A New Offense

Our first night in Innsbruck, Austria was a different slice of life that Im not used to. Saturday was our first night in Austria and we are in a city called Innsbruck. Great city, mid sized but has hosted two winter olympics. Jays dad studied abroad there for a whole year so we figured we could give a few days worth of our time. So we get to our hostel and get our bearings strait. We grab some grub and some beer and let the night begin. I got a decent buzz as we headed out to the main downtown area to see how the austrians spend their Saturday nights.

We see a Guiness sign and decide to head into this pub. We walk in and order two pints and quickly realize that we had brought the average age in the place down by about 10 years which isnt always reassuring. Also the bartender had an Irish accent. When you're (first ' I've used in my blog so far, I think, bear with me) expecting to hear German and you get an Irish accent it throws you off a bit like a little reverse pitching. So I got a stool while Jay went to the head. He comes back and tells me of a live band downstairs. So we head downstairs and thats where all the cool kids were at. Downstairs is like a different bar. After walking in I realized a few things. The Aryan race is still alive and so is the side part. The band was a Beetles cover band. Im not the biggest Beetles fan in the world, in fact I don't like them at all, but I know their stuff and I know they are very talented. So these kids did a decent job but the German accents didn't do them much justice. So we had our pints and left for the mainstrip we found earlier in the day.

We found a studnet bar \ beer garden but it looked lame so kept walking. What didnt look lame was the Goth Rock 80's Techno Underground Club we found. We walked in and immeditely got a chuckle from the bouncer. We paid a small cover and walked in and instantly got some interesting looks. First off, Jay was wearing a bright yellow shirt which doesnt fit in really with the whole Goth theme. I luckily decided to wear my black Sockeye jersey, thanks Mike, and so I kind of fit in. We got some beers and just started talking about how crazy of a place we were in and what kind of experience it would be. We could talk freely in English cuy no one could here us or probably understand what we were saying. The music was good in our opinion but no one dancing excpet this one dude. Kind of reminded me of the time Carrie, Adrie, Hill, Nate and myself saw Tiesto. Then some more people who really didnt fit in wondered down the stairs to our lovely hidden gem. We cheersed them as we all recongnized the choice we made. Then some local ladies wondered down and they were whatever. Tough to speak with them although they spoke above avg English. We talked about basic stuff and their schooling and what not I wasnt too interested. Then the lady I was talking to started smoking and that was a game over.

So being a bit drunk and disinterested I started to dance. I figured I'd never see any of these people again and the DJ was good so I started bustin some moves pretty much by myself. Im not going to lie I was lookin pretty good out there, and I was having a good time. After that the people who intended to be at the bar started dancin a bit more and thats when I got my cue to leave. I mean I enjoy critizing their look and watching from a distance but its not my scene. So Jay and I left knowing that the next day would be a bit of an adventure.

We didnt know exactly where we were going to stay the next night cuz Inssbruck was all booked up minus a few 5 star hotels, but we aint that cool. So we knew of a few campgrounds but didnt know how to get there. So next morning we jump out of bed at 8 am to start the day. And by jump I mean limp. Regardless we get a good start to our day and figure that the campgrounds arent too far away so that was a big relief. We toured around all day and saw some pretty cool shit. The mountains are really close so we hiked around for most of the day. We really wanted to take a Chairlift to the top but it was like 38 euros which is a bit out of our budget. But the hiking was awesome and we got to toss the disc around a bit. But after the hiking we could see some friendly rain clouds coming our way and sure enough it started to rain. Luckily it wasnt too bad when we got to our campground so were able to set up without much hassle.

This campground was something to see. It was what you would imagine a gypsy hang out would look like. Tons of RVs of all different shapes and sizes. In the middle area there were a decent amount of tents but most were coupled with a car of sorts. The facilities were good and so we had bathrooms and water and what not. We spent the rest of the night bro chillin with a few beers and playing some cards. We met a really awesome couple from Sweeden who spoke very good English. We talked with them all night and it was really interesting to hear about Sweeden and they really didnt like it. I thought Sweeden would be cool but apparently not if you live there.

Today we woke up to rain. We didnt set up our rain tent as well as we could have and so a little bit of water came in but my stuff was fine, Jays not so much but oh well. Today we toured around in the rain to make the most of the day. Now Im going to Burger King to have dinner and head back to the campgrounds.

Hows life at home? Somebody has got to have gotten drunk and done something stupid by now.

A few side notes:

Im owning Jay in cards especially Cribbage

Austria might have the most beautiful country side Ive ever seen

There is a Serles peak out here

Innsbruck is pretty damn expensive

Rain is not the ideal travel condition

Sweedish people think that Americans are fat and drink and drive a lot.

Everybody is always drinking in Austria, no joke. Not sure why I didnt get this in earlier. But bars always have people and not like people you find at Blikys. I mean they look like regular, put together people. People drink in public all the time. The other night three girls were standing on a street corner with an open bottle of Capt. Morgans and they each had a coke in their hand. They were probably in between rounds of bear, I didnt stay long enough to see. But its redickulous. Im very jealous. Well I think thats all, the King is calling me.

livin large,

alex