Having never really been to a mountain area other than the eastern Kentucky foothills and windy West Virginian motorways I was compleatly stunned and awed by the large crags surrounding Innsbruck. The scenery was grand with or without clouds on the mountaintops. After arriving late Thursday night (thank the lord that there was still a hotel employee to give us a room key) we started out early Friday by taking a quick train to a nearby village to go white water rafting. We have some pictures but they are hard copies so I will have to wait until we can get them scanned to share them with you. It was great fun though with some pretty good rapids. At one point we (7 of us in total including our guide) intentionally flipped the raft for a bit of fun and a rush. Those of us on the starbord side rushed to port and caused the raft to flip. It's worth noting at this point that the water (moving very fast and fresh from the mlountains) was about 41 degrees F. Even knowing this did not prepare me for the shock when I fell in. The strong water held me down for a bit longer than I expected but my life jacket soon brought me to the surface. Problem was that I can up underneath our overturned raft where there was luckily an air pocket. The shock of the frigid water caused a natural reaction for me to breath in deeply, bring some of the water in with the air. The cold water, disorientation, force of the current and realization that I was underneath the raft and not where I was supposed to be resulted in what I can describe as a few quick moments of panic. However, in a split-second I was able to grasp the situation and calm down, then make my way to the side of the raft where I could then pull myself out from underneath. We then got the raft flipped over the right way and helped each other back in. What a rush!
After rafting we cleaned off at our hotel and then headed out for some hiking on the nearby mountain. We took a cable-car up past the tree line to an altitude of about 2000 meters.
There was even a bit of glacier left from the winter snows.
Finally, a little bit from last week. On Wednesday the university held a "Cultural Evening" where all the students from the different countries studying in our summer program were encouraged to give a short presentation about their homeland. Also, each contry got a table at in the hall where we were supposed to provide samples of our native foods. It was really neat and I got to try Russian, Bulgarian and Croatian pastries, Czech beer, and Singaporian finger foods among other things. We represented the USA but chose to focus on our Commonwealth. Naturally our foods samples were Kentucky Fried Chicken and Four Roses Bourbon! I am proud to say that all our food was eaten and that they were all impressed with our bourbon, although it wasn't near as strong as the liquer the Bulgarians brought. Our Austrian hosts had a food table as well and it was very unique. The famous local sweats are these little "Mozart balls" which are chocolate-coated and filled with cream and marzipan and look a lot like bourbon balls. The variation that they provided us was the "Burning Mozart". They put one of these balls on a toothpick, dipped it in some 160 proof Austrian rum, then used a lighter to set it on fire beofre you put it in your mouth. As long as you closed your mouth quickly, so they said, they flame would entinguish and you would be safe with a tastey treat in your mouth. We all peer-pressured each other into having one. Here is the video:
It was fine and I didn't burn my mouth at all. However, as I was munching the candy I started to smell the immistakable smell of burning hair. Only after a friend pointed to some charred hairs on my upper lip did I realize that I'd charred some of my whiskers!
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