Paradise or something like it.

Herbstferien– a fall break for more or less the entire month of October–more or less consisted of a brilliant ten-day stay in Austria.  As you may have already read in my last post, I arrived in Saalfelden (a region in the Austrian state of Salzburg) on the seventh, a sunny afternoon.  I fell back in love with that countryside, with the pace and way of life, and the general atmosphere of rural Austria almost immediately.  Once all of the good apples had been collected from the Herzog apple tree, and the bad ones thrown into the compost container, Heidi and I ate a couple Semmels (bread--type of rolls) then headed for the hills.  By the time we reached the trailhead, we had enough time to swiftly climb to the "spitze" and "gipfelkreuz" (the mountain peak) in time to watch the sunset.  I also got to write my first entry in an ÖAV (Österreichischer Alpenverein) book, something funny and Pinzgauerisch that Heidi told me to write.  Then I laughed thinking of the poor person who would read that sentence followed by the name "Ashley Bennett" and think: hmm...something isn't right about this, Ashley isn't someone I know..?  The next morning we ate some breakfast, hung around a bit - I spent some time reading "The Conscience of A Liberal" by Paul Krugman, a book that paints a depressingly true picture of some American policy fails-, then we hopped in the car, intended destination: Großglockner, Austria's tallest mountain at 3,798 meters (12,460 feet) in Carinthia, by way of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. With the sun shining and a warm October day we headed up the Hochalpenstraße, not knowing that the beautiful sunny weather ended with the tunnel from Salzburg into Carinthia. On the Salzburg side of the tunnel there were maybe 5 clouds in the sky, on the Carinthia side there was a high-mountain fog that blocked the view as far as 10 feet in front of the car. So we turned around, headed to an alm, and enjoyed a nice lunch there. I, of course, ordered my favorite alm dish, Kaspressknödelsuppe–cheese dumpling soup? I can't translate or even begin to describe its awesomeness: go to Austria, hike for an hour to an alm, and try it for yourself. I'm convinced it's the best thing ever, but then, it may just be the whole atmosphere that I relate to the meal. That atmosphere being the hike up to a small, [on sunny, fall days] over-crowded hut, wher you're rewarded for your hard work on the hike with a delicious, malty Austrian beer and an out-of-this-world-blow-your-mind Kaspressknödelsuppe. This is the kind of atmosphere you just cannot recreate in your American kitchen, not to mention the cheese issue--a good Austrian/Swiss cheese is hard and/or expensive to find in the US.

*note I was a loser and broke my camera before this trip, thus I have no pictures of my own...*

This should give you an idea of the delicious that is Kaspressknödelsuppe (say that one five times fast...or once, and right.. )

After lunch, we hiked around a bit and had views of some of Austria's remaining glaciers and other scenic Alp areas like the Steinernes Meer and the Hohe Tauern. On the way home we stopped by "Hofer" (known as Aldi-Süd in Germany, well at least in the south), a stop that took longer than expected, and after Heidi's dad went in to see what was taking so long, he came back to report his findings: it's complicated. Buying bread is complicated, this is, in that the need for bread leads to finding other things you need resulting in buying half the Hofer's offerings. Then we all had a laugh about the situation.The rest of the afternoon was spent bumming around the yard, eating dinner, on a walk around the area, and watching a "bergfilm" – a very poor quality and hardly entertaining film.

Freshly pressed apple juice, two and a half kegs to be exact, filled our Saturday morning. Remember how we picked apples Thrusday afternoon? Well, that, of course, wasn't without purpose. A neighbor with a farm down the road had the coolest set up for making fresh apple juice (honestly can't believe I didn't have a camera for this!!!), so we loaded up the apples and three empty kegs, and took the apples to be pressed into fresh äpfisaft. Quite a sight and process it was! First the apples are hacked up into small chunks in a Fargo-esque wood-chipper-looking machine that apparently isn't used to chop people but instead apples. These small bits of apple are then thrown into a pressing machine, which is a big wooden barrel that reminded me of what a moonshine keg might have looked like during prohibition. A button is then pressed to push the wooden piece at the top down, and out the bottom pours the apple juice–pure, 100% apple juice. And boy-oh-boy did that juice taste good! The Bäuerin, with whom I was nervous to speak more than a few words because I wasn't sure how she'd feel about a Hochdeutschspeaking person, told me a little bit about what she was doing, namely making an apple-pear juice that, unlike ours, was heated over an open flame before being bottled. At the end of our conversation, she offered me a glass of the delicious nectar–an offer I gladly accepted. After eating an appetizing lunch of Semmelknödelsuppe and a cabbage salad, Heidi and I set out on bikes for a ride around the area and to stop by a Schnalzen tournament, a long-standing tradition in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Schnalzen (Whipcracking) is a sport that basically consists of Lederhosen wearing young men trying to make the loudest noise with their whips. Here's a video of an old man doing Schnalzen.
One can only watch Schnalzen for so long, so we hopped on our bikes and rode to Maria Alm, the hometown of Heidi's mother. In Maria Alm, there's a beautiful pilgrimage church, fully decked out in Baroque decor with pink marble flooring and epic ceiling paintings. There was a baptism going on when we arrived; we stayed to watch for a bit. I'd never seen a baptism before, which made experiencing one in German that much more interesting. We quietly exited the church, visited the graves of some family members, and the memorial for fallen soldiers of WWI and WWII, all located in the cemetery in front of the church.
Sunday's weather was just as great as the previous days, so we took advantage of it by hiking at the Steinernes Meer. Specifically, to this Alm - Peter-Weichenthaler Hütte, and beyond it. The view from the top was really breathtaking and interesting for many reasons. The name Steinernes Meer translates to something like "sea of stone," a name that fits the topography of the mountain range well. A natural border between Austria and Germany, the view from the Austrian side of the SM provides one with a glimpse of Berchtesgaden, where Hitler's famous Eagle Nest and home were located. It was a stunning view, to say the least; easy to see why Hitler would choose that place as his home with all of its beauty. Another positive thing about this hike was that- despite it being a beautiful sunday- there were few people who hiked farther than the actual alm, so that we only ran into two other people on that part of the trail. However, back at the Alm, it was a hoppin' spot. I'm still trying to decide if the following thing is a positive or a negative occurrence: while ordering a slice of cake, I asked the woman what kinds of cake they were selling (I'd seen two kinds around) to which she responded "Zwetschkekuchen...oder ich meine Pflaumekuchen..." Zwetschke is the Austrian term for Plum, Pflaume is the German term, meaning the woman heard me speaking, assumed I was a German, and switched the term. Good or bad? I'll let you be the judge..

The next afternoon, Heidi and I headed to Innsbruck after a great, adventure-filled weekend in good ol' Pinzgau. Also noteworthy: I saw the actual Von Trapp family home, located on the Zeller See, which made the Sound of Music nerd in me really really happy. To get an idea of the cost of living on the Zeller See, the owner of Porsche is the neighbor of the former Von Trapp family home.

I'll write more soon, including some of what I did in Innsbruck and some thoughts about a few different things.
Carpe diem,
A