Week 3 - 3 out of 6

Week three is now officially over, weekend included. Innsbruck turned out more urbanized then I thought it was going to be. I was expecting more of a city in the middle of nowhere with mountains and grassy rolling hills surrounding us. However, it turned out to be, as a lady on the bus told me, not too big and not too small. Speaking of the lady on the bus, Saturday we were trying to find the place to hike and we ran into a lady with a thorn in her paw. I guess we looked really lost or something because she approached us first to help out. After which I had to sit next to her on the bus and hear about how she hated the corrupt politicians. She thinks that they are leaking money into private parties and causing the European economy to crash. I haven’t been keeping up with the news for the European Union, but I do remember hearing something about Spain and a few other countries being bailed out.

            Despite the helpful, but crazy, lady we had a great adventure Saturday. We spent about four hours hiking up the mountain where the Winter Olympics once took place. It’s really cool being and walking somewhere you know some of the world’s best athletes have been. It was a long hike though because John started making his own paths and taking us practically straight up the mountain at one point. At one time we ended up on the ski slopes and another time walking up the bobsled course. My feet didn’t like me after the hike, but it was a great hike with beautiful views and few people to bother us. After the hike, we found a lake called Lanser See to swim in. The water was a spectacular twenty-four degrees Celsius or about seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. The lake was the highlight of my day because we could just jump in the cool water and relax for once. It was soothing on my feet and prepared me for a long walk back to the bus stop.

            Really we didn’t have much time in Innsbruck, only that one full day. Today we woke up, had breakfast, and then left. All our adventures had to take place on Saturday, of which I’d say we did a good job of. I am a little sad that we never made it to the summit of the mountain, but if we tried we probably would’ve still been stuck up there. It’s funny how distances can be misleading at times. A seemingly twenty minute walk turns out to be an hour walk. In our case an hour and a half walk turned into a four our journey zigzagging through the mountainside enjoying our time.

            I’m finally home and it’s 11:30pm. I’ve been traveling for more than twelve hours. It’s nice to finally be home and off the prison train. It was torture being on that train for that long. They kept turning off the train too and since there were no windows it turned into an oven. Well I’m going to bed before I lose any more sleeping time.