Travelling Austria - a tour through the west

Hello lovely people, long time, no blog.

Austria had to suffer from an immense heat wave these last few weeks. During the day the temperatures rose to 39 degrees and it didn't really cool down in the night. We don't have air conditioning in our office, so I sweated day and night and wasn't really able to sit in front of my laptop and type up a post. 

But now it finally cooled down and I am able to take you to our trip through the western part of Austria, that my man and I took last week - prepare for a photo-heavy post!

When I was little, my parents always travelled to Tyrolia with my brother and me and I loved our week long holidays. My man and I decided to spend our  summer holiday in our own country this year and it was an amazing trip. 

We started by travelling by train (with our borrowed motorcycle on the back of the train - his Harley had to be repared so we had to borrow another motorcycle for this holiday) from the very east of Austria - where we live and where everything is flat as a pancake - to the most western city in this country. It took us all night to get there. It was the first time that I spend a night on the train and I loved it. I commute by train to work everyday, so I'm used to the motion and the sounds. Slept like a baby. 

the borrowed motorcycle. Not very cool or fast - but really comfortable!

On Monday we arrived in Feldkirch at 8 a.m. We took the motorcycle from the train an started to drive to the next big city, Bregenz. Bregenz is located at the Bodensee and shares a border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It's famous for it's annual opera performance where the stage is built into the lake. This is what it looks like this year: 

the beautiful stage

lots and lots of terracotta warriors

After a nice cup of coffee we decided to drive a little more this day. We stopped when we felt like it, for example at this refreshing river. It felt amazing to just sit there and tip your toes into the icy water, breathe in the air and look at the cows on the mountains. Being in the nature always calms me down and because the West looks so different to my home it's easy for me to stop thinking about work or other problems at home. So I really was able to get in the holiday mood. It was extremely relaxing!

isn't this beautiful?

We took a little detour through the North of Italy, to have our lunch. The North of Italy is called "Southern Tyrolia" as it belonged to Austria before WW1. The people there see themselves still as Austrian citizens and they all speak German there. It's a beautiful landscape. Just across the border we came across the Reschensee. It's an artifical lake - with a church tower in the middle of it! You can read a little about it here.

the church tower in the middle of the Reschensee

It was really important for me to visit the Krimml Waterfalls. These are the highest waterfalls in Europe. I've visited them with my parents two times before (though that was a long time ago) and remember that I was really impressed. We hiked 400 metres uphill - and hiked them down again. That may not seem much but we're really not used to it! It was really amazing and even my man, who didn't want to go hiking was impressed and talked about future hiking trips on various Austrian mountains!

part of the waterfall

a rare picture of me! ;-)

the proof that we hiked up to 1.400 metres!

tested the black and white option at our camera. I should use it more often!

the sun looked so beautiful!

constant rainbow, caused by the fine droplets of water that splash from the waterfall.

Speaking of Austrian mountains: Here's a picture of Austrian's highes mountain: The Großglockner. It's a glacier and it's 3.798 meters high. There is a street called "Großglockner Hochalpenstraße" which leads 48 kilometres around the mountain. A MUST for every motorcycle rider! But it was really great and you had such a nice view! Again - extremely impressive!

driving up...

that peak in the middle is the Großglockner.

We spend the weekend at my sister in law. Her little lady, now two months old, got baptised on Sunday and we were invited. We had three really nice days with them and all their kids (she has two boys, now aged 7 and 8!) and it was a nice round-up to a nearly perfect holiday. Though I'm back at work I still feel relaxed and calm and happy.

happy nephew!

But as we always suffer from wanderlust we're already planning our next trip. We're thinking about visiting Thailand in February. But that's for another story.

Where did you go for your summer holiday? Do you prefer holidays in your own country or do you love to go abroad and explore new countries and new cultures?

Travelling Austria: Green Lake, Tragöß, Styria

Hello lovely readers. How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? I have to tell you, my weekend was absolutely fabolous! But let me tell you everything about it! 

My weekend actually started on Thursday! It was a holiday on Thursday which meant - no work! How nice to have only a three-day-work-week. I could really get used to that!
Anyway, since both my man and I had the day off and since the weather was absolutely amazing, we decided to visit his grandmother. She has an amazing garden - flowers everywhere! We helped her get her pool ready for the summer. Not entirely an unselfish act since we like to come to her to swim in the pool! But it was a nice and fun afternoon! My man's cousin and his girlfriend joined us in helping her. While the men worked in the pool, us girls picked fresh strawberries. Which were devoured right there, without washing them, still warm from the sun. No strawberry from the supermarket can compete with that. 

the pool and HALF (!) of my grandmother-in-laws backyard!

her amazing flowers!

and the best strawberries ever!

I took the day off on Friday because I really needed a long and relaxing weekend. My man had to work, so I had a whole day for myself. I spend the morning finishing the baby blanket for my sister in law (3 more days until she's due, I'm so curious if it's gonna be a boy or a girl!!) and decided to spend the afternoon at the lake. I always dreamed about living near some water (lake, sea, river...whatever!) and now that I do, I hardly ever spend time at the lake. Which is a real shame, since it's just a 10 minute bike ride (with my gorgeous new bike) from my appartment to the lake. So I packed my bags and a really big book and did nothing but bathe in the sun (and the water) and read and eat ice cream all day long. What a beautiful time I had. I should do this more often!

a little duck that waddled around me the whole afternoon!

My man fulfilled his life-long dream and bought himself a Harly Davidson motorcycle two weeks ago. He loves it and as I love riding along with him, we decided to make a quick weekend-trip to Styria. (route here).
So we strapped our tent and our sleeping bags to the Harley and drove off to the Green Lake. As we arrived rather late on Saturday, we decided to spend the night at a camping site and visit the Green Lake first thing in the morning.

"our" Harley. And everything we needed for our trip strapped on the sissy-bar.

The camping site was gorgeous! It was just a small lawn near a small lake. There were cows all around as munching on the green grass. We put up our tent, drank a nice, cold and refreshing beer and settled in early as we were really tired from the day. 

Next thing in the morning we packed everything in and drove 3 km to the Green Lake. The Green Lake is surrounded by the Hochschwab Mountains. The name "Green Lake" originated because of its emerald green water. The clean and clear water comes from the snowmelt. During the winter, the lake is only 1-2 meters deep. During spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the lake reaches a maximum depth of 12 meters!! It is very popular with divers as during its peak seasons, wandering trails, benches and trees can be found under water!

We had a little stroll around the lake before we got back on our Harley and drove back home. I won't write anything further, just let the pictures speak for themselves!

Did you have a nice (maybe long) weekend as well? How did you enjoy this fabulous weather?

Travelling Europe: Malta. And the mug story.

It all started a few years ago, when I moved in with my brother. We both needed a new appartment at that time and so we thought it would be practical (and fun) to move in together. We found a lovely appartment in Vienna and began our little adventure together. My brother is three years older than me and as long as I can remember - I have looked up to him.

One of the first things that my brother bought for this appartment was a coffee machine. Not just an ordinary machine. Oh no, he bought a Jura machine. Rumour has it, that this is the Rolls Royce when it comes to coffee machines. And it was the best investment EVER! We loved this coffee machine (he still does, it moved in with his girlfriend. WHO DOESN'T USE IT!!! She drinks coffee, but prefers her Nespresso machine. I really like that girl, but when it comes to this, I just don't understand that woman!) and it was used daily. A few times daily, actually. He worked at a newspaper at that time and was a really busy journalist and I used to study back then and thought that I would actually write my master thesis. (which I didn't. But that's a different story).

Anyway, lots of coffee drinking means lots of used coffee cups. We both practically just moved out of our parents house. We took some used mugs with us that my mother didn't need any more. Needless to say, that these weren't the prettiest cups in the world.

And then came Malta.

In 2010, my parents asked my brother and me if we wanted to travel to Malta with them. Our last full family holiday was ten years ago. Then came our complicated teenage years and we were way to embarrassed by our parents as to travel with them. But now we were grown up. A little more, at least. And so we were very excited, not only because that meant our parents would pay for everything but because we actually looked forward to travel with the whole family.

Now I've travelled a lot in the last years. I've been to France, to Spain, to Croatia, to Hungary, to the Czech Republic, I've visited Dublin and Paris and Greece and I've travelled around the world.
But this one week family holiday in Malta was probably one of the greatest holidays I've ever had. It was lovely, to spend so much time with my family. We did everything together and really had a lot of fun. In the following winter my mother got really sick and will stay sick for the rest of her life. So the memories of this holiday are even more precious with us, because she was still healthy and still says, that she is so thankful for this great holiday with her family, before our lives changed so drastically.

Here, have a look at some of the picture my very talented brother took at this Malta trip: I've been there a second time ever since and will definitely visit it again. Never again had a holiday destination such an impact on me. I can't really explain it. It's just such a happy and great feeling I get, whenever I think about this little island.

The "Hera", we took a round malta cruise with this beauty! 

the dingli cliffs, the highest cliffs in Malta

Comino, Blue Lagoon

The Azure Window

Hera, again

Golden Bay

View from our hotel pool

Me.

Beach in Sliema.

Beautiful, isn't it? And so it shouldn't come as a surprise, that I wanted to take a souvenir back home with me, to always have something to remember this special holiday.

I looked and looked, wandered through shops and markets, but somehow nothing seemed right. Everything was just junk or made for the tourists. Nothing special. Until one day, I strolled by a little shop. The woman there sold the most lovely ceramics. And that's where I spotted THE MUG!
A pretty, yellow-blue coffee mug. "It's perfect!" I shrieked. And it was.

And thus began my collection! Everytime my brother and I travelled, we brought home a coffee mug. This way we had something to remember our holidays, but not just another pretty object that sat in a corner and accumulated dust, but something that was loved and cherished and used everyday.

I present to you, the MUG with which it all began. My MALTA MUG:

It is one of my favourite mugs, until this day. Three years later, my brother and I moved out of our appartments. We divided our mug collection. Whoever bought the cup, took it back with him/her.

I now live with my man. We have a little used Nespresso machine (though I'm planning on surprising him with a Jura, as I saved a little money in the last few months) but we still love to drink our coffee. And I love to use my travel mugs. I plan to introduce them to you. One by one. Because every mug has a history behind it, tons of memories attached to it and with every sip I take out of it I can close my eyes and travel away for just a minute.

I'm still here!!

Hello you lovely people out there? How are you? I'm back from my holiday in aitaly, back from the few days I spent at home at my family and right now on the train back to my home from work! It's nearly 10 pm on a Wednesday! Today we hosted an award event at our library in my work. The best austrian crime fiction writer was awarded. It was my first event that I had to organise in my new work and luckily it all went well. Do you want to see the beautiful location that is situated jn the beautiful house in which I work? Yes? Well then have a look at those pictures:

These are just a few random shots that I took while we prepared everthing. The tables were gone in the evening but there were a few gatherings in the afternoon that we also had to take care of. I really like my new job, it was the right decision to take it! 

Other than that I actually have nothing really to talk about. So I give you random facts that come to my slightly drunken mind (after show party, wohoo) while I sit on that sloooow train that stops at EVERY.SINGLE.RAILWAY.STATION along the way! 

- we drove 13.5 (let me spell that out for you: THIRTEEN AND A HALF) hours on the motorcycle on our way to Italy! And this doesn't even include the breaks! We decided to avoid the highway to drive the (what we thought) more scenic route across Austria. Turns out that the off-highway-roads have NOTHING to offer and that we just waster our time. Suprisiny it was still fun, though. We would probably do it again! 

- I managed to fly one time around the whole world (really, I did! I started in Vienna, heading eastwards and came back from the west) but this was the fiest time I visited Italy! Probably won't happen again anytime soon. Italian people are arrogant snobs. Pretty landscape, though! 

- my mother saw the top that I crocheted and immediately requested the same one for her! You can't imagine how happy I was about that! I already started when I visited them: look: 

- when we visited Venice I bought myself a pair of "New balance" shoes. Apparently very trendy right now, but I didn't know that at the time. My (future) mother-in-law saw them and immediately requested to buy the same pair. Somehow this didn't made me as happy as when my mum asked me about the matching top. I would never admit that, though. 

- right now, we're having real autumnal (is this a word?) weather. This is my view on my way to the train station this week:

Normally you would see the lake (and SKY) from here. Rain and fog and then rain again! 

- I still have 30 minutes to drive and I'm slowly running out of uninteresting and totally incoherenr facts to tell you. 

- riding a train when you can't look outside the window because everyhing is black outside and the only thing you see is the reflection of your alarmingly tired looking face isn't fun at all! 

- my man and I discovered geocaching! Apparently this is as trendy as wearing new balance sneakers. Up-to-date people we are not. But we really like it! My man is currently trying to give up smoking (one week cigarette-free tomorrow, woohooo!!) and he needed something to get his mind off of thinking about cigarettes, so we walked around our small town last sunday and already made plans for the weekend. Did you know, that I love really close to a beautiful national park? It seems, that there are quite a few caches hidden and we're going to check them out on Saturday after a family dinner for my uncle's 60rh birthday. 

- I'm not nearly anywhere near home, but I'm typing all of this (hence the massive amount of typos. This train ride isn't smooth bit rather wobbly. It's the trains' fault. Not the fact that I didn't eat anything but drank three glasses of wine. That's not why it took me about ten attempts to write the word 'cigarettes', oh no! ) on my cell phone and the battery is slowly but surely dying on me, so I better publish this thing. 

- I've you've read all the way through the end I salute you! Send me an e-mail so I can thank you in person! You're probably equally bored as me. Cheers. 

P.s.: thank you so much for your nice comments on my last post. Your wishes really worked - we had beautiful weather on our holiday. Just one rainy day and thee solid days of lying on the beach and reading. Which reminds me that there will be a book recoomondation pretty soon! Stay tuned! 

I am

making:
Granny squares for a hot water bottle cover. I know, it's mid-summer and it's way too early to think about hot water bottles, but Kate over at foxs lane (great blog, by the way. If you don't know it, go over there immediately and read EVERYTHING Kate has ever written!) has startet a crochet along and so I joined in! 

gathering some left-over yarn

my first squares!

thinking:
about all the preparations that need to be done for the weekend. On Saturday our little town has its annual town party (no idea how to translate Stadtfest) and my man and I will have our own bar, serving Schnitzelsemmel (a Schnitzel, ketchup, and a leaf of lettuce in a roll. Best. Snack. Ever.) and cold beer and Spritzer. We already did it last year and it was really successful. Lots of money for one night of work. So we decided to do it again this year. I already started a list. I love lists.

feeling:
happy and sad at the same time. Today's my last day at work. I'm really sad to have to leave all those nice and wonderfull colleagues behind. But I won't miss the work per se. It was pretty dry technical stuff. Come Monday I will work in the book industry. Something I wanted to do all my life. An office job as well but not in the industrial district that I am working now, but in the very centre of Vienna, right behind the Stephansdom. Prepare yourself for some photo-heavy posts when I walk through the tourists part of Vienna. EVERY DAY! I'm really excited!

worrying:
about the heavy rainfalls that hit our town last night. The main street was completely under water! The fire department was working all through the night because a lot of basements were flooded due to the massive amounts of water! Poor people! 

that's how the main street in our little town looked like yesterday. horrible!

eating:
the last piece of the delicious plum cake that I bake for my colleagues yesterday. I come from a part in Austria were cakes, cookies and pies are a very important part in our everyday life and in our culture. My mom is a wonderful baker, she makes the most delicious cakes and pastries and I got the recipe from her. It's a very easy one, suitable for all kind of fruit cakes.

the plums for my cake. they could have been sweeter...

...but the cake turned out fine. That's the only picture. Its life was rather short.

smelling:
the ripe and juicy peaches that are right beside me and waiting to be eaten. My godfather is a fruit farmer (and he makes schnapps out of those fruits too) and he brought us some wonderful peaches. The smell is divine - it fills up the whole room. Can't wait to bite into them! 

yummy peaches.

dreaming:
about the little escape that my man and me (or my man and I??) talked about last night. See, August 15th is a friday and a holiday in Austria. Which means, there is a long weekend. Now, if the man will be able to have the 16th off at work, we will jump on his new bike and drive down to Croatia. Now this will mean that we will drive on day, then have one day to spend at the beach and then drive back for one day. Sounds a little crazy, but that is how we roll. Or ride.

my man's motorcycle. and himself in the background.

wishing:
for a warm and sunny weekend so our bar on Saturday will be a (financial) success which will enable us to turn a dream (weekend in Croatia) into reality!

hoping:
that all of you have  a lovely week yourself and a even more lovely weekend ahead of you. I'm curious: what are you planning, making, smelling, eating, hoping, wishin, dreaming? Tell me, I'd love to know! :)