and I definitely agreed on when we were chatting was how travelling either alone or for a long period of time definitely changes your perspective on chatting with/meeting random people.  As I said above, any trip is made so much better by meeting friendly people, whether they be locals or fellow tourists.  And now that I have travelled a bit myself, I definitely am more inclined to chat to random people or offer them help if I can - sort of pay forward all the kindness that has been shown to me when I was travelling alone.

So anyway I guess that is the more philosophical note that I'll end this blog on - the basic message of it being: Be nice to travellers you see around, because they will almost always really appreciate it, and in return you'll probably get to have a really nice time meeting someone new!

Life in Vorarlberg (aka. I am in love with the markets!)

“In Germany they want it cheaper, in Lower Austria they want it bigger, but in Vorarlberg we value quality”.  This is what Barbara (my employer) told me in my first week here. And I have definitely noticed since then how fresh produce is valued - there are markets several times a week where the local farmers sell their produce, and in the supermarkets too emphasis is placed on things like fruit, vegetables and dairy coming from Austria.  Walking around the surrounding towns I have also noticed how it is a lovely blend of country and town - there are big barns full of cows in town, usually with some sort of paddock area behind or alongside, or other big gardens with rows of fruit trees and various veggie patches all together.  

Anyway, as you can imagine I have been loving it - the markets will be my downfall! Last weekend was my first time, and I ended up with my little haul pictured below - spaetzle (which are a German noodle/dumpling type thing), raspberries, and a small loaf of sweet hazelnut bread.  That was pretty delicious.  

My haul this week however was even bigger, and hence why I think they will be my downfall - or at least the death of my wallet!  I put some pictures below, but here’s what I got: 

Erdbeeren (strawberries), which were picked fresh and not only looked glossy and amazing, but actually tasted delicious as well!

Some zwetschen (little plums) - cost me 60c, and I tried one before I bought them too :) I also made them into a delicious pastry at the end of this week when I hadn't eaten them all and they started to get a bit ripe :)

A bunch of Äpfel (apples) which the farmer put together for me - all different varieties but all supposed to be sweet.  I had actually never seen so many different varieties in one place before!  Although sadly I don’t know the names of any of them, the little yellow ones were called pineapple-something... 

A loaf of some kind of wholemeal bread (on the left in the next picture), which I had for lunch with some butter and jam and tasted delicious.  Also sadly I was unable to finish during the week on my own :(

A bottle of sweet Most (at the back of picture).  This is apparently their equivalent of cider, although as far as I can tell it’s not much like what we call cider - its not bubbly, and the first bottle I tried was terrible!  I’m hoping this will be better because it is supposed to be sweet!  Also I have only ever seen it in big, litre-or-more bottles so far.

And finally, a bunch of flowers.  They were so beautiful and colorful I couldn’t resist!  And for once my indecisiveness actually paid off - I walked past and eyed them several times over about an hour, and then as I was about to leave at the end of the markets I walked past again and they were marked down to 2 euros!  

One thing I have been wondering is if the markets also continue through winter... I find it hard to imagine, but I’m really not sure.  I guess that’s something I’ll just have to find out.  I also finally bought a yearly transport ticket today too, and I was so happy with the price - 96 euros for free use of the buses and trains in Vorarlberg for a year, as well as a card for the Austrian Rail which gives me discounts on tickets throughout Austria.  Can’t wait to start using it - I aim to visit as many of the towns in Vorarlberg as I can before I leave!  I bought a postcard which has a whole bunch of them listed, as a starting point.  

Another thing I love about Vorarlberg is how friendly people generally are.  I mentioned in my last post about the lovely people I met at church last weekend, and though I haven’t really made any friends at badminton everyone I’ve met there has been really friendly too.  And I’ve only met her twice so far, but boys’ Oma has been lovely too - she came with Sophie to pick me up from the airport, and also when she dropped by the other weekend she gave me this little book about Austria as a welcoming gift.  The same with Barbara’s entire family really after I met them last weekend on the biking trip.  As well as these more personal encounters, I’ve also found the atmosphere in general is quite friendly - on the bus the other night, the driver called out to me to have a good evening as I was getting off, and on the way to the market last Saturday people on the bus were just chatting to the people near them - the lady next to me was joking about something to do with the people across from us, but in dialect so I didn’t fully understand I just smiled a lot and nodded....  Then while I was waiting for the bus home from the market I offered my seat to an old man with a cane walking towards me, but then the person next to me left so he sat down and started chatting to me.  He also asked me if I wanted to come along to the Oktoberfest event at the brewery that he was heading to (which sounds creepy but was actually quite sweet) but at that point I was tired and weighed down by my haul from the markets so just wanted to head home.

As well as that I guess it probably helps that everyone seems to always know people when they go anywhere - presumably because most people tend to grow up here and then move into their own houses in the same area, so they’ve spent most of their lives here.  My idea of the Vorarlberg way of life so far: it’s a very small-town style of life, without the disadvantages of small towns in Australia - you aren’t in the middle of nowhere, and there is actually decent and regular public transport.  People have their local shops where they are known, and the clubs or particular groups they belong to, but the “town” you live in isn’t particularly relevant to this, because where one town ends the next begins, so you can work in one town, play sport in another, go shopping in yet another, and then go home to where you actually live and never have been more than 20 mins away.  Also as I mentioned before, they love local, fresh produce - hence the excellent markets, and the micro-farms everywhere.

So as you can probably gather from above, I am quite enjoying the Vorarlberg way of life so far, and can’t wait to see how it will change in winter.  I know that everyone I’ve talked to around here is into skiing, snowboarding or some kind of winter sport, so that will be interesting to try :) And anyway, I can’t wait for some SNOW! 

But I’m also quite excited by my prospective travels - I recently booked a flight to Edinburgh for the 25th of October, which I can’t wait for!  It’ll be amazing to head back to Scotland and revisit the old places and catch up with friends.  And somehow I’ve managed to time it perfectly with Jenna’s birthday too, which was super lucky!  Although I hope to get back there once more, maybe in January, before I leave this side of the world again.  I’ve also been looking at some potential weekend trips - this coming weekend I’m going to head to Salzburg (from where I’ll head up to Berchtesgaden!).  I’m also super excited that a surprising amount of friends from home will be in the area at some point in the coming months - which of course means trips to catch up!  And of course I plan to go visit Regensburg, Freiburg, Koln and Munich at some point while I’m here too - for the places and also the lovely people that will be there :)  As you can tell I’m definitely riding the high of anticipation that trip planning brings right now!!  On which note I will leave this update - ‘til next time!  

Standing in a flower stall at the markets

My flowers in a vase once they got home

A bit of Austrian/German culture!

So last Sunday I went on a bike riding trip with Barbara’s extended family - her parents, 5 sisters and their families.  (Although ironically Linus and I were the only ones there from Barbara’s family.)  But anyway, it was a really nice day, and the family were lovely.  Apparently they had been planning it for awhile, and had dubbed the trip the “Iron Mami” and had little name tags for all the family members.  So we all met at a previously planned point on our bikes, and then rode towards our destination.  

A little less than halfway along they had a rest stop all set up (one of the sisters went ahead in the car with the stuff), and it was really cute!  There were flags, a little table with beer, champagne, soft drink, water and some snacks like fruit, pretzels, and little packets of lollies labeled EPO (apparently some kind of drug sometimes used by professional cyclists?).  There was probably about 16 bike riders all up, so we got a lot of looks from other passing pedestrians and cyclists.  

The rest stop

I loved the bike riding - I’m not even really sure how long it was, maybe about an hour?  But despite it being an overcast day, it was beautiful.  Unlike the country for us, I have probably mentioned before that its a lovely mix of town and farmland all kind of in there together around here, so we rode past some lovely farm areas as well as through areas of cute little Austrian houses.  I particularly enjoyed two sights from our ride past farmland - first was a farmer who had ridden his bike down to the paddock to check on the cows.  I don’t think I know a single farmer that would ride their bicycle down to the paddock.  Tangible proof that farming is quite different over here I think!  The other was actually more sound than sight - as we rode past a field of cows I couldn’t figure out what the noise I was hearing was, then I realised all the cows had bells, that were jingling as they chewed!!  So cute :) After that first one we rode past a couple of spots where there were cows with bells, and I was loving it.  

When we got to our destination, which was the restaurant of a sailing club on the Bodensee, they were having an Oktoberfest there the same day.  And although someone pointed put that Oktoberfest isn't Austrian but Bavarian, it was awesome.  There were lots of people there in dirndls, checked shirts and lederhosen, and the place was all decorated with bunting and checked tablecloths and such.  Although probably best of all, there was a folk band there playing traditional folk songs!  Did make it a little hard to hear each other, but the atmosphere was great :)  There were lots of (mostly older) people at the tables singing along and getting up to dance, and I had a bit of a cuteness-overload at the sight of two little boys in matching lederhosen - wish I could have gotten a picture, but it felt a bit creepy taking a photo of two little kids I didn’t know...  

I also had my first Weissbier since coming back over here, which looked puny next to the 1L steins of beer some of the men at the table had!  That and the apple strudel were probably the highlights, although the weisswurst with sweet mustard were also pretty great.  Also my first experience of mixing white wine and mineral water was interesting, but in a good way.  And yes, as I am again proving, I can’t be in Europe and not rave about food!  I love it too much haha.  The worst part about it was having to ride home after being stuffed full of food and drink.  It was definitely a much slower trip!  

Huge beer!

My half eaten strudel...

The restaurant (note little boy in lederhosen!)

Bought for me by Barbara's father :)

The band - they were really good!

The other amusing thing was the group photo - we all lined up outside the restaurant, and one of the sisters took a pic first, then I jumped up to take one so all the family could be in it.  As I was taking it an older man came up and offered to take it.  I tried to refuse, as I really didn’t need to be in the pic too, but he insisted - to the point that after taking it with the camera we had, he got his own (fancier) camera out of his car and took a photo with that and insisted on emailing it to us.  Friendliness in the extreme!  It was quite funny, but just another of many times I have seen how friendly people generally are over here. (More on that in my next post). 

We ended the day at the grandparents house with glasses of Moet and some bread and cheese and home grown grapes.  Altogether it was a lovely day, and it was really nice to meet almost all of Barbara’s family.  It reminded me of my own extended family, in the way everyone got on and all the kids played happily together.  Anyway that was Sunday, and I have started writing another update already so watch out for that soon too ;)

The countryside

Quick rest stop on the way home

Linus in an awesome poncho