Innsbruck, Austria

On December 18th we made out way to Innsbruck Austria to celebrate the end of the semester. As expected Jared did amazing, as in top marks and 10 points for Gryffindor! We took a train and to Munich and then a bus to Innsbruck. Despite Innsbruck being 95 km away from Munich, the bus ride was 2 hours and 20 minutes because we had to go around the Alps. We snaked our way along winding roads and had a breathtaking view of the Alps as they first came into view.

Jared set us up with an Airbnb close to the city center. We spent the first night exploring several Christkindelmarks, along the water and in the old town. We had a few cups of Gluwein to fight away the mountain chill and then our stomachs were grumbling for some dinner. We spend the next hour getting rejected from every restaurant despite the restaurants being completely empty. The restaurants insisted that they were fully booked due to Christmas parties; however, I have a hankering suspicion that we looked like a couple of street rats. We finally settled ourselves in a second story Italian restaurant for some authentic, traditional, schnitzel! Jared’s came out looking like a pulverized chicken nougat: lesson learned get pizza at an Italian restaurant not schnitzel. After dinner we headed to an Augustiner brauhaus for a couple pints. Here we met two friends travelling together, one guy was from Russia and the other from the Ukraine. They recommended that we check out a bar called Tribaun. This became our favorite place in Innsbruck. They served unique micro brew varying in flavour and alcohol content. Jared’s favorite was the Beirel Mountain Pale Ale, 7.5%.

Despite staying out until 1 a.m. we decided to go for a small hike the next day. We equipped ourselves with one bottle of water, a bag of peanut M&Ms and two granola bars. We also dressed ourselves in many layers to get reader for the crisp mountain air. We took a bus to get to the base of the mountain to begin our short hike. We followed a bunch of other hikers and mountain bikers to the trails, where we were able to fully grasp the goliath of the mountain we were about to casually hike up. I immediately had second thoughts. We started hiking up the middle path, which was basically mud and loose rock. In about 5 minutes we were sweating, panting and stripping off layers. Two hours later we were finally almost at the summit. We began talking about how excited we were to take the gondola back down, how tired our legs were, how crazy one local man was for doing the hike in his khaki pants and loafers. All our complaints immediately dissolved into fits of laughter when we crested the peak…because we weren’t at the peak, just a small outcropping: we still had a ¼ of the way to go. Another 30 minutes later, we did finally reach the top and a chalet with an outdoor bar and DJ greeted us. We sat outside in beach chairs sipping a hard-earned beer looking over Innsbruck, now so tiny, and the other great Appalachian mountains stretched out before us.