Tauplitz

I have officially climbed my first mountain! Last Friday I took the train to Bad Mitterndorf (a town in Upper Austria) and got to see all the exchange students again. We also got to meet our "Oldies." They are the exchange students here from Australia, New Zealand, and a few of the South Americans. They came in February and will be leaving in January to go back home. Once we reached Bad Mitterndorf, we took a bus to the tiny village of Tauplitz up in the mountains. That night we had free time to chill and get to know each other better. The place we stayed at was like a bed and breakfast, except it held all 65 of us! However we were obviously the only guests for the weekend because who would want to stay there at the same time as 65 exchange students? The rooms were all different. Some held two people, some four, ours held 8, and there was another room that held 16. The girls in my room were Libbi (USA), Mia (USA), Jackie (Canada), Josie (USA), Chantel (Canada), Ellyn (Canada), and Raquel (Brazil). It was up on the fourth floor, which was also the top floor, and we had the most amazing view. Our side of the house looked towards the mountains and we even had a little fire escape that we called our balcony. It was a great place to hang our wet clothes and towels :) When you opened the door of the room there was a small little walkway that went about 10 feet until you reached the wall. On either side there were low shelf/bench things. And on the other side of these were two full size mattresses lying on the floor on each side. At first we were kinda like, "What the hell?" "We're sleeping here?" But we definitely had the best deal because our room was amazingly warm at night and we had more space than we originally thought that we would. Saturday morning we woke up at 7:00 in order to eat breakfast and get ready for our intense hiking trip. We left the hotel/house place at 8:15 and made our way to the foot of the mountain. It took us about 3hours to reach the top of the mountain, but that included a lunch break in the middle. Apparently when you climb a mountain in Austria, everyone says "Berg Heil!" once you reach the top. Don't ask me what it means though. When we got to the top there was a book in a metal box that everyone signs with their name, where they live, what time they reached the top, and on which day. My official time was 11:29 am! Going back down was kind of dangerous due to all the loose rocks and uneven footing, but somehow we still managed to cut the time down by an hour! I think part of the reason was that the majority of the people in my group REALLY wanted some warm food and a couple of the people needed a restroom like crazy. When we made it back to the hotel, Jackie, Josie, and I awarded ourselves by splitting a pizza. Then topped it off with some ice cream! After we relaxed for a while Kieran (New Zealand), Jackie (Canada), Brynn (Canada), Ben (Canada), Nolan (USA), Sebastian (Australia), and I all walked to the small town to see what we could find. Not much. That night after dinner the Rotarians took us on a "night hike." Really though we just walked down to a local pub/restaurant that had a dance hall in the back. It was so much fun because on the way there we were all given torches to hold and it was really cool to turn back and see a long line of fire walking down the windy mountain road. The dance was fun and we all had a great time. Our curfew kind of disappeared that night so everyone was hanging out that night, so long as we didn't wake the family that owned the hotel. The next morning we got up early to have breakfast and pack. I couldn't sleep very well so at 6:00 I decided it was time to take a shower. It cost 1 euro to get hot water for 6 minutes and I didn't have any money so I was contemplating taking an ice cold shower. Luckily I decided to check for hot water first, just in case. I had the most amazing hot shower for a good 15 minutes. Just because it was too cold to get out... We left Tauplitz at one that afternoon to catch our trains back home.