We had mass down in the little town church this morning. It was led by our chaplain and he had a nice eulogy, blending the mass of the Holy Spirit and the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Since today was Sunday, all we had planned was a hike in the nearby Hornle Mountains. From what we had heard, there was going to be an easy, medium and hard option. The easy was rumored to be a gondola ride to the top of the mountain (true). The medium was supposed to be a nice trail hike to the top of the mountain (false). And the hard was supposed to be a normal, off trail hike (also false).
Audrey, Erin, Michelle, Christina, Nina, Jo, and I decided we would adventure on the medium hike. Allie and Gabby went on the hard hike. And we all made fun of Jaclyn and Felicia for going on the easy one. At the beginning, it seemed like our hike was going to be a nice afternoon hike. It was supposed to take an hour and a half to get to the top and that seemed good and fine for all of us. An hour into it we come to a stop at the bottom of this gigantic hill. It was literally almost a 90 degree angle. It took us awhile, but everyone got up it. Then we stopped again, this time on one side of a corner. A few other hikers passed us and this old guy stopped and started talking to us. After he asked us if we wanted to meet him for drinks later, he told us that we were only 15 minutes from the top, and the rest of the way there wasn’t nearly as steep as what we had just gone up. We believed him. We turned around that corner and saw another gigantic hill, that didn’t look like it stopped inclining for a while. I’m pretty sure we complained the entire way up. When that finally leveled off, we could see the top. It was one more 90 degree angle hill away. At that, about half of the group sat in the grass and refused to go any farther. Our 18 year old guide managed to convince us to climb the rest of the way, and after what seemed like an hour, we were finally at the top of this mountain looking down at the most gorgeous view.
I have never seen a restaurant on top of a mountain, but apparently that’s how they do things here in the Alps. We decided water and ice cream was greatly needed, so we grabbed a booth inside. There were two young gentlemen chilling in lederhosen across the restaurant when we got there. It didn’t take long for them to drag up two chairs and join our group. One was Dominico and he looked like 18, but was apparently 22, and was very friendly. He spent most of the time trying to get Amanda to meet him at a bar later for drinks. He had very, very, very minimal English and obviously we know no German… but somehow we managed to have some fun, interesting conversations- the most English he spoke at one time was to call our group ‘treasures on top of the mountain.’ What a ladies man. As we were getting ready to leave, he kept reminding us to meet him at our hotel bar after dinner. Turns out he and some of his friends did actually show up, but we were all off downtown doing other things so we had no idea. It wasn’t until we got back and found Connor a little tipsy in the lobby that we found out he had met our friends and spent the evening drinking with them since none of us showed up.
Our legs would have killed us if we tried to go back down the mountain, so we decided to take the scenic gondola back to the bottom. Best decision, and 3 euros, we have ever made. The view from the top was amazing, but riding down the mountain was even better. The countryside here is so picturesque, and with the sun out and not a cloud in the sky, it was the most gorgeous day.
We ventured into town when we got back in search of some lunch, and ran into a cute little Italian place. The caprese salad and pizza was delicious. Since it was Sunday not many other places were open, so after exploring a while longer, we headed back up the hill. On the way we were stopped by three little boys herding cattle. The littlest one was in charge of getting the cows out of the pasture, and he had managed to get all of them but one out when we showed up. This one cow was giving him a terrible time, and it at first looked like he had finally gotten the cow out of the enclosure, only for the cow to run into the woods right next to the road. The poor kid started crying and running after the cow¸ but got discouraged pretty quickly. One of his brothers came and found the cow for him, and although we were standing on the side of the road, when the cow came out of the forest it looked like it was going to run us over. Thank god it turned and headed up the hill. We followed the cows, and the boys, all the way up the hill. They were so cute in their little matching outfits we couldn’t help but take a few pictures.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Some of the girls went to the hotel bar and hung out, the rest of us were just too tired. I took a shower and was in bed by 10:30PM. I have no regrets. Tomorrow we may, or may not, go to Austria. It’s optional because the bus ride is 4 hours each way, but we will see in the morning.
Sunday, September 11th
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