yesterday we went to austria for a night balloon festival, which was going to be great: 40 or so balloons in a little village in a mountain, lighting up their ‘fires’ in the night to the sound of music. just dreamy… but when we got to the hostel we had booked, we realized it was actually 20km from the festival, far up a hill… it was dark already and snowing, and i was afraid we would get stuck somewhere in the middle of the night. so… yesterday we went to austria and instead of seing a balloon festival, we spent a night in a hostel.

and it was well worth it, if only for the trip! :) just two hours away from here, austria is this snowy fairyland, filled with monochromatic sceneries and people who don’t speak english. so intriguing.

anyway, pictures. this is the view to which we woke up in the hostel, which made it all worthwhile:

and the road we had to go on for over a kilometer to get there:



it doesn’t seem as menacing in the morning, but at night, i was pretty scared. it’s all the way up a steep hill in what looks like just a path someone drew in the snow!

on the highway, mountains and pine trees covered in snow and mist all the way there and back:






and the tunnels. we made 20 km in tunnels in this trip *gulp*, the most menacing of which being the karavanke tunnel:

(pardon the specks in the pictures, the water in the windshield was frozen most of the trip… :))