I might have one big regret on my trip through Europe, but luckily it's one that can be corrected with a future trip :) I spent too little time in Austria. Austria was so far, the most spectacular country I've ever seen. It's mountains rival the best parts of the Rockies and I hope someday to take a trip back and spend a lot of time in Austria. This trip however, the weather has not been cooperating. My legs were also killing me from an awesome hike through the Julian Alps in Slovenia...so I decided to move on past Austria. Luckily, I had a beautiful view of the entire southern part of the country from the train. I was sitting on the floor in the cargo car next to my bicycle and the conductor was nice enough to offer to me to sit in first class for free. The car had panoramic views of the mountains and I had a show and a half through the valleys of southern Austria.
I met some really great people in Slovenia at a campsite on Lake Bohinj. They have this website address, so hopefully we'll get a comment from all of them sometime! But basically, I spent two nights just hanging out and talking with a group of really nice and down to earth people. There were two girls from the UK whom I think are now heading to Croatia or Bosnia? because of the weather. One girl is a nurse in the northern part of England, the other works for her local government in the south of England. Also, there were two serious survivalists. Well one hardcore survivalist and one hardcore survivalist in training. We're talking eating plants in the woods for sustenance and medicine and fabricating all primitive tools from nature. Something I have always dreamed about... but after thinking about this for the past week almost non-stop, I am certain that I could never live in the woods for more than a few months. I miss the Comforts of home too much and I enjoy spending my days with my friends and family too much to disappear for more than a short while. And if you're reading this, you win haha it's definitely comforts over risks of losing money. I would miss the comfort of home.
In any case, my time at camp Bohinj was awesome and I feel very lucky to have met such wonderful people.
Camp Bohinj was pretty much the camp you hope to find when you are traveling through a strange mountainous country. It was also sort of similar to the campground from wet hot american summer haha. In any case, if anyone is ever in Slovenia, this is the place to go. They only charged me 10 euros per night and the nights I was hiking, they said I could leave all of my things at the campsite and they would not charge me. In addition, the caretakers and camp staff were very kind, helpful, friendly, etc. You couldn't really ask for a better place. There was one female staffer in particular, I never got her name, but she loves the mountain I climbed and she told me that she was surprised and excited for me because I picked a mountain that is just as nice as the big tourist mountain (Triglav), almost as big, and has the same views, but it's a much easier/nicer hike. I hope sometime I can go back there to climb it again to the top with proper equipment and planning.
I stayed in the camp for two nights, then took my big hike. It was probably the hardest climb of my life I'd say, though it was about equivalent to my most difficult hikes in the White mountains, just a lot steeper. I'm going to post a separate blog in a few minutes to document the hike. Hope all is well with everyone reading this and I hope to talk to you all soon.
Update - My internet connection is really working poorly, so I'll post the hiking blog as soon as I can.