European Dregs

So we headed to Innsbruck. Had to catch a train to Munich and switch to go to Innsbruck. Train was delayed (surprise surprise), and we had to wait a couple of hours in Munich for the next train to Innsbruck. Wasn't all bad though, got to go out for a quick look at the main street of Munich. Aside from the fact Octoberfest was on, city looked relatively uninteresting, and alas we moved on. Arriving in Innsbruck late at night.

We stayed at a youth hostel, and slept like logs, tired from our Prague adventures, and missing the clown and bard hostel and its "character" - Katie insists I mention how awesome George the bartender was.

Awakening the next day, fresh and ready to go. We decided to head out to one of the many glaciers in the region, the closest one was the "Stuby" glacier, as we called it, and it lay about an hour out of town, so we caught the bus, checking out the amazing scenery on the way. As it was raining, many waterfalls appeared everywhere in the cliffs around us, which was amazing. Then when we got there it takes a 40 minute chairlift ride, on these space aged chairlifts to get to the top. You then walk the last 100 or so meters up some stairs to reach the top. Which at 3200m is pretty high. Unfortuantly the weather was totally pox, so we only caught a few fleeting glances of the mountain ranges, and the glacier itself, but none the less it was cool (no pun intended), and we went down the stairs to the pub/cafe to have a beer at 3100m AMSL.

This was the first time Katie had also seen snow, but the snow was more like snow/slush, and just like on Kilimanjaro, was another half assed attempt at snow.

We then had to decided what we wanted to do next with our time here at Innsbruck, as we had visited at a time when most of the summer activities are finished, but the winter ones hadn't started yet, because the snow hadn't arrived yet. It was supposed to come "any day now" according to the guy on the Stuby glacier. One of the things that looked promising was the paragliding, so we checked the forecast, and the next day it was supposed to be perfect, with clear skies, so we decided to book it in.

And we were stoked we did. Old mate Rayman the Austrian, came and picked us up from the hostel and drove us out to were we would be jumping from. We would be jumping from 1790m ASML, from a ridge that a chairlift took us to, and then off the side into the valley below (where all the towns are).

Raymond was a cool cat, and gave us all these facts about the area and paragliding, and his best student was supposed to be turning up in a bit to take the other one of us. Its a tandem jump sort of affair. So while we were waiting for old mate who was running a bit behind, Raymond was running Katie through everything, suiting her up in a jump suit, telling her to do this and that when they were in the air. Then Mardys bloke rocks up, doesn't say shit, don't put on a jump suit, just get in the harness and we were airborne in 2 minutes right after Katie and Raymond had taken off. And I'm not gonna lie it was fun, like, a lot of fun, you burn really close to the mountains. The valleys in the mountain side are where the hot air gather we were told, and thats what gives the parachute its lift, and you can feel it as you go over these valleys, a huge surge of air pulls you up; awesome feeling.

And we were very lucky that the weather held out, because we had some AMAZING views, it was a beautiful day and we were very glad we did it, and good thing too, as it would rain in town the next couple of days.

We then spent the next day relaxing, which was very much needed. And we googled the prices on stuff in Switzerland, and we were blown away by how expensive EVERYTHING is there, so we changed our plans, and decided to stay in Innsbruck till the last possible day and then head to Zurich, so we only had to spend one night there.

The rest of the time in Innsbruck we chilled out, went to a rockclimbing hall one day, and another day I decided to go up to another glacier called the "Hintertux glacier" to have a look at some ice caves they had there, while Katie just hung out in town. The lady in the email said that the Hintertux glacier was about 1.5 hours out of town. Well 3.5 hours later and after 2 buses and 2 trains, I still didn't make it there, because when it was raining in the city, it was hard out snowing like a blizzard up in the mountains, and they closed the road, so I had to head straight back. So I didn't get to see the glacier or any ice caves and spent the whole day on the road, but I did get to see the snow transform the landscape, it was an insane turnaround from how great the weather was when we went paragliding.

We did some shopping the next day, and caught the train the day after to Zurich.

We then did some shopping in massively overpriced Zurich, bought a Swiss army knife, and then got 2 beers at a local pub, which cost 12AUS DOLLARS EACH ARE YOU JOKING. Went back to the hostel were the beers were cheaper, found some other Australians and drank at the bar. As Katie said, we missed talking to other Australians.

We would be glad to leave Zurich, it is completely crazy how expensive everything is there. You can't even go to McDonalds on the cheap, as they have inflated prices. "Fuck Zurich" became our mantra.

And thus we boarded a plane to a bright light city that was going to set our soul on fire.

Not the best day to head up the glacier 

The space age chairlift was long and huge, took 40minutes to go up! 

Kev at the Stuby glacier 

At 3200m at the top of the glacier

Innsbruck - Austria, absolutely beautiful place

The chairlift that took us to where we went paragliding from

Katie suited up and Raymond giving her instruction on what to do in case of emergency (I'm assuming it was something along the lines of  making sure her tray table was stowed and her chair was in the upright position, because my dude didn't tell me shit)

Paragliding!! That's Katie off to the left, and yes the colours really are that amazing there

Katie

Mad tilt, overlooking the valley with the Stuby glacier in the distance

The parachute

Innsbruck city

The failed Hintertux Glacier exploration lead me into this blizzard

This all happened in a day! Perisher, eat your heart out

The view from our hostel, you can see the snow line just a few hundred meters up the mountains

On the train on the way to Zurich, picturesque Hilti factory. Not surprising I can't afford there drills in Australia, let alone anything in Switzerland