TIROLândia

to our friend DAVID, who couldn't join us in this trip...

and what a hell of a trip! weird then this would be almost impossible! so weird that I'll choose to tell the story backwards!

we had to come back home one day earlier than expected because all the trip was starting to get expensive! I was a little upset with that, because after planning everything it's not so pleasant to agree with that! but now we're back to Graz and it was the best thing to do! sorry guys, and thanks everyone!

CREW: antonio | filipa | clara | max | ana | georges | graziella | guilherme

07 DEC BREGENZ/LINDAU

it was 19h when we left Innsbruck direction to a little village named Riefensberg to find the holiday house we had booked. but the strange think is no one was answering the phone during the way to there. OK! let's go there and knock the door directly! forget about it...it was closed, and it was 22:30h, in the middle of the mountains, 2 or 3 houses around... com'on!!! what could we do? use the GPS to search another place...

and by the way, the gas is running out! please find a gas station in the way! what??? a gas station opening during the night in Austria?? are u nuts? of course not, this people leave they're work very soon, every place dies during the night! we drove to Bregenz, the closest city, which we plan to visit the next day, and finally we find an hostel (expensive than the holiday house... but at that time anything would fit our needs)

at least in morning we had breakfast included! cool! and we just went discover the city. I could feel this is a city next to the water without seeing the Bodensee, a huge lake in the border between Austria, Germany and Switzerland. small and pretty city Bregenz, lot's of new buildings, contemporary architecture. but the big surprise was in Germany, a small city named Lindau, which has a small island... totally recommended! check out the pictures! and finally I found a Christmans Tree! it was very cheap... everyone was saying it wouldn't fit in the van, but it did! ehehe, it was the 9th passenger!

and we drove back to Graz as fast as we could...

06 DEC STUBAI/INNSBRUCK

what a night! we had dinner in an italian restaurant... by the way, isn't Innsbruck a city of Italy?? sure? because i'll swear I saw more italian people than austrian ones! really! you can even guess by the clothes, the shiny black 'plastic' jackets for the rain with those fluffy stuffs around the neck... yeah! they were everywhere!

we were celebrating Max's 22nd birthday, so we went to have a big dinner out and then went for some recommended bar... Prestige was the name. there was some fake palm trees inside... can you imagine the kind of foreign or immigrant people bar? ok... that's it! mixing 5 minutes of pop/dance music, and 20 minutes of turkish or arabic music... bahhhhh but we have fun!

we arrive at the holiday house in a small village named Telfs. Max and George were drunk, and the first thing Max realized: "Where is my wallet? I guess i lost it in the bar..." what? ok - let's talk about it, let's search everywhere (exception for the pants of the sleeping George) and in the end... let's drive 30 minutes back to Innsbruck, search in the places we've been, ask the barman to save the wallet if found... bla bla bla! back home, and George had it! a relief sigh... but the will of hit him was bigger! lol

but this house was perfect! it was a good house for holiday! we left the house at 12:00h direction to Stubai to visit the top of Tirol in a Ski resort. It's a structure built in the mountain for sightseeing, with a great view of the area! but we had no skis, and the ferry cable for common visitors was broken! so we couldn't visit it... we took the same way back and stop in the middle to play in the snow with an inner part of a tire I had bought... you know, like a big black donut's... ehehehe, it was great!

driving back to Innsbruck, we visit the Ski structure of Zaha Hadid for competitions. AWESOME. we could barely see the city with the daylight, but it's beautiful during the night! it was crowded, lot's of persons in the christmas market, drinking glühwein in the street, shopping, walking around!

05 DEC KITZBÜHEL/WATTENS

everyone in Kitzbühel sweats 'money'! it's a really small village part of a ski resort, and everything there c'est trés chic! all this little places in Tirol are incredibly beautiful, very typical, the types of housing, the narrow streets, and with the Christmas decoration everything got's even better!

the hotspot of this day was the Swarovski Kristalwellten Museum, in Wattens. one of the best museums I've been ever been. it was not only about diamonds, there were lot's of works of art, theater stuff, movies playing in a special way over the crystals, interactive light movement, a huge mirror round dome changing colors, and so on! amazing! check the pictures!

we found Sanna, Marta, Rachel and Megan, other girls from Neubaugasse. They went for a similar road trip, but trough different locations. And coincidentally they were in the same holiday house we were, so we spend the rest of the they with them, to celebrate Max's birthday!

04 DEC KLAGENFURT/MATREI IN OSTTIROL

we left Graz in the middle of the afternoon, direction to Klagenfurt. It was snowing a lot! the sun was down, so we just went for a walk in a Christmaskindlmarkt, drink some hot wine and we continue our way according to the GPS. we were supposed to arrive in Matrei in Osttirol, but the GPS took us to a different place! ...but the local narrow road was so icy that we couldn't keep going! we stop the van and try to go back, sliding... we were fuckin' scared because in the right hand side there was a mountain and in the left hand side an edge... no sunlight! forget about it!

and suddenly a car approaches with a guy inside... we needed some space to go back, but we prefer to talk with him and ask if he knew the address! and here it starts to get very strange... first the guy told us we should keep going forward, but then he call someone (his mum) and told us that he new the place and her mum works there and we would take us there... hmmmmm OK! let's go with the guy, nothing to lose!

we arrive, no one ask for ID, just enter fast... I am pretty sure that house was not the one I booked... not even the address... the house was very good, but it was ready to received no person! no heating turned on, no hot water in the collector... bahhh what's happening here?! and if that was not the house, the other persons (the correct ones) would keep waiting for us... maybe!

com'on, what's the chance of the guy that shows up in the middle of nowhere, being the sun of the lady who we rented the holiday house?! what a coincidence... believe me!

let's go out! OUT?! it's Krampus night...

Krampus is a legendary character here in Austria, some kind of Santa Claus enemy... he's very ugly and aggressive. so the people here have this tradition to suit up like Krampus, in a hairy dress with a ugly mask and some bells in the back. usually the guys are very tall and they mess with the people in the street, as I said, in an aggressive way... they do some kind of strange rituals and lot's of noise, that we could see trough the window... but we didn't want to spend the night at home, so we went to search a bar in the small village, which was just on the top of the street! the girls were very afraid of Krampus, everything in this night seemed like a scary movie! once in the bar, everything was fine, but everyone looking at us because we were tourists and they all know each other...

and suddenly, two guys dressed like Krampus entered in the bar, started to knock down every table and seats, fighting with some guys, pushing and pulling, trowing them to the floor in very aggressive way... everyone was screaming! the girls run way! the barmaid jump to the back of the bar... and we (the boys) just stay still, with heart beating faster and faster, as they come closer and closer... fuck! it was really scary! because we don't know what would happen after that... but they left after hurting someone... and this is the tradition! stupid? I don't know... but then the barmaid told us they just mess with people they know!... (I took no picture of Krampus but I can show you one...)

of course that was scary till the end... the darkness of the apartment, the fact of that flat were not the one we booked... but in the morning there was a receipt with my name over the table in the living room! so everything's fine!

and this was just the beginning of a long trip!