Austria

Although, it has been weeks since we were there –

Austria, you have captured my heart.

The photos just couldn’t capture the history, the art, the culture, the terrain, the urge you gave me to create.

Until we meet again..  

A friend and I were talking about how a photo can not capture the full sight and experience of “being there”.  Sometimes it feels as though a photo will even diminish my experience and so I sit and breath – take it all in – and then I want even more to photograph it.  Near the end of Austria I was without a camera and it made me miserable :/  Taking pictures helps search for alternative angles and although it can’t capture the lush honour and perspective of being there, I do revisit photos and they take me back – to that breath.  My photos bring me back to all the senses not in the copied and framed instant that was captured.  They are a way for me to be creative.  They are a way for me to hang on just a little bit longer.

When I look at this collection from Austria here are some memories I want to remember.  I hope that you too can breath it in with me.

~driving for hours as the sun goes down looking for a safe and legal place to park our car to sleep for the night. Then finding Maria Plain with a perfect view of Salzburg.  The next morning we had muesli then went for coffee and hot chocolate (from the chocolate fountain) at the Manner shop.  We got a Salzburg 24hr tourist card and took advantage of it (a boat trip, trick fountains at Hellbrunn Castle, playing at the park, Zion firing a cross bow at Hohensalzburg Fortress and Eamon wishing he were “as big as Zion”, singing and dancing at the gazebo filmed in the Sound of Music, St-Peter’s cemetery, chess and live music beneath great baroque architecture. If that were not enough for a day; we then went to the Zoo at night (too cool to see them feeding the wolves and then running in the dark to see who could spot what animals – some of which were getting beauty sleep.  We took the buss back to our parking space (that cost 22 Euro for 24hrs) and slept there in our Tepee. The next morning we strolled the streets and visited Mozart’s birthplace.

~around noon (11 mins. before our 24hr cards ran out) we boarded an Untersberg cable car and were transported into the Austrian alps for hours.   Zion asking me to take photos of him in the thick clouds and then he asked if it worked “did you get photos of me without my details?”.  I didn’t add that photo as it was so cloudy that you would have wondered about it’s purpose.

~Vienna:  Schönbrunn Palace, Apple Strudel show, parks, mazes and labyrinths, a step glockenspiel, Figlmuller schnitzel, a city search for art nouveau.

~driving up to a gate with the #41 where we were buzzed into a garden and welcomed by an amazingly delicious couchsurfing couple.  After a peaceful night’s sleep (and showers) we took in their suggestions for the day (as though they have known us for years:).

We took a walk along the river to have breakfast and release the wooden boats we made in Norway.  It was not easy carrying these little treasures with us, moving them carefully from place to place, so we told the children that we would give the boats a message then release them so that someone else would find them and get our well wishes.  There is a photo where Elmir has his hands on Eamon’s head; Eamon is talking to his boat “I love you. You are my boat and I’m letting you go so someone else can love you”  this was followed by tears (I don’t think he really liked the idea).

Then we visited the Zotter chocolate theatre.  We thought that this would be a 1hr stop – we spent over 5hrs in this heaven.  Think: all you can eat melt-in-your-mouth fair trade organic chocolate flowing from fountains, travelling on conveyer belts, tumbling in copper bowls.  Followed by a lazy stroll and play at the Edible Zoo (I sure hope that it sounds better in the original language because this was a fabulous permaculture farm with hamacs hanging from the trees and Bach playing quietly from the natural living pools).  Honestly incredible and worth a trip back to Austria – for research to build such a place in Canada maybe;)  There is no way to explain this place and I was left with only a partly charged cell phone for photos.  High on chocolate & life, we continued through the countryside towards Slovania.

Remember it’s the little moments, it’s looking from different angles, it’s breathing in and absorbing any one thing with all of your senses, it can be done anywhere and anytime (travel is not necessary but it sure helps eliminate life’s busy distractions and turn up our senses).