Grünau

Ah, my first trip into mountains. Grünau is located in the Toten Bergen (Dead Mountains), not the Alps. Thus, the slopes aren't nearly as impressive, but for my first time in any mountains, I was impressed. This was also my first time to try snowboarding. Although I've physically healed, I'm still dealing with mental scarring from some of my crashes. Yeah, itwas that bad, but like anything, you get it eventually. Like most of Austria, the area is filled with mountain scenery and cold, clear streams. One of our friends just happened to find the hostel we stayed at on the internet, and we decided to go. The Treehouse Hostel is a great place, has a fun, young atmosphere, and the true locals even show up at night to party with the travelers.

Grünau was a two-day stop on our 4-day Easter weekend of 2002. After a hellish 9 hour night-train (in which we were stupid and didn't book seats - we learned a lot from this), we spent two days in Grünau, one day in Salzburg, and stopped over in Munich for a few hours on the way back to Frankfurt.