#Gasteiner Ache

[petersiegfriedkrug]

Artist Lucia Nadia Cipriani.

Location: at the famous bridge where the Gasteiner Ache rushes through. The photo was taken in the centre of the world-famous town of Bad Gastein.

[jirihrdy]

Bad Gastein is a spa town in the St. Johann im Pongau District. Picturesquely situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, it is known for the Gastein waterfall and a variety of grand hotel buildings.

Bad #Gastein is located in the historic Pongau District. It stretches along the upper Gastein Valley following the course of the Gastein Ache creek. The valley separates the Hohe Tauern Ankogel Group in the east from the Goldberg Group in the west.

The town centre is located at the Gastein waterfall, about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level.

[aseel-around-the-corner]

Bad gastien, Austria

Augest 9th, 2022

The day I stumbled upon this hidden city between mountains by accident. It felt like I was driven there by a higher power. The skies were too blue for it to be a bit before midnight. The only two things you could hear were the opera music playing from the local pub and the sound of gasteiner ache waterfall. I couldn't help but recall what Lauren Bacall once said about her and Humphrey Bogart "always in the wee small hours when it seemed to bogie and me that the world was ours, that we were the world. At those time we were". I sat on the chair infront of the church underneath the only light on that street. I wasn't waiting for a preacher to come out of the church's door to invite me inside and push me to confess my sadness and sins. But I would have done it if someone did. At the moment I almost forgot that mountains were surrounding me from every corner of eye sight, that I, myself was on top of a one too. Despite how wide it might feel, I remember feeling so small like a fragment of something lost a long time ago. I can't put down in words everything I felt in that night, sitting on that chair. But if there's something I'm sure of, is that I will not forget it, ever.

ولمَّا أَظلَّ المَساءُ الس��َماءَ

وأسكَرَ بالحُزْنِ روحَ الوُجُودْ

وقفتُ وساءلتُهُ هل يَؤوبُ لقلبي

رَبيعُ الحَيَاةِ الشَّرودْ

[travel-by-ev]

Bad Gastein

Bad Gastein, den 01.10.2021

Aber ein Highlight gab es in Bad Gastein dann doch. Unterhalb des Wasserfalls liegt das 1914 erbaute Kraftwerk. Früher wurde hier mit dem Wasser der Ache Strom erzeugt. Lange Zeit war es das größte Kraftwerk des Salzburger Landes. Heute sitzt man zwischen den Original Turbinen bei Kaffee und Kuchen, oder trinkt ein kühles Bier. Das hat schon etwas so eine alte Maschinenhalle.

[adventuresinaustria]

Recap: Week One and Two

February 10, 2018- The fact that it has only been a little over two weeks is unreall!  We have done SO many things every single day that it feels like I have been here much longer than I actually have. At the same time though, time is flying by! It’s a strange feeling that’s hard to put my finger on. Although it is technically almost the end of week three as of today, February 10,  I’m going to recap just the first two weeks and make a separate post for the third just because of how eventful my first days were here. In this post I will try my best to share the highlights of everything we’ve done so far.

I arrived in Munich, Germany Sunday, Jan 21, and grabbed a bite to eat with my brother Ryan who is currently living in Frankfurt, Germany as he pursues his Masters degree there. Shortly thereafter we took a train to Salzburg which was only about two hours long. I did not sleep well on the plane and the jet lag hit me pretty hard. I also misplaced my train ticket and momentarily lost my wallet  (which held my passport) in the Munich airport while waiting for the underground bus aka “S-Bahn” to come. It was quite a day. Ryan and I arrived in Salzburg that night and walked with my suitcases all the way from the train station to my dorm which had to have taken a little over an hour. Once I was settled in, he took my roommate and I out for dinner before heading back home to Frankfurt. Everyday since then we have walked just about everywhere (some days totaling 10+ miles!) Definitely a shock after driving all the time in the States. I have noticed that people really embrace walking/biking for transportation here in Europe and use public transit to avoid car usage. I like this because it helps people stay fit and is also more eco-friendly! We have 13 students in our study abroad program who are all from the US. We are all from different parts of the US though, specifically Wisconsin, California, Texas, Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

We are the only students at Salzburg College, besides those in the Masters Program, so we all have majority of our classes together. I really like that we all do things as a group though. Having people who I can easily relate to in terms of moving from the US to Europe is really comforting.

Week one began with orientation and an 11 mile walk around the city when one of our professors gave us a tour. My jet lag lingered into Monday and even Tuesday, which made the walking a bit more challenging for me haha. On Wednesday we took our first excursion to Munich, Germany! What a beautiful city. We saw so many incredible historic sites including Olympiapark (where the 1972 Summer Olympics were held), the Nazi Documentation Center (the former Nazi headquarters now turned into a museum), and the Haufbräuhaus (where Hitler lead the Nazi Party “meetings” so to speak). Several times we walked past the city hall shown below where Hitler once had the Nazi flag hanging from the top and made many public speeches. Being in a city filled with such rich history was pretty surreal and something I’ll never forget. Sites in Munich pictured below:

City Hall - Munich, Germany

Nazi Documentation Center - Munich, Germany

The most delicious Brotwurst and french fries I have ever had!

Showing some school spirit at Olympiapark :)

A cute shot of my roommate Desiree and I at Olympiapark

We headed back to Salzburg on Friday and then had our next adventure on Sunday when we went hiking/snowshoeing in the Alps! It was hands down the most exhausting thing I have ever done. We hiked up the mountain on foot and once we got to the actual snow part we put on these fun snow shoes that had spikes on the bottom to give us traction as we hiked up the mountain. The snowy part of mountain (shown in picture below) was 4,500 feet high and we walked all the way up and down it - this is equivalent to walking up the Empire State Building three times! Despite the intense fatigue built up in my legs, the views of the Alps surrounding me were simply breathtaking. The pictures don't even do it justice but here you can kind of get an idea of what I saw!

My friend Abby (another student from my study abroad group) and I getting ready to snowshoe our way up to the top of the mountain!

Not quite to the top but just about!

Very excited we all made it to the summit!! The people in the picture are all students in the Salzburg College study abroad program except for our guide, Alex, who is from Austria on the left.

The view as we made our way back down the mountain... not filtered!

When we arrived back “home” to our dorm, a few members of our group made some homemade curry that we all enjoyed together for our first “Sunday family dinner”. It was really delicious. All in all, at the end of week one I was still in shock that I was in Austria and was definitely in the “honeymoon” phase that felt like vacation and not real life with school, etc.

Week two was another busy week but I finally started getting adjusted to life here in Austria. Monday marked our actual first week of school and involved a mini excursion to the university library that had some of the oldest books in the world dating all the way back to the 14th century!

Universität Salzburg Library

Unfortunately I came down with a bad cold that had my nose running, head hurting, and whole body aching. Much to my surprise there aren't Walgreens pharmacies on every block here in Europe so I had to opt for extra sleep and other home remedies to regain my health instead of grabbing some cold and flu medicine like I normally would at home. On another note, we had our first photography class this week and it was REALLY cool! We are working with film cameras and taking photos around Salzburg to work on the elements of time, space, and light. We are then going to develop the photos with chemicals in a dark room. It’s totally out of my element but i’m just having fun and going with it! The rest of the week wasn't too eventful until Saturday and Sunday when we went skiing in the Alps! Literally a dream come true. One day we went to a “smaller” mountain called Monte Popolo, which I still found to be quite enormous, and it was absolutely wonderful. It was a cloudy, snowy, 40 degree day aka ideal conditions for skiing!

Above is Monte Popolo (~40 miles from downtown Salzburg). The snowboarder in this photo is one of the students in my study abroad group!

The next day we went to a much larger mountain in the Alps called Bad Gastein that was about 6000 ft high and absolutely breathtaking! Bad Gastein is an Austrian spa and ski town south of Salzburg. It was about a two hour train ride, and a beautiful one I might add! We went all the way up to the top via cable car and were literally at the top of the Alps! I felt like I was on top of the world. We skied all the way down and went up two other mountains as well. Such an incredible day I will never ever forget. The sun was shining, snow was fresh and powdery, and despite my sore legs I was happier than ever.

Our day of skiing begins at the very top of Bad Gastein mountain! We are all excited and ready to hit the slopes.

A dream come true! 

All smiles for day two of skiing! 

That is all for now! I will soon be writing a few posts about week three as well as my day to day life, cultural differences I didn’t expect, and also what the transition has been like from living at home to abroad. Until next time! 

[simon-the-happy-hippie]

This is a Long exposure from the a River called Gasteiner Ache in Bad Gastein / Austria. 🇦🇹 Hope you like it.. what do you think about it? Let me know in the comments below.. :-) #river #longexposure #gurushots #nature #wather #austria #forrest #river #stones #rocks #wet #world #longexposureoftheday #clouds #greysky #rain #wett #pictureoftheday #shotoftheday #naturephotography #nakedplanet #discoverearth #welivetoexplore #bestoftheday #earthfocus

[travel-by-ev]

Bad Gastein

Bad Gastein, den 01.10.2021

Hier spielten schon viele TV-Produktionen. Unter anderem auch eine Folge der Krimiserie „Die Toten von Salzburg“. Die Atmosphäre war meist ein wenig melancholisch und der Ort immer ziemlich verlassen. So jedenfalls hatte ich mir Bad Gastein immer vorgestellt. In Wirklichkeit war’s dann doch etwas anders. Viele Baustellen dominierten das Ortsbild, es wird mittlerweile wieder investiert. Aber los war wirklich nichts. Auch das Grand Hotel de l’Europe machte einen verwaisten Eindruck. Über die Gasteiner Ache war ein Drahtseil gespannt. Befestigt mit Gurt und Haken konnte man am Seil hängend über die Schlucht rauschen. Wirkte aber auch etwas deplatziert zwischen den ehemaligen Hotels aus der Belle Epoche.