Mountains – Kelsi's Travel Times

Time off in Austria

The view from the top of the ski hill that I live beside

In my last post I gave a little update on what my Christmas and New Years plans were going to look like as far as I knew. I was still waiting on a Visa to stay in country and waiting to hear more about whether or not our season would be able to go forward. Since then I have gotten my visa which is great because it gives me lot more freedom to leave when/if I want to, but things regarding my job here are still a bit uncertain as the restrictions in Germany and Austria remain in place. This means that we can’t start our programs yet and probably can’t for awhile yet and so I’m currently on the fence about whether it’s the best thing for me to stay here and keep waiting, or if I should just head home when it’s possible.

I’ll post another update when I get that all figured out, but for now I mostly want to just tell a bit about my last few weeks and show some cool pictures of the area where I’ve been living for the last while.

Most of my crew for the last month. Zach and Bree (from canada) and Merr (from Romania) On a walk up in the mountains on my birthday.

Christmas this year was a bit different to how I would have normally spent Christmas if I was at home, but I guess in some ways it also held some similarities to the last two Christmases that I also spent away from home. I was able to spend Christmas with a family that lives here in Schladming that I know because they work at the school here. With their four kids and a mix of German and American traditions, it definitely felt a bit more like home. My family usually celebrates with a mix of traditions as well so lots of the things that they did (for example, opening gifts on Christmas Eve) were very familiar to me. On Christmas morning we had sweet rolls (like a different version of cinnamon buns) and homemade eggnog which was delicious. After breakfast the rest of the morning was spent just playing games with the kids and chatting and such. It was relaxed but wonderful to spend Christmas with a family.

The days between Christmas and New Years were good as well. I had my first few ski days which were really fun and an awesome way to pass some of this endless free time. On New Years Eve I celebrated my twentieth birthday with pancakes, pizza, friends and a beautiful walk up in the mountains. Definitely the most low key birthday I’ve had in awhile but it was really enjoyable nonetheless. We ended the year off by watching a movie until midnight and then watching fireworks from our balcony. It’s a perfect vantage point because the main building here is one of the tallest in the area and has a wrap around balcony that allowed us to see fireworks all over the city which was super cool! My friend Mira also came to visit on New Years Eve and she’s been here since then. I’ve really enjoyed having a roommate again and the constant company that she’s provided!

Mira and I on the top of Planai (the ski hill)

The days since New Years have been a very relaxed cycle of skiing, reading, going on walks and playing a lot of games. There are currently five of us living at the center which isn’t much but it is nice to have a little bit of company. Other than those activities we haven’t done much because everything is still closed. We’ve been to church in Salzburg on Sundays and this last week we went to an open air Skating rink while we were in the city which was really nice!

This is the daughter of a family who lives on campus and she’s been my little pal these last couple weeks! Skating in Salzburg.

Ski day with Mira. The clouds were so cool in the valley, it looked like you could just ski off the edge of the mountain and continue right onto the clouds.

A lot of people that I’ve talked to lately have been pretty curious about how skiing here works since everything else is closed. It is also interesting to me that skiing is something that the government considers necessary to be open but I’m definitely not complaining. There are restrictions with how many people can be on a hill at a time, but with the lack of tourists here they’ve never reached capacity. You also have to wear a medical grade mask in the lifts, lift stations, gondola, bathrooms and anytime you’re waiting in life. They are really strict about enforcing it which is really good to see. Those are the main two things that allow them to keep the lifts open but I guess it does make sense to me that they can stay open because it’s really easy to social distance while skiing and it’s really nice for locals to have something to do during this quarantine time. I know I’m definitely taking advantage of this!

Mira and I on Reiteralm, which is 2 ski hills over. We went there to watch the world cup ski cross races happening there on January 9th and 10th.

So for the most part that’s what I’ve been up to lately, and just trying to get things figured out as whether I’m gonna stay here or head home. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this small update about my last bit of time here. I also want to put some pictures in here of the town of Schladming where I’ve been living for the last while, so if you’re interested to see what an Austrian tourist town looks like, then keep scrolling!

This is a picture of one of the more expensive hotels in Schladming, how it looks from the valley.

This is the lecture hall here on the Tauernhof campus.

A view from the valley of one of the ski hills, Hochwurzen which we can see from the school.

One of the main streets in Schladming leading to the square.

The white church is one of the two old church buildings in Schladming

This picture I think needs some explanation. So these are called Krampus and basically it’s just people dressed up who run around in the beginning of December with bells and whips in the town squares. They legitimately chase you and smack you with branches or whips if you get too close. They wear bells so you can hear them coming. It’s actually terrifying to be anywhere in town when you know they are there but the local kids think it’s really funny to hang around and get chased by them, so to each his own I guess.

A sunset view of Schladming from the climbing tower on campus here.

A view from a popular walking trail beside Schladming

Still in Austria?

It’s been a hot minute since I last sent out any updates, so here’s a small part of what I’ve been up to the last while!

My last few months have been eventful to say the least. With a busy bible school schedule and adapting to new Covid rules, it’s been a pretty unpredictable the whole time. The first 6 weeks after having my appendix out had to be pretty lowkey because I couldn’t do anything too strenuous, but since then I have been able to do more normal things again which has been really nice.

Our schedule had to change a bit when Covid regulations got tighter here, for example we couldn’t have any guest speakers coming into the school anymore, and a community curfew affected certain activities that we could do in the evenings. But overall it was super cool that we could continue with our programs for the most part unchanged, because most of the other hotel/retreat center facilities in our part of Austria had to close. We also had to be a lot more careful about wearing masks during work and when we came in contact with anyone outside the “bubble” of our school.

So for the most part I just want to tell about a few different activities and hikes that we’ve done in the last few weeks with some photos included. I could also tell more about work and stuff, but none of that has changed too much except with a few new rules, so I decided to stick to the few things that are likely to be a bit more interesting.

The first really active thing that I did after getting my appendix out was a walk/ hike up to a waterfall with my friends Johann and Emma. It was about three hours up to the top, more of a long walk then a hike, and really fun because we were just chatting the whole time and it was really great to finally do something active! When we started walking it was super sunny, but once we got a bit higher up we were in the shade behind the mountains so at some point it was pretty cold and frosty, but it definitely made for some cool pictures!

There are some parts of the valley that never get any sun during this part of the year so there was really thick frost in a lot of places

Once we got up to the top we stayed up there for awhile and had some lunch and admired the waterfalls, it was freezing up there but luckily we could get a ride back down to the school from one of the staff. It was overall a super fun day!

You can’t see the whole waterfall but it was really beautiful!

A few weekends later we went on a different hike, one that I’ve been on before with another friend of mine. It was definitely a bit more difficult than the last one, but still super enjoyable so I’ll put some pictures in here, it was such a beautiful day!

Have to be a little bit Canadian and build inukshuks when I find flat rocks!!

We spent a lot of time at the top trying to walk up this creek without cracking the ice, it was slippery but very fun!

Next adventure type thing that we did was take a day trip to Salzburg. We went as a group of five people and just walked around the city for most of the day, walking to see a bunch of the different tourist spots in the city and just admiring the old architecture and seeing a few different things. Mostly everything was closed because of Covid but we could still go into a few churches and old buildings which was really cool. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Austria for so long and living so close to Salzburg and I’d never really spent much time there until now, but at least I got there eventually and could enjoy spending the day there with my friends! I could try to write some more details about our day, but since pretty much everything was closed, I think our day in Salzburg would be best told in pictures. So here’s a bunch of pictures from our day , most of them were taken by my friend Emma with her Camera so they are actually nice!

These are the Bastions Gardens outside the Mirabell Palace. It’s really beautiful, they still have flowers even though these were taken in December!

A super cool view of the Castle taken from one of the many bridges in the city that crosses the Salzach River.

This is the group I was in Salzburg with: Ruth, Emma, Mikayla, Johann and I

The Hohensalzburg (upper Salzburg) Fortress. Unfortunately it’s closed right now because of Covid but it’s still beautiful and you can see it from a lot of different places in the downtown of the city!

Pictures definitely do not do it justice but this is inside the cathedral, there were so many beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. One of my favourite things to do in older cities is visit old churches so this was super cool for me!

In the summer this is a pretty cool fountain, but it was pretty frozen while we were there. The paintings are still cool though!

Even though there aren’t Christmas markets this year because of Covid, I thought it was pretty cool that they still put up the Christmas decorations throughout the city!

So those were the more exciting events of my last few months here. Despite all the previous and new Covid restrictions it’s amazing that we could still run our Bible school and that I could be here! It’s really crazy to me that this fall season here is already at an end, I feel like it flew by, but I’m also looking forward to what will come next even though I have pretty much no idea what that will be for me.

Trying to figure that out is slightly more complicated. When I first came to Austria my plan was to stay here one year, and since I started here last December that usually would have meant that I was home by now. But mid November I was asked to stay on staff here, and since I didn’t have plans as to what to do when I came home, I decided to say yes and stay here until this April. Things since then have gotten more and more complicated. At first I had planned to still go home for Christmas, but due to cancelled flights and difficulty rebooking I figured it would just be easier for me to stay here or stay in Germany with a friend of mine.

After those plans fell through the Austrian government decided to keep borders closed to winter tourism until January 10th which would meant that I would have to stay in Austria because of the closed borders. Then last week they extended the closure again until January 24th, so I was planning to figure out a way to go to Germany to be with friends. But my visa expired on the 17th of December (which I didn’t really take into account), and so I can’t travel out of the country until I get my visa renewal, which is still in the process.

So long story short, I’m stuck in Austria for at least the next few weeks until I get my visa. Kinda unfortunate to be here over Christmas but there is a few people here that I can spend a bit of time with so I’m thankful for that! It’s also kinda cool to have so much time to myself during this season. This time alone has already given me a lot of opportunity to process these last months and this year in general, and the quietness of this Christmas season has also been a reminder to me of what this season is really about. I think taking the busyness and stress out of this season will definitely be a change for a lot of people – myself included – but it’s a good way to force us to focus on simplifying things for ourselves this year, and I really do think that is a good thing!

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little update about my last few months. If you have any suggestions of how I should occupy my next five weeks of what will essentially be a lot of me time, please let me know! I’ll obviously have a lot of free time so if you want to call me or send me an email, feel free! I’d love to hear from you.

Merry Christmas!

Hiking Photos

These last weeks have been pretty busy for me so much like with my previous post I’m just going to load some pictures from a couple of hikes that I’ve done with friends to give you an idea of what it looks like a bit more here in Austria!

#1 : To Duisitzkarsee

This was a small hike that I took with a friend of mine from my Bible school in Sweden, Rahel. This hike was about a 20 minute drive outside of Schladming where we both live right now. It was pretty chill and the view at the top was so beautiful!

The path up to the lake often went back and forth zigzagging through this waterfall which was really beautiful and so cool!

Our final destination with a beautiful view of the lake and surrounding mountains

#2 Scheichenspitze

This was a longer and more challenging hike that I did with four coworkers of mine. In total it took us about 6 hours from start to finish and the peak is at a height of 2667 m. You better believe it’s pretty hard to breathe at the top. We left for the hike around 6:30 in the morning, below the cloud line it was still a bit dark but as soon as we passed above the clouds it was so light!

You can’t see in this photo the place that we started our hike because it’s below the cloud line but this was taken after about a half hour of walking

Finally made it to the peak in somewhere around the 3 1/2 hour mark I think. Crystal, me and Amelie.

At the peak of most of these big hikes there is a cross. You can actually see this cross from Schladming down in the valley on a really clear day. But like, that view though!

Paul, Johann, me and Amelie representing that we are indeed all working at Tauernhof while admiring the view of the surrounding mountains. We actually were super fortunate with the weather on this hike. Though it was cold at the top I actually got a bit sunburnt throughout the day. We ended up being really glad that we went on that particular weekend because it snowed the weekend after and that would have made it impossible for us to do it without more equipment.

Starting the harder part of the decent. We basically spent 2 hours sliding down rock fields which is actually really really fun. The only downside is that my feet were so so sore by this point because I was wearing hiking shoes that didn’t fit me very well. (My good hikers are still in Canada because I’m dumb) You can kind of see the chain near the bottom of the picture that you can hold to help stabilize you on this first really steep part of the route, though it’s actually there more to help people climbing up than people going down.

We hiked down to the bottom of this ravine and then a bit further. The clearing that you can see in the middleish right side of the picture is kinda near where we ended our hike. The actual place would be a bit more to the right side, a bit further down from the clearing, behind the peak on the right. It took us about 2.5 hours to get down.

By the end of this hike we were all just wiped. We ended at the Gondola station for the Dachstein mountain where we ate traditional Austrian Kaiserschmarn for lunch around 1:30 and were picked up by friends!

If you look up to the 3 mountains in the top of this picture, the left most peak is Scheichenspitze which is where we hiked to. Because of the bad photo quality you can’t see the cross but I could see it very faintly when I took this photo. We started from a bit higher up so not right in the bottom of the valley but it was still quite a long ways .

Adventure Photos

Since being back in Austria I’ve taken 2 different day trips. Since it would take a really long time to write all the details about each one, I’ll just share photos from each of the days that will give you an accurate picture of what each day was all about!

Adventure #1 : Day in Hallstatt, Austria

Hallstatt is a small picturesque town about an hours drive from Tauernhof. I went there for a day with my friend Johann on one of our days off and it was super fun!

This is probably the most famous view of Hallstatt, it’s where all the tourist (us included) stop and take pictures and it’s the picture that’s on like every post card

Something that I found was really cool in the town is that most of the houses are painted bright colours and they nearly all have really great flower gardens in the front or huge garden boxes on the sides of their balconies which makes everything look so beautiful

Of course we have to goof off a bit so we tried on some funny hats and sunglasses at a little tourist shop off a side street

This is the main square of the town. We were really fortunate to be there on a day where there were really minimal tourists so it was really nice and quiet on the streets, even right in the middle of the town.

Being typical tourists at the popular viewpoint overlooking the town

This picture shows really well how the town is really built into the side of the mountain. So there are actually very few streets where you can drive in this part of the town because it is built so narrowly into the side of the mountain

So we spent the first part of the day until about 2:00 in Hallstatt, just walking through the streets and enjoying the view. By the time the afternoon came we had pretty much been through the town, (it isn’t very big) so we decided that we would use the rest of the day to find a lake within driving distance where we could go swimming.

The picture below is a lake about 20 minutes away from Hallstatt and we literally just searched for lakes on google maps until we found the closest one. We decided not to swim in the lake in Hallstatt because there were a lot of boats there and though there weren’t a ton of tourists there were still some so we wanted to find somewhere a bit quieter and more chill.

This lake was near the town of Bad Aussee, I’m not sure exactly sure where but it was in such a beautiful place. The picture absolutely does not do it justice because the whole area surrounding the lake was really beautiful. We swam out to the little dock that you can see in the bottom right side of the picture. The water was really really cold but luckily it was a warm day so you warmed up pretty much as soon as you got out of the water.

After a few hours of hanging out at that little beach we drove back to the school which was also a really nice drive through the Austrian mountains which are so green at this time of the year.

A picture taken from the car window which is why you can kinda see my reflection. But just focus on the beautiful mountain behind it 🙂

Adventure #2: Day trip to Venice

So this was probably our craziest idea because we literally planned it the day before. Venice is about a 4 hour drive from where we live so it was a really long day but totally worth it I think. I’ve wanted to go to Venice for a really long time. If you’d asked me for the last few years “what’s one place you’ve always wanted to go?” My answer would have been Venice. Now I guess I have to find a new answer to that question. I drove there with 4 of my co-workers and though it was really hot in Italy we had a good time there!

My co-workers that I went with: Crystal, Simon , Johann, Me and Hanna

This photo is from a little bit later in the day. The light got quite soft and pink and made for some really good pictures of the bigger, more open canals.

Of course there are no cars in Venice which leads me to wonder if there is gas stations for filling up your boat?

We passed this Canal on our way to find St. Marks square in the middle of the city.

Right as I was taking this picture there was a boat passing under the bridge that had a wedding party in it so everyone on the bridge was yelling and cheering.

Me, Crystal and Hanna right before we left the city in the evening

The Sunset light was so beautiful and makes all the buildings just glow in the craziest way because of the reflection off the water. It’s the coolest thing.

We left the city around 8:00 because we still had a 40 minute walk back to our car and then a 4 hour drive home. It was so cool to finally get to see Venice even if it was only for a day, I definitely want to go back there sometime when I can spend a few days there and see more of the city at a more relaxed pace. It’s a really unique place.

So those are a few pictures from my most recent day trips. Some thing that I LOVE about living in Europe is how close you are to so many cool different places. It gives such a unique option so see a lot of places even if you don’t have so much time or like me are fitting it into days off around a specific schedule. I’m excited to see where the next few months will take me!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and as always feel free to send me a text on Facebook or whatsapp or send me an email if you want to know more about my time here in Austria.