Innsbruck/Zell am See pt. 1

So my experiences in Austria so far have been mixed.

I'm still getting used to the Austrian accent (but now I understand why Arnold Schwartzenegger speaks English the way he does), but my German is getting me further and further.  On the train yesterday from Innsbruck to Zell am See, I had a conversation with a young trombone player almost entirely in German.  At this point, I'm less and less fearful of my ability to read and translate (with the help of a dictionary) some intriguing books about Klezmer and the Klezmer revival that I've stumbled upon here.  One appears to be particularly useful a book about blending of Klezmer and Jazz.  I will also most likely have some interviews to translate portions of into English, and again, having spent 3 weeks in German speaking countries has really helped the language skills.

My first day in Innsbruck was very nice... I managed to get to the hostel (Jugendherberge Innsbruck), which is all the way out on the outskirts of town (a 10-15 minute bus ride), and dropped off my stuff, and then returned to town to do some sightseeing.  Good thing I did.  That blue sky you see in my pictures on Facebook (and the select photo below) hasn't been seen since.

I discovered that Innsbruck is a very small town.  With a population of around 125,000, and not much real estate to go around (crammed in a valley between mountains), it's also fairly expensive.  Gone are my days of $5 full meals.  Parts of Innsbruck are also pretty swanky, with high class shops lining the main shopping drag of Maria-Theresastrasse.

Even my personal tour guide, Patricia, was a little ho-hum about the town.  We eschewed the "New Orleans Jazz Festival" (which, walking by, didn't sound exactly New Orleans-y) for a quiet bar to get a drink in. 

But I didn't come to Innsbruck for the museums or the shopping.  I came for the Alps.  Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to hit the mountains, the weather looked like this:

I joined Peter, a Czech IT specialist who was in town on business, on the way up the mountain and eventually we got off the road on our ascent to Seegrube (about 1900m above sea level - and 1100m above where we got off the train).  This route led us to a rough trail up the mountain through a corridor in between clutches of forest.  We wound our way up and up, not really being able to see much.  After over an hour (and some heaving breathing), we realized we were getting close to something.  The clouds cleared slightly to reveal .... a hut!  We went that-a-way and the clouds cleared a bit more -- it was the cable car!  We could see Seegrube!  We scrambled up the last bit, and eventually realized that we went the last 500m of our ascent almost directly up the mountain, rather than on the roads.  Then we took the cable car to Hafelekar, and went the remaining 10 minutes or so to the peak on foot.  Here's me at the summit... about 2330m.

With this crowning achievement, dear reader, I shall leave you for now.  But stay tuned, I'll blog the remainder of my stay in Innsbruck and Zell am See shortly.