Austria/Budapest (6/11)

So lets see, I finished writing my last blog update on a train headed for Salzburg, Austria. Looking back, I see that I wrote that I would be there by 11 that night… I was almost 12 hours off – I finally arrived at 9 the following morning. To begin with, the fast, efficient, reliable, world class Swiss train system did not live up to its billing. There were times when we would stay stopped at train stations for 10 or 15 minutes with nobody boarding or leaving. On the monitors in the aisles they tell you the planned travel time and the actual travel time - it was torturous to say the least; sitting there, not moving, watching our actual arrival time fall further and further behind. I was about 25 minutes late to Salzburg so I missed my connecting train. I asked the information desk for help and they directed me to another train that I could take, only I would have to do another transfer. Heading the said advice, I took that train and upon exiting I asked another worker for directions to Kitsubhel. He pointed me to a train that was about to leave so, without any time to look at the signs for myself, I hopped on it. By the time the train arrived at its final destination we still hadn’t passed the stop that I needed. I got off of the train (by this time it was about 11) and looked for further connections. Unfortunately no trains were running again until 5 am. So here I was, in the middle of Austria, in some tiny, random, tucked away train station in the Alps amidst a snow storm for the ages. I found a tiny room in the tiny station and decided that it would have to serve as my bed room for the night.  The room was warm and there were a couple of tin bins that I could curl up on, but it was also where the coffee machine was and, therefore, was full of workers coming in and out of it at all hours of the night. Luckily they didn’t say anything to me, or at least not anything that I understood, so I was able to find a couple of hours of rest. I got up at 5:45 to catch the 6am train that I needed, but (of course) that train was canceled, thus forcing me to wait for the 6:45 train. It was only about a 30-minute ride to St. Johann in Tirol (kitsbuhel), but from there I had to catch a bus to get to my hostel/the mountain. The bus was late in arriving and I was about 5 minutes from getting on the train and going back to Spain when it finally pulled up. The ride to Ellmau (the town where my hostel was) took about 25 minutes and, as if it wasn’t enough, the hostel itself was not easy to find. (It was also a confusing experience because of the number of names this place has – it is technically called “Kitsbuhel” ski area, but it is made up of about 6 other towns all with their own train stations or stations close by. My hostel was located in a town called Ellmau and St. Johann in Tirol was the closest station to the town).

So, quite the experience to say the least! Haha …. Fortunately I was rewarded by two full days of skiing. I got there early in the morning, so I was still able to ski most of the first day and the second day all I had on my agenda was to ski – which I did. The hostel was a family run ordeal and was brand new. The family didn’t actually live there, but they would come by every now and then to check on things. There was also nobody else in the hostel besides me (probably due to its newness) so I had it all to myself for two nights – which was relaxing, but a bit lonely. The skiing itself wasn’t too much to talk about (but I hear that its been like that everywhere this winter). The mountain was huge – the resort is really made up of about 4 or 5 different mountains all connected via gondolas - but every run was crowded and icy. I enjoyed myself though, it had been a while since I skied and, snow or ice, I wasn’t going to complain.

After Ellmau I went to Budapest, Hungary. It was another long day of travel, but that was simply due to the length of the train rides themselves and not any other mishaps.  I was supposed to meet my friend at the hostel in Budapest but we randomly ran into each other at the train station and from there we combined our money and went the easy route of taking a taxi to the hostel. Budapest was a pretty neat city. It was rainy and cloudy both days we were there so we never got any really spectacular, awe inspiring views, but it’s a very historical city and it was nice to be with one of my friends for a few days. The best part about it was, without a doubt, a) the fact that
we had some purchasing power for the first time since Morocco and b) it had Mexican food! (the first I have had since I left the States) and, c) the fact that our hostel had football on the tv so we were able to watch a couple of the playoff games. We went to some famous thermal baths that were a lot like the Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, only this one had a bunch of old men playing games of chess. Now its off to Bad Gastein (another ski resort in Austria, not far from the one I had just been at) for 3 nights!