The Big Hike (TBH), taking me from Vienna to Mariazell and on to Graz, will start on September 4th, 2012.
Two rooms have been preordered already. The rest will be arranged on the go.
Things to do:
I’m getting VERY excited now 🙂
Tuesday, August 14th: this was by far the coolest day working at the Zoo so far!
Why?
Easy. I could watch the film crew shooting a new episode of TOM TURBO, a series I loved to watch when I was a child. I remember going home with my best friend, Isabel, after school to watch the latest episode, spellbound by the newest adventures by children our age and a high-tech talking bike that can do awesome tricks.
Somehow I seemed to be the only one of my colleagues to be this intrigued by our “VIB” – but I did see some people who had asked if they could have a picture taken of themselves and the bike who were totally freaked out to have that possibility. They were my age 🙂
As TOM TURBO’s garage is located at the Zoo (after the main entrance, turn right, pass the Terrarium/Aquarium house, it’s on the right side), there’s also a life size TOM TURBO to be found there all year round. No wonder I already have a picture of me with him, right? I even used it as my profile picture on CS for some time 😉
Of course I think Couchsurfing is awesome! But still, it’s not perfect … read about one reason why I think so on the new page “Your opinion please!”
If I were superstitiuous, I might not even have left the bed: a cramp in my right calve woke me up in the dead of night and could be interpreted as a bad omen.
Missing the bus, then being dropped off at a substitute stop somewhere I’ve never been, could also stop some people from trying to walk 24 km with a 7 kg backpack. But I wanted to do it!
So after our group was finally complete, we set off to hike from Rodaun to Altes Landgut. I didn’t feel good from the start, most likely from the night-time cramp. But also all the muscles down my back, not being used to the weight of the backpack, started to ache. It was really hot, and after one hour, I decided to have a break. Another hour and a bit later, shortly before Altes Landgut, we arrived at a Rastplatz with a fountain and nice picknick tables in the shadow, and settled down for our lunch break. At this point, Ben, who had joined me for a couple of walks already, said something that made my decision for the rest of the day clear: “I’ve never seen you so tired during a hike yet”.
That was the point where I personally decided to skip the second hike that was planned for the day. 12 km with the pack were definitely enough for me – at least that day.
And it turned out to be a good idea: after arriving back home, I put down my pack, sat down on the couch, and slept for 10 minutes. After that, I took off my shoes, and slept for another 20 minutes. After that, I finally made it to my bed to sleep another 3 hours. And only after that did I feel good enough to take a shower.
Next try: Stadtwanderweg 8 at Sofienalpe, about 11 km, which will mean about 3 hours walking time. I will bring my backpack again, this time not as heavy.
I know I can do it.
Stadtwanderweg 2 seemed to be more interesting for others than 1 and 1a. Or did they like the weatherforecast more? Anyways, a handful of people signed up for the event, and they even showed. Just like before, it was not always easy to find the route due to the strange placing of signs: they’re never where you need them. If there is a crossing of 2 or more routes, and you’re not sure which to take, when you just started, and have no idea in which direction to go, be sure there won’t be a sign. If there is only a joining of routes, or not even a forking anywhere to be seen, there will be a sign. And with any luck, it will point in the right direction, and only in that direction. It won’t point in between two routes, it will be intelligible, and will leave no unasked question unanswered.
Of course, we again took shortcuts (unintended, as always), and once or twice took the long way around. Still, we always managed to keep our walking time under the time stated in the information brochures.
As the last Stadtwanderweg, number 9, runs through Prater, I decided to skip that one. Prater is a great area, and I’m sure the route is nice, but I prefer to go (and also to move around) there by bike. So after Stadtwanderweg 7 (happening today), which will feature also a pre-hike hike from Rodaun to Altes Landgut, and number 8 (next week, at Sofienalpe), I will start to walk parts of the Rundumadum trail that goes all the way around Vienna. After walking 10-14 km every time until now, I want to get closer to the “real thing”, and hike 20-25 km per day.
To prepare for the long walk to Graz in September, I decided to do some hiking around Vienna. The city’s administration maintains 11 routes called “Stadtwanderwege” (city hiking trails), which are circle routes starting and ending at the same points and can be finished within 3-4 hours each, and 5 routes that consist of multiple stages each. In sum, the city offers about 500 km of hiking trails of easy and medium difficulty.
I did not have any preferences concerning the hiking routes or their areas, so I just decided to check them off according to their numbers, starting of course with number 1 – on the hottest day in June.
Although I had set up a meeting on Couchsurfing, and although I had announced it early enough, nobody joined me – I guess it was because of the weather reports. For once they were completely right …
When I started at 8 am, it was already damn hot. Still, I managed to finish the hike, without taking too many breaks, in under 3 hours. To be completely honest, I took an unintended short-cut somewhere, but only noticed that when I was back on the right track again. I had a great view from Kahlenberg down onto the city, and managed to walk by at least 3 geocache hideouts without remembering to check the app. The way back through the vineyards of Kahlenberg was also nice, but totally exposed to the sun…
The next hike, 3 days later, was number 1a, which shares some parts same with number 1. On this hike too, nobody joined me. One person had signed up for the event, but canceled last-minute – again due to the weather 🙂  I took this opportunity to make up for the shortcut I had taken before and this time took the long way around. The ascent to Leopoldsberg was incredibly exhausting – due to the rain in the morning, and the rapidly raising temperature, I felt like walking in a sauna. For my efforts, I was rewarded with great views on Kahlenbergerdorf and Vienna. With breaks, this hike took me 4 hours.
I’ve given this quite some thought: What should I do in September, when I will have at least 2 weeks of holidays? No university, no work. I do want to do SOMETHING.
So I thought about going to Bretagne or Normandie.
I thought about traveling to England.
I thought about visiting Denmark.
And then, without much thinking, an interesting idea popped up in my head: What about a hike? Not just your average one day, 5 hours, hike. A hike with a real start and a real end. Two different cities. Two different regions of Austria, even. At first, I thoght about St. James’ Way. There are two variations of it in Austria: the Western Way, from Vienna via Salzburg to Innsbruck and on towards Spain, and the Southern Way, from Graz via Klagenfurt to Innsbruck and on. This of course posed the question: how would I get to Graz?
I will walk the Via Sacra, from Mödling (just outside the city of Vienna), in Lower Austria, to Mariazell, in Styria. From there, the Mariazeller Weg, on to Graz.
According to the Tourism Associations of the regions, each part will take about 5 days of “not too hard hiking”. So it will be 10 days of walking, plus one day of relaxing in Mariazell, and one or two days in Graz.
I’m SO excited about it!
If yes, go check out ifoundyourcamera.net. After partaking in the PostSecret project, a guy from Canada started his own thing: A website where he publishes pictures from lost cameras and memory cards. The idea is of course simple: if enough people look through these pictures, one of them might recognize someone on the picture, and thus the camera (or memory card) could be returned to its rightful owner.
If you did not lose your camera, consider yourself lucky. But go to the website, nontheless! you might be one of the people to recognize somebody or help finding out where a picture was taken. Georg and I, for example, could tell them where the three pictures of this post were taken. One of them was even taken in Innsbruck! The camera by the way already made its way back to its owners thanks to the editor of a local newspaper (first comment to the blog post).
And if you found a camera but until now did not know how you could possibly find the owner – here’s how to take part in ifoundyourcamera.net.
I have big plans for September. Details will be published regularly here 🙂
As a first “leak”, check out this activity I started on Couchsurfing. Also if you’re not registered on Couchsurfing, you’ll be able to see the content.
If you want to join me on one of these hikes, just send me an email or post a comment here. I will update the meeting available at the posted link with all upcoming dates.
The plan is to just work through the list from 1 to 9, including the variations 1a and 4a. I might not get through with them all because of my plans for September, but we’ll see. Once or twice I will also try to “check off” two at a time, but that will be announced on the meeting page – and I guess, also here.
I’m moving. Again. Since I moved to Vienna in November 2008, I have lived in 3 flats (including the current one). As our landlady needs the flat, our contract has expired and we have to leave by the end of August.
Everytime I move, I get pretty excited rather soon. This means that I already wanted to start looking for a flat in, like, March. But as nobody is as crazy as me, there are no offers for flats half a year in advance. So I had to wait. Until May came around, and I could finally start looking. I wrote a dozen emails, and even got some answers. I went to look at a couple of flats (and room mates, for that matter), but did not find anything fitting my needs, purse, and schedule.
Until Thursday, during Vienna Calling, at the Summer Nights Concert. I started talking with Stefan, a guy I got to know at the last Winter Camp (rumour has it I met him before, but I only recall Winter Camp to be our first encounter). And as life is funny, and the Lord moves in mysterious ways and so on, Stefan actually was looking for a room mate. I say WAS, because he’s not looking any more.
Because I’M moving in with him 🙂
So now I’m packing. Because hey, it’s only about two months to go. And I like to pack my stuff, to see what I have hidden away in all the dark corners of my room, and then get rid of some of those things.
Yay 🙂