Innsbruck

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After our wonderful stay in Vienna, we bittersweetly left with great memories and headed for the mountains. THE MOUNTAINS!!! And not just any mountains- The Alps! As our train passed through Salzburg and into Innsbruck the majesty of these impressive peaks came into view and absolutely blew us away.

I, unlike Mike, have only ever been in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, which are gorgeous and green. But these bad boys are literally sky high- peaking above the clouds with their snow covered caps. We walked off the train with huge grins on our faces because we finally felt at home, in a way. We've always loved being in the wilderness, and after 3 weeks of metropolis hopping, it felt so great to be surrounded by mountains and trails to explore.

Innsbruck's old city center is very cute and lively. A good mix of old architecture, cobblestoned roads, and modern stores. The outer skirts of the city are actually pretty raw with punky people! Surprising to us because we imagined Innsbruck being filled with mountain mamas and papas who worship the landscapes that surround them. The city of Innsbruck is in the center of a mountain bowl- 360 degrees of enormous mountains around you. We explored the old  town center and walked along the Innanna River, which is an indescribable milky-aqua color, freezing cold, and mesmerizing with the white mountains as its backdrop.

We found a cafe with outdoor seating and large overhead lightbulbs next to the Innanna and shared a pizza and drinks. We must've been flies in a past life because we're constantly attracted to the christmas light settings- drawn to the sparkle. It was warm in the sun, but the cold mountain air kept us a perfect temperature. We didn't talk much because we were both quietly and happily enjoying looking down at the aqua river and up at the peaks we wished to be on top of. Continuing our exploration, but not wanting to leave this beautiful river's edge,  we walked through a park neighboring the river and sat to listen to a singer/harmonica player and guitarist play some soulful music for a small crowd. It was here that we finally found the fellow mountaineer crowd; a group of 30 or so nature lovers in their hiking boots and grey long hair bobbed their heads and clapped along to the live music. As we walked back towards town, the sun was setting and absolutely ignited the sky. Burning clouds floated behind the fierce snowy mountains, changing from mandarine orange, to a pink rose, and finally to a dark lavender before settling behind the peaks.

With nighttime upon us, we found our way to a bar our Viennese friend Elisabeth recommended called Tribaun with 20 amazing craft beers on tap (which are hard to come by in Europe) and then made our way back to Hostel Marmota. By far the worst hostel so far. It was like checking into a low-cost kindergarten (although no parent I know would let their kid go there). The walls have amateur paintings of mountains and marmots on them, there are coloring book marmot drawings taped all over the common room walls, the keys have MASSIVE rat stuffed animals attached to them (so you dont lose your keys but want to toss them off a mounatin), the beds are thin foam- you can feel every wood board of the bunk's frame, the floors were dirty, the lights didn't turn on in the hallways (convenient when you're trying to fit the rat key in the key hole), the wifi was terrible (one reason we're behind schedule with blogs), reception blasts Arriana Grande at 7:00am in the morning when hikers are trying to rest and recover, and the showers barely warm. Ugh. Anyways, I digress..

The next morning we set out bright and early to get out into the mountains. We boarded a tram that brought us to a gondola, which brought us to the lodge on the mountain, then up to the peak of Hafelekarspitze. As we took the gondola to the lodge, we saw hikers trekking up the steep trail and we decided (after spending more than we had expected on the tram & gondolas) that we would conquer that hike in our following days here. 

The view from the top of an Alp at 8,051 feet was stunning. As we stood on the rock face of Hafelekarspitze a sister peak next to the tourist covered Seegrube station, we had snow at our feet and an endless landscape of epic mountains soaring into the sky all around us. I've never felt so small (in a good way); a tiny spec next to these enormous and powerful peaks. We stayed on the top taking it all in and enjoying the crisp, cold, mountain air before we decided to skip the gondola and descend the top of the mountain ourselves. We weaved down for 45 minutes before finding a place in the hills to call our own for a picnic.

Baguette, salami, cheese, apple, trail mix, and red wine for lunch. We basked in the sun, ate our lunch, and got sleepy from mountain merlot and dozed off. We woke up in a dream: the white faced mountains were still all around us, radiating the sunshine off of them, and we were still in the middle of nowhere with no signs of humanity near us, except for little ants enjoying the lodge or summiting the other peaks nearby. We shook off our drowsiness and hiked around the trails leading to the lodge, which was too packed with people, so we followed another trail until we found a second place of solitude to enjoy the calmness of being in the mountains.

Around 5:00pm we took the gondola and tram back into town and found a quick and cheap spot called MyIndigo to share curry chicken with rice and a salad before heading back to the hostel for an early night to rest up for tomorrow's hike.

Awake and stoked for a good hike, we had oatmeal and peanut butter to fuel up, then headed to the Hafelekarspitze trail head. An absolutely perfect hiking day: low 60s, bluebird skies, amd the occasional breeze to cool your tired body. On the mountain by 10:00am with a handful of other ambitious mountaineers, and by 10:15am we were already stripping layers. We knew the hike would be tough between the steep incline and our lack of cardiovascular exercise, but damn. This was STRAIGHT up for 2.5 miles and in the direct sun because it followed the clearing of the gondola's path. But as we gained altitude, the view that we fell in love with continued to come into view and propelled us to reach the top. Just under 2 hours later we had reached the lodge and were greeted with open arms to our mountains.

We found a new lunch spot for our picnic (same as yesterday's menu) and enjoyed refueling, listening to music, and dozing in the sun. A few hours later we had to begin our trek down, but we decided to take the dirt/gravel walking road instead of the trail we followed up. It's gradual decline weaved and wrapped us around the side of the mountain through the woods (never thought I would miss the smell of shady forest dirt, but it was so refreshing to smell) and we made it to the bottom just before sunset which is much earlier now due to Daylight Savings being a week before the US'. Deserving of dinner and drinks, we had chicken curry and salad at MyIndigo again, then found our way to Tribaun for a good craft beer. We made friends with our bartender, Robert, who relocated to Innsbruck from New Orleans. Exhausted, we made our way back to our kindergarten nap room and passed out.

October 27 we celebrated 2 years of laughing, loving, exploring, and growing together. We felt it was only fitting to spend our anniversary back up in the Alps that we loved so much. So we (and our sore legs) took the gondola back up to the lodge and followed a trail off the the left, which led to the mountain ridge named Langer Sattel. With wobbly legs and non-grip running sneakers, my hiking wasn't as strong as yesterday. But we steadily made our way up. Another hardcore, steep climb, which opened up into an epic panoramic view and gusting winds. I now understood why a man on our way up (he on his descent) said something to me in German in a skeptical and laughing tone. My capri leggings and running sneakers weren't exactly the right gear for this altitude and snowy hike. But determined to summit, we pushed on, slipping through steep snow-covered grounds and being pushed by the winds. At the top we shared a proud anniversary smooch, soaked in the insanity that surrounded us, and then made our way down before our sweat froze. On the way down we saw Alpinists summiting an awesome peak, Mike was especially jealous, and agreed we'll be back to do some real work in this range.

Yet another fantastic picnic with the view that has become our dearest friend throughout these past three days. Another sunny snooze in the hills, then treated ourselves to a drink and a pretzel out on the lodge's deck. We sadly had to say goodbye to our favorite mountain view and make our way back down around 5:00pm. Anniversary dinner at an Alpine restaurant- a grilled "chicken" (turkey) salad for me, and "steak" (pork) and fries for Mike.

After dinner we went to a little bakery/bar for a drink and to contemplate buying an apple strudel or chocolate cake. We decided we didn't need it.... Regrets.  Back to Tribaun for our final anniversary night cap and played Tower of Hanoi and 3D connect four with our friendly bartender. Two puzzle games made out of wood that were just so fitting for a mountain town bar. He also gave us great advise on language learning apps and techniques that we plan to use when we study Spanish. We've been so jealous of all these multi-lingual people while we've been abroad that we're inspired to learn a second! 

Back to Marmota for (thankfully) our last night to pack and take cold showers. Sad to be leaving the beyond beautiful landscapes and mountains, but excited to explore Italy! Up next: Verona!