Reise (trip)

I am now in Dorfgastein, Austria, a little tiny dorf (town) with a little over a thousand people. It is in the middle of the Alps! It is so beautiful! Yesterday we went hiking in beautiful mountains! It was such a magnificent view below! Definitely should be on your list of things to do in your lifetime! It started pouring rain as we were on our way down, we were basically in the middle of the clouds, and right next to a thunder storm. It was a bit scary, but we made it down safely, and soaking wet!
We left Vienna on Tuesday early morning, and made our way to Hallstatt, but before that, we went to Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Wow! Powerful. That is all I gotta say. All those things I have learned in my history classes, just became so much more real.
We then made our way to Hallstatt, a little town in the center of the Alps, at least it felt like it. Huge mountains on all sides of us, with a lake in the middle. While we were there, we went into the largest Salt Mine in Europe! It was really neat to be in the middle of a mountain! A few of us rented a boat, and hung out in the middle of the lake for an hour. It was so relaxing! About ten of us jumped into the freezing lake at 10pm, a true polar bear slunge, in the middle of the Alps!! IT was really, really cold, but an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!
After Hallstatt, we stopped in Salzburg for two days. It was fun to see lots of the places where The Sound of Music was filmed! We have been singing lots of the songs form the musical this past week!
On our way here to Dorfgastein, we went into an Ice Cave, where it was 0 degrees celcius, but really awesome to see so much ice!! Again, it was cool to be in the middle of a mountain ( no pun intended ☺).
We will be here in Dorfgastein until Friday morning, where we will go bak to Vienna for a day, and then most of the group flies home on Satuday, the same day that Russell flies in!!! I am so excited that he is coming!!!!!!! I can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by!