Sunday, April 10, 2011

Hallstatt

So, after Poland I ended up making an unplanned, unprepared for, surprise trip to Hallstatt Austria.  Basically, my friend Matt invited me to go with him about six hours before we needed to be on the bus.  His parents offered to pay for my entire trip, so I decided to go. 

Actually getting to Hallstatt was pretty uneventful, except that we almost missed the first bus of the day.  All of the trains ran pretty much as we expected them to which is (as I have learned) incredibly rare. 

(Note* we ended up traveling with two other students for the first day)

Hallstatt itself didn’t have a lot to do, but doing things really wasn’t the point of the trip at all.  Hallstatt is arguably the most scenic place in all of Austria, so naturally we visited with the intention of taking pictures, relaxing, hiking, and quoting The Lord of the Rings. 

Here are some pictures, I think that the rest are on Facebook…

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This is Hallstatt from across the lake in Obertraun (which was where Matt and I stayed).

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The view of the lake from our hotel window.

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A bone chapel in Hallstatt.  In Europe (Austria at least) you don’t buy plots of land in cemeteries, instead you rent them.  Once the rent is up and no one has made a payment, you get dug up and either put in an ossuary or a bone chapel. 

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This is just another picture of the lake before sunset.  It had calmed down enough that the reflections of all of the mountains were nearly perfect.

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We saw a few swans on the edge of the lake while we were getting ready to take the (Buckleberry) ferry back to Obertraun.

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