Ends and Beginnings

Well, Upward Bound is drawing to an end.  I can't believe how the time has flown by these past 5 weeks!  So much has happened even in the last week, that it would be impossible to convey it all (especially in the limited time that I have).  For the sake of time (and the train I have to catch), I will just put out a few highlights from the last week.

The best drink ever!

We got an early start on our final tour, leaving Sunday, and heading for the infamous "Guttenberg Hütte."  Although it was a very nice hut, and the people there were friendly, I think my favourite would still have to be Simony Hütte, which we stayed at during our 2nd or 3rd tour.

Cows near the edge of the forest

From Guttenberg, we hiked east, past Silberkar, and into the forest.  Once we were deep in the forest, we were told that we would be spending the next 45 hours alone, as part of our "solo tour."  Each person was given a tarp, and told to find a spot to build a shelter.  We were also encouraged to fast during our time alone, as an aid to prayer and meditation.  This wasn't too tough of a choice, as we were all out (or nearly out) of food already; however, it was a completely new experience for me, never having missed more than 1 meal before that I can remember.

My shelter.  I unearthed the huge rock in the foreground in my excavations.

Luckily, I was able to find a fairly good spot to build the shelter.  I spent most of my time making the ground soft (removing some large rocks and roots), as my sleeping pad wasn't holding air as well as I would like.  As for the 45 hours of solitude, I spend most of it reading the Word (specifically Ephesians and Phillipians), praying (or making prayer lists), thinking, or just being in God's presence.  I think a lot of good things came out of it, although, of course, I was more than ready to see my friends again when the 2 days were over.

When we all came stumbling out of the woods to our meeting place, we were pleased to find some hot soup and bread waiting for us!  It was a little tougher than I expected getting my stomach to accept food after depriving it of nutrition for so long.  However, the soup tasted great!

First glimpse of the lake

At the lake

Our last stop of this, our final tour, was a beautiful lake nestled down in the mountains.  It was perfect for swimming in (comparatively warmer than most other bodies of water around here).  We all dropped our packs near the shore when we arrived and swam to a rock near the far end.  Later that evening we were ecstatic to learn that the owner of this particular lake (yes, people own lakes and mountains over here), allowed camp fires!  It hadn't rained for a couple days, so the wood was easy to set ablaze, and before long, and nice fire had developed.  We sang worship songs until late into the night, when the moon and stars shown over the water.  Some members of the group even got started some old Newsboys and DC talk songs for those who could remember the words.

Trees grow on rocks in Austria

We had one more challenge ahead of us on this tour, and that was the 12k run!  People had been talking about this coming up for awhile, so it wasn't unexpected.  However, I don't think too many people expected it to be 30 degrees Celsius (that's approx. 90 degrees Fahrenheit)!  As a non-runner, I wasn't too competitive, and for the most part, adopted the strategy of walking through the shady spots, while running through the sun, so as to keep my body temp as low as possible.  We were all still pushing it pretty hard though.  One of the guys in the lead even pushed to the point where he fainted, and fell down off the trail near the river.  Luckily, someone saw him, and was able to pull him out.  He did need to go to the hospital for a day, but has since recovered, praise God.  I finished the run strong, coming in with a time of 1:17.  I did some quick calculations, and figured I was running about 10 - 11 minute miles on average.  Not too bad considering the longest I ever had to run as a gymnast was about 70 feet down a vault runway.  :)

The guys in my small group.  Luke (our leader) and I are sporting our lederhosen and team shirts (mountain goats)

Yesterday was very busy with everyone packing, cleaning, and purchasing anything they still wanted to get before leaving.  My big "souvenir" for the trip was a pair of traditional Austrian lederhosen!  They are made out of goat skin, and are surprisingly comfortable!  I wore them to our graduation ceremony, and later when we all went out for a night on the town.  We had some "half yard" Schladmingers (the local beer), which came in glasses that were (I'm assuming) half a yard tall!  Later we went and got kabobs from a local vendor who is open late.  It was so good, I'm going to grab another on my way out in a few minutes.

There's so much more I could say, but I do have a train to catch...

Luckily, I was able to pick up a 64 gigabyte flash drive yesterday, and, amidst the chaos, find most of the picture takers and download roughly 40 gigabytes of pictures and video that others have taken onto it.  So, once I have a chance to go through them (which may be later in August), I will definitely post a few of those!

For now, I'm off to the "Bahnhof," about to leave the beautiful city of Schladming.  I will miss it, but London is calling, as they say!

Auf Wiedersehen,

Globetrotter out