Tschirgant

The Tschirgant is a massive mountain in the Inntal Valley that runs parallel along the Inn river from Motz to Imst.  I have always wanted to hike it ever since I first came to Austria, and today we finally did it!

I attempted to do a bit of research to find what route to take… where to park and so on… but the websites that I eventually stumbled on were terrible! (and in German) And it seemed as though everyone we asked just knew someone ELSE who had done it… which led us to wonder how many people have actually done it… there probably has only ever been like 100 people to hit the summit!!

So with the combined information from both random people and websites, we set off from the Karrosten Parking lot at 9:30.  We hit the Karrosten Alm around 10:45… and followed the sign off to the left. another 1.5hours later we made it to the treeline.  And this is were the sketchy fun began.  SNOW!

Lisa in knee deep snow…

Don’t slip!

Tomba taking a break in the snow to cool off

up and up… almost there

There were a couple of times that I got a bit freaked out… but we all had “summit fever” and just pressed on. To be fair, we were following 2 sets of fresh tracks… one pair of footprints… and one snowshoe track. I think if these weren’t there, we would’ve turned around. BUT we followed those tracks blindly like lemmings… And when we hit the hut at the base of the top, we ran into ‘snowshoe guy’ who was actually a member of the Bergwachte… He took one look at us, our lack of gear and showshoes, and laughed in our faces! Fair enough.  He asked why we didn’t go up the EASY, non-snow route?!  …dammit.

So thank goodness we bumped into him… definitely saved us from having to down the way we came up! He also gave us pointers on how to get up to the cross, only a further 200m… he told us where to go and that the dog would TOTALLY make it, because “he has 4 legs, so he has better odds of doing it than humans do”. Well buddy, you were SO wrong!

We skirted the base of the cliff, over a STEEP snow chute… to what amounted to an actual cliff-climb. Matti went up first, and Tomba tried to follow him. No chance.  The poor dog started to whimper and bark… and Lisa and I felt super uncomfortable.  Matti didn’t want to come back down the same way because he was so sketched out… so Lisa and I coaxed Tomba to go back to the Bergwachte Hutte and wait for Matti to come back down another way.

Break at the Bergwacht Hutte

Checkin’ out the view

love

Tschirgant

Can you see Matti at the top? He is the teeny tiny blue speck at the tippy top!

Yay for Matti!

Pitztal and the Inntal below! The bridge on the bottom right is one of the spots where I take rafting pictures in the summer:)

I was so nervous the entire time Matti was on the cliff… It really was horrible to sit at the hut and worry.  Next time we do a hike we will ensure that the group ALWAYS stays together.  We were certainly lucky that nothing happened… Matti said that it was the most scared that he has ever been.

8.5 hours later, we were at the car again… It was an awesome day! Not sure that I would do this particular hike again, but I am happy to check it off my list.  And I am so proud of Matti for joining us… although I think he will be a bit sore for a couple of days ;)

Binx Tips For Next Time:

1. Leave early and try to be on the trail around 7am.  You miss the heat of the day, and still have enough time at the end of the day to chill.
2. Drive up as far as you can!!! I think we wasted about 3 hours just getting to the trailhead :(
3. Hiking poles. My knees are sooooo sore!
4. Extra socks. Stupid snow.
5. BUDDY SYSTEM! Make sure the group always stays together or in pairs.

Transacqua

As it was a rainy day, we took the long way home from our weekend at Lake Garda.

Why to Transacqua?!

Excellent question!

This sleepy little town is actually where my Scalet roots originate from!  Transacqua is in the Veneto district of Italy, just below Sud Tirol in the Dolomite Mountains.  Absolutely spectacular.  It’s about 2 hours away from the main autostrada on narrow winding roads. So what would’ve taken 2.5 to 3 hours to go back home… took us 7 hours!

Me & Tomba infront of the family church… look at the mountains in the background!

At first; Matti wasn’t too keen to do this, but after some convincing over breakfast, we loaded up the car and headed off into the Dolomites!

Back in 2009; when I came to Europe the first time with mom, Auntie Chris, Auntie Mir and my Opa… we joined the Austrian Scalets on a convoy to Transacqua.  The Church wasn’t under a restoration and it was really neat to spend the day with Scalets from all over the world.

I wonder what my ancestors would say if they knew that some of their relatives eventually moved across the globe and settled into Canada, USA and at one point even Australia?!

Growing up in a country that is only ~145yrs old… I never really developed a sense of deeply rooted history until I began to travel to Europe.  When you think that many of the buildings are older than Canada itself, it really puts things into perspective!  And going to the countries and places that my Austrian AND Hungarian relatives had once visited or lived… gives me a feeling of both comfort and pride.

For instance; my father’s side of the family are Hungarians. The family were forced to move away from their beloved homeland during the 1957 Hungarian Revolution… and what I find particularly interesting, is that they actually fled to AUSTRIA at first before eventually moving and settling down in Canada. Crazy to think that my hungarian roots and austrian roots could have potentially crossed at one point!

I think I owe an ode to my Hungarian ancestry in a future post… very interesting and rich history there.  One of my travel dreams would be to go visit Sopron, Budapest and Szekesfehervar with my father and brother… But that’s for another day!

Riva del Garda

Our schedules finally lined up and we were able to go away for a weekend.  While initially I was hoping to go somewhere totally new and random… the weather forecast called for rain EVERYWHERE and Matti couldn’t escape work early on Friday. So Lake Garda was the obvious and only choice… and Riva del Garda was the only town that both of us had yet to visit.

Riva is on the north end of the beautiful Lake Garda.  While it is actually quite a developed area, our hotel was only 100m from the pedestrian-only-lakefront and old part of the city, so we hardly felt a “city-vibe” at all.  We spent a lot of time walking around the touristy section of the city in the rain.  I suppose the upside to the bad weather was that it kept the crowds at a minimum!  This little area is like a mini-Venice; full of gelataria’s, pizzeria’s and bistro’s… as well as the touristy kitchy crap.  I bought another leather bag… so sue me.

Old city walls

walking around town

Piazza Novembre; bell tower… with an angel-weathervane on top

lakefront

lakefront

Tomba and I

Colorful paddleboats… would love to take one of these babies out in the summer!

the museam… and old castle with a moat and a drawbridge!

piazza novembre

apres

lightening storm; the Bastione and Santa Barbara Chapel lit up and overlooking Riva

Gelato and frozen yogurt… Tomba’s favourite;)

As we brought Tomba,  we had to incorporate a long dog hike on Saturday. So, much to Matti’s disappointment, the dog and I woke him up early for breakfast and we headed off into the rain!

After seeing the Bastion and Santa Barbara Chapel all lit up on the mountainside the night before, we decided to head up the mountain to get a better view of the lake and Riva.  After 20min, we reached the Bastion, a Venetian stronghold built in 1508.  The ruins are pretty cool and if you time it right during the summer months, there is actually a little cafe that you can go to for a quick snack and a drink.
We continued up for another hour and we eventually reached the Santa Barbara Chapel.  This chapel was built sometime in the 1930′s by the local miners and the view of the city and lake below is spectacular.  Well worth battling the weather!

The Bastione

Checkin’ out the view

Tomba and I at the foot of the Bastione

View from the top… reminded me of Canadian Inukshuks

Tomba at the Santa Barbara Chapel

Family

Riva del Garda

I have to say… Italy is such a dog friendly country! For starters; the hotels are very accommodating and rarely charge additional pet fees. But what really makes this country fantastic for dog owners, are the people.  Hardly anyone was scared of Tomba and we were welcomed into every restaurant and store as if he was a human!  In fact; the bistro that we ate at 2 nights in a row, greeted him BY NAME, ushered us to a table with lots of room for him and brought him a dish of water.  When we left, the owners, servers and bartenders all said goodbye to Mr. Alberto Tomba. Too flippin’ cute!

**Tomba is named after the famed Italian ski racer, Alberto Tomba aka “Tomba le Bomba”
And once Italians find out his name… they become his BIGGEST fan! 

Hungerburg Hike

Matti and I finally had a day off together, so we took the dog down to Innsbruck and went on an adventure!

The original plan was to meet up with my friend Teresa at an alm above Hungerburg called the ArzlerAlm… but in true Charjar fashion, we got lost and a few other things went wrong…. and we wound up hiking to where we were supposed to start?!  Yup, sounds about right!

Here’s how it all went wrong:

1. I navigated.  Matti hates my driving and thinks that its not a matter of IF I will crash in a horrific flame ball on the motorway… its WHEN. (For more binx-driving hilarity, check out driving in Italy) So naturally, that leaves ME as his Magellan-in-the-passenger-seat.  Which wouldn’t be a problem for a normal person… but as Vivian’s Daughter, I’m NEVER wrong about directions… even if I have never been there before!
   So I picked a landmark close-ish to Hungerburg and told him to drive towards the Alpen Zoo.
2. The Alpen Zoo is INSANE on a Sunday. So they had parking attendants everywhere trying to corral cars into various parking lots. This is an excerpt of our conversation in the car:
   Charlotte: wait, this isn’t Hungerburg… don’t listen to that guy! Keep driving up!
   Matti: What? How?
   Charlotte: I don’t know! Drive around him!
   Matti: I can’t! There are cars everywhere!
   Charlotte: Keep going up!
   Matti: ?#$^%$
   Charlotte: ?@$%?$
   Tomba: Walk?! Walk?! We go outside?! WALKIES!!!!!!!!!
3. We parked at the Alpen Zoo.  To be fair, we WERE on our way to turn around, but up popped a free space right at the entrance!! How can you say no to that?!
4. Broken Ticket Kiosk.  Our zoo-parking screw-up WOULD have been ok… the zoo is conveniently located along the Nordkette tram so our plan B was to buy a ticket up to Hungerburg… meet Teresa and Bianca at the alm that’s a further 45min away. But hey; that would’ve been too easy. Ticket thing was broken. So we had to walk up to the meeting location.

Our random walk wasn’t actually that bad… we took about an hour, meandering through the trees above Innsbruck.  The weather was gorgeous, plus 23deg! Hooray for summer!

After giving up on us, Teresa and Bianca just met us at Hungerburg for a radler in the sunshine.

Tomba was panting in the first bit of summer heat of the season, so afterwards we took him to the Inn river to cool off.  And it just so happened that the majority of my classmates were barbequing along the shore! So I introduced them all to my ‘family’…. Matti enjoyed matching the names from my stories to faces, and Tomba enjoyed all the sausages that people kept feeding him and the sticks people kept throwing! Spoiled!

So… Hungerburg; we shall meet again….  :)

Binx Booze – Hugo Spritzer

This is my absolute summer FAV!

Infact; when I came home from my 2011 summer in Austria, I brought back 2 bottles of Hollunder Syrup so I could make these tasty drinks at home!

Cold.. Refreshing…. minty! What’s not to like?!

1/2 shot Hollunder Syrup (elderberry flower)

4-5 leaves of mint

lime wedge

Topped off with Prosecco!

Binx Puppy Tip – Tick Season

Gross.

I would rather have Tomba run into a skunk… or roll in a heap of manure than have to take out a tick.

I know this isn’t the usual binx-travel-post; but ticks are a major issue when hiking in the spring in milder climates.  Always check yourself and your pets after an outdoor adventure… these creepy-critters are devious!

Things NOT to do:

1. Hold a match/cigarette to the tick
2. Try to “pop” it like a zit
3. Nail Polish / Vaseline to ‘suffocate it’
4. Freak-out! This is what I have the tendency to do:(
   All of these things will only make the little bloodsucking-bastard burrow his filthy disease ridden head into the skin.

What works: hold the skin taught around the tick, and use tweezers to clamp THE HEAD.  Then, pluck the head UP and AWAY (no twisting or jerking).  If bits of the mouth don’t come out… use the tweezers.  Then clean the affected area with rubbing alcohol or anti-bacterial soap.

Matti and I went to our local pet shop and bought a little credit-card-sized piece of plastic with a wee little v-chip thing on it.  Comb the tick from the back-to-the-head and the whole thing detaches in one movement.

As a human, if you develop a rash around the area and/or come down with a fever… go to a doctor ASAP.  This could be lyme disease or something equally as rowdy.

Now fair warning; this picture I am about show is super gross.  We went out on a hike yesterday, and I was petting Tomba on the car ride home.  When I first ran my hand over this weird bump, I thought it was some kind of growth or a cancer thing.  I even flicked at it back and forth before my friend Teresa was all, “Ummm…. Charlotte, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you…”

…and I freaked. I mean seriously, my hands were ALL OVER that disgusting bloodbag.  So while I was having a skin-skorching-hot shower and removing my first layer of skin, Matti was scraping the badguy off the dog:)

Anyways, get yourself one of these cards for under 5 EUR, and the tick will just pop off.

Happy Hiking!

Binx Goes to Church

Matti’s parents have been visiting for the past week and his mom asked me if I would be interested in taking her to an Easter Mass.

Just a quick walk through memorylane…
My dad grew up as the youngest of 4 siblings in a fairly conservative Hungarian family.  His parents were devout Catholics and religion played an important part of his upbringing.
My mom, on the other hand, rarely stepped foot in a church.  While my Opa (her dad), grew up in Oetz having to go to church everyday… by the time he immigrated to Canada and met my Oma, they decided to not raise mom and her siblings through the church. (For more family history click here)

Skip forward a few years… I’m born! I think it was a difficult decision for my parents to agree on, but ultimately, they decided to have me baptized at the Vancouver Hungarian Catholic Church. I never took my first communion.

BUT; every Easter, Christmas and basically every time we went to visit Dad’s side of the family, my brother and I always accompanied my dad to Sunday Mass while Mom stayed home.

When my Anyu (Dad’s mom) passed away in 2007, my father stopped attending church on a regular basis… and my motivation to attend mass also dissipated.  Her funeral was the last service I attended… and it was held completely in Hungarian.

So when Matti’s mom expressed interest in going to Mass… I was actually fairly keen to go!  Although this service was in German and we didn’t understand a word… it was still a beautiful experience.

The ornate cross and lantern on the right is actually the family grave of my great grandparents, Maria & Albin Scalet as well as my Opa’s sister, Margaret Rosenhammer

To be fair… even when the services are held in English, I rarely take anything from the sermon itself.  I would classify myself as a ‘spiritual’ person rather than ‘religious’.  To me, church is a place free from judgement… a place where my mind can be at ease… a place where I can reminisce about my family; those that are alive and those that have passed away.

While the church in Oetz may look fairly modest from the outside, it is mindblowingly GORGEOUS inside.  Ornate, guilded ceilings and frescos… statues and drippy candles… stunning.  Plus the choir was totally amazing.

So there we sat… listening to the background-sound-of-a-rambling-German-speaking-voice… and I thought of my Anyu.  Which made me think of my Auntie Edit… then my dad… and finally of my brother.  In fact, it’s hard not to think of attending church without my dad and my brother.  I remember Dad taking us to various churches in Vancouver… of us throwing fits when he tried to get us to go with the other kids to Sunday-school but we insisted on staying with him… of us being jealous when Dad got to go up and get “a cracker and wine” while we had to sit and try not to hit each other. But mostly of spending time with the two of them:)

Family graves… Great grandparents and Tante Margaret on the left…. and Great Uncle Walter’s cross is on the right.

I felt a little more at peace by the end of the service…. Afterwards, I joined my mom’s first cousin Irene and went out to the graveyard to pay our respects to our family.  My great grandparents, Maria and Albin Scalet… my Opa’s youngest brother, Walter Scalet… and one of Opa’s sisters (Irene’s mom), Margaret Rosenhammer who passed away only a year and a half ago.

The entire graveyard was lit up and with the falling rain; it was a serene place to be.