Jono's Travels

3 weeks in and I think the biggest cultural shock I experience may just be going from one keyboard layout to another. After just getting the hang of the Italian layout I'm now bashing my head trying to get used to the Austrian one. Despite the fact that a keyboard is only so big, I still have not been able to find the key for the at symbol. Also the z key and the y key are switched from the positions from which I'm used to - this makes for multiple retypings of any word with either letter

Innsbruck has a certain resort town feel that reminds me of Whistler in a lot of ways. The main town is set in the Austrian alps and along with the surrounding holiday villages has played host to the olympic games twice. The setting is stunning and the surrounding areas make for some great hiking. I had picked this town just for the hiking and was stoked to learn beforehand that there was a mountain club that provided free transportation, guides, and a traditional nightime siesta. This sounded too good to be true to me and it turned out it was... sorta. The program started at the beginning of June and I was there at the end of May, hah.

Deciding that I still had to make the most of the mountains I set off for some independant hiking on my two full day there. It was good to get some activity in and the sights were impressive. I had a bit of a run-in with some of the natural inhabitants on my second day though. On one of the trails I was hiking the path ahead was blocked by a mountain sheep/goat. Since the path was pretty narrow and my knowledge of mountain sheep in the alps is rather limited I decided that trying to get around this fella on a narrow trail with a steeeeep fall wasn't the greatest of ideas and I had to tuck tail and turn around.

The hostel I stayed at was a quaint bed and breakfast - probably the coziest hostel I've ever been. Met some interesting girls from Hong Kong that had all quit their jobs to travel around for awhile, as well as a group of siblings from the states. However I think I might be a little over-relaxed from the past week as I'm feeling restless and looking for to the big city hostels and beer gardens of Munich where I'll be going to next.

Since I've been blogging for the past hour and a half and I've got a pretty severe head rush from all the smoke I'm going to go get some fresh air now!

At the summit of Patsch - one of the ski hills in the area

Blocked by a mountain sheep

Giving said mountain sheep a piece of my mind (trust me, it's there in the background)

Hiking the nordpark on my second day

Alpine hut used by mountaineers