Wednesday 11th August

 11-08-04 - Day 39

I was so happy to leave Salzburg, the place was a dead city: killed by suffocating from the blanket of expense & tourism that smothers every street and square. My sentiments upset me, because Austria has been one of, if not the most beautiful country so far - yet enjoying it seems such hard work. But putting aside Salzburg's tourism, Zell am See's resortness and cable car prices and the cost of good, everything from Vienna to Werfen has been picture-postcard perfect. From I fell asleep in the train from Cesky Krumlov and when I woke, the view was nothing less than a pastel past painting: perfect green fields and idyllic wooden houses, for endless & miles in every direction. Vienna, of course, was something else, the Danube was stunning, the train to Zell some of the most beautiful masal mountain ranges I've seen, the alpine meadows really do look like they do in the sound of Music.... And then, to cap it all easily off &, Werfen finally delivered what we were looking for: a place where the beauty of the countrysidecan actually be appreciated and enjoyed; and the spectacular ice caves go down on my all time list at or #11

So, in conclusion, Austria suffers from the disease of Western Europe. Prague has also been infected, but it has been effectively contained there. Austria's problem is wide spread and almost complete - but it is a tribute to the astounding beauty of the country that I did not leave it on the same terms I left Prague.

And speaking of leaving, we left for Ljubljana what marked the first major, deliberate alteration to the itinerary having found it completely impossible to get accommodation in Bled or Bovin. It was a swift and enjoyable van ride where strangely there was not enough time to do everything! Hello, as seems the norm now, went to sleep, I read my (most engrossing) book and admired endless stunning scenery, we had a particularly exciting meal of cold sausages (with cheese in the middle) and yogurt dressing in rolls, interrupted by a alarmingly friendly Slovenian customs officer who wished us bon appetite, asked if we had any explosives tried to sustain a conversation about condoms, stamped our passports, and left.

So, capital city no number 8 was... a surprise. The train station was smaller than most we've seen so far, and lacked any information, people, accommodation adverts... or light for that matter. But by a series of conversations with various Slovenes we made it to our hostel to be greeted by a (rather) wonderly friendly guy, who gave us soap and towel, as well as bed sheets, whatever voluntarily offered a free map, and almost got his life story out before we could make our escape.

The free Internet was a disappointment as a grand total of 1 person had replied to my group email, while Heather had more replies than I have friends. And she has a cooler brother than me.Another fine breakfast and a free bus to the station. The train ride was still as beautiful even if I never found my perfect Austrian photo, we arrived in Werfen, got our tickets for the bus from a very eager young man. It was 6km uphill so we decided not to walk it. So I sat on Brian's knee on a cramped mini bus up a very windy road round the mountain. The castle which had loomed above the town now became really rather insignificant as we were nearing the level of the mountain tops. The views were stunning - the river winded down below us, and there was still snow on some of the peaks. We walked along a path, with an incredibly sheer drop looking over the edge one was all sense of perspective. We kept trying to leave our bags somewhere but we kept getting told "down". Well "down" seemed to mean right outside the cave entrance in a small cave which was blessed off to the public. We used Werfen's ice caves because there weren't hoards of people - the various stages of the second route everyone who climbs to the jewelry and climb could be appreciated fully. We dinned our jumpers and coats (I should have taken my gloves) and managed to get landed with the German/Italian tour guide, so I managed to get all the dimension lines but my scientific ice formation vocabulary is slightly limited and wild have done better out of an English one. We were given lanterns which immediately blew out as we went through the scariest bit of wind I've ever experienced. To sum it up, until it was darkand the paths a bit crooked so you had to keep your eyes on the ground which meant you couldn't fully appreciate the scale of it. I would have liked a bit more light to see it better but then let it light = water so perhaps not. The guide did light up some areas and say the sculptures were my favourite. So definitely worth it, a different way to spend the day and another realization that Austria has some hidden gems. I would have quite happily just gone up the mountain for the view. We wandered into Werfen which was the first typically Austrian place we have been to (apart from Vienna) which is there not for the tourists but for its locals and real was a really nice change. It was a little quiet but just the sort of place I'd happily stay in for a while so there were walks around the area to do desire. It was very taxing to leave Austria - It felt like I was leaving home all over again and this was confirmed when we arrived in Ljubljana - I felt stupid, lost and homesick just because I couldn't understand the signs. I managed to fall asleep at the train without even entertaining the possibility of doing so and awoke, greeting the conductor with a rather cheery 'guten morgen gott' which worried me slightly. My thoughts on Austria can be summed up very easily - favourite country so far. I'm really glad Brian liked it and wants to come back. And our stay led me to thoughts on this and the ever abroad. While I've been studying, brothers it feels a bit pointless - the don't get me anywhere but I also now I don't care because I love the countryI'm studying and one of the main 'things I want to do' in my life is visit and explore Austria, Germany (Bavaria) and Italy because you can only do this properly and feel justified in doing so when you can understand the language, the history and why the people do what they do. Even if I don't live/work in one of these countries a lot of my life will be concentrated on visiting or finding out about them. Even if I don't end up working with languages or in another country I don't feel my degree will be wasted. As for the year abroad, I don't feel it anywhere but wish it was starting tomorrow. And I would love to be in Switzerland (Germany) Austria.

On a lighter note, I have more friends than Brian.