Preamble

Let me share another story from my life with you. This took me a few hours to write but will take you only a few minutes to read :-)
A lot more exciting and personal than my last one nevertheless.
No hard feelings if you just want to scroll through the pictures. Just a little hint though, the good stuff is in the details.

End of September in 2012 I decided to take a few days off to visit some friends

• The first one was a girl I met a few months before at the rock festival Rock im Park. We had a lot of fun and got along very well. We exchanged numbers and wrote back and forth since then. She was from South Tyrol, Italy, which is about 300 km away from my home, so not that easy to meet in person. Anyway we agreed to meet again, stay tuned.
• The other one was an old Counter-Strike teammate from my eSports days. I still played with him casually online, but due to the distance to Innsbruck we never met in real life so far. Perfect opportunity to change that and visit him on my way back from South Tyrol!

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Day 1: Leaving Home, Into The World

I like planning and being prepared for every situation I can think of. So I packed enough water, food and gear to be able to survive a few days and sleep in the car. If for example I would have wanted to take a detour just because I felt like it, I could have.
It was a kind of personal freedom. To break out of my daily routine, get in my car and drive wherever I wanted.
And off I went. Out of my small home town, onto the road, into the world.

Only one more thing to do:

Unlike the German Autobahn, Austrian highways are not free to use (even if they're both called Autobahn). So I stopped at the first gas station to get a vignette valid for 10 days.

Now on the highway,

the excitement got bigger. Beautiful weather, mountains on the horizon.
My friend was working and I was set to pick her up from the train station at a specific time. According to my calculations, taking my current speed and the remaining distance into account, I would arrive there a few minutes early.
How naive of me to think, I could force my 10 year old Skoda Fabia Combi, 75 PS Diesel, to go full throttle for hundreds of kilometres without problems.
Eager to see my friend, all excited about my trip in general, I did not go easy on the engine. When the road got steeper, closing in on Brenner Pass, the engine gave out. No matter how hard I hit the gas pedal, the car was moving slower and slower.
Fortunately there was a rest stop ahead, which was safer than stopping on the side of the highway. I parked the car, turned off the engine and tried to cool it with water to the best of my knowledge.
After a few minutes, I could continue my drive.

I already told my friend about the delay and when I picked her up at the train station, she was very nice and understanding. It was a warm welcome in general.
We went to her home, where I got to meet her parents. I gave them a hospitality gift (eggs, because who doesn't need eggs) and we ate dinner together.
Then we prepared the bedroom. I was supposed to sleep in her room on an airbed, which was broken unexpectedly. I suggested to get my own mattress from the car, but her parents insisted on preparing the living room couch for me.
I was a little disappointed about not getting to spend the night with my friend, but it was not that bad. We needed to get some rest anyways for the hiking tour we planned for the next day.
And even though we were attracted to each other, I did not count on getting with her. It would have been nice, but not mandatory.
Maybe as a protection mechanism, I learned to expect little, so I couldn't be disappointed too easy and be even happier if the unexpected happened.

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Day 2: The Great Ascent

The next day we got up early, had breakfast and picked up another friend who would join us on our day of mountaineering.

Starting Point - Terenten, South Tyrol, 1210 m

We got to enjoy the full beauty of the country with its landscape, its nature and earth's small wonders.

Le piramidi di terra - pyramids out of moraine sediments from the last ice age

First break after 1h 30 min - hungry goats, not shy at all

continuing upwards...

Summit - Eidechsspitze (Lizard's Peak) 2738 m

After 4 h 30 min we reached the summit. We rested a few minutes, enjoying the beautiful view and letting the sun shine on us.
The elevation gain was 1500 metres up, and down we took a different route but same altitude difference.

My knees hurt on the way down, and even though I was used to day long marches, I felt the exhaustion.

Lago di Campofosso Unfortunately it was too cold to go swimming

Shower and Noodles

We were invited to pre-party with some of her friends.
They welcomed us with open arms, let us shower and regain strength and energy from some delicious Italian pasta.

Even though I had a hard time understanding their dialect sometimes, or maybe because of it, it was a great, fun and chill time among nice people.
South Tyroleans speak German, but the accent sounds like a completely different language sometimes.

Beer tent

We went to the party, had a few beers and a lot of fun. With fatigue setting in more and more, I did not want to endure the party until the end. So I went outside to sleep in the car for a few minutes before my friend came and we drove home.
We hugged and thanked each other for the great time before going to sleep alone. It had been a long day.

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Day 3: On My Way Back

The next part is a little anticlimactic, which was my fault. I packed my things in the morning and left without saying goodbye, sending her some kind of excuse per text later. Maybe I was overwelmed by the whole situation, which took a toll on me physically and mentally.
Well...nobody is perfect, you live and learn.

A rare roadside sight:

I came across a small castle and decided to have a closer look at it.

Mühlbacher Klause (Mill Creek's Den?)
There also was a World War 2 bunker, built in 1939.

Innsbruck

Andreas Hofer Memorial

Panorama view on Innsbruck from the Tyrolean State Museum

Ski jump stadium Bergiselschanze

After visiting a few of the city's sights, I called my gamer friend to meet for the first time in real life.
We respected each other a lot for our skill and even more for each other's great personalities. He was a nice and honest person, very upfront, a lot like me.
He was a poor student and let me crash at his place for a few days, so I felt it was more than appropriate for me, who earned good money as a software developer, to pay this week's groceries.

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Days 4 - 6

Gaming

We played mostly Starcraft 2, just like we did online. But this time we could discuss strategies or just joke around in person, which was a lot of fun.

Went out and home with a nice girl

One night he invited some friends over to play poker. Afterwards we went to a night club in Innsbruck.
After checking out the location, I looked around. It was very crowded, but my eyes met hers. I immediately went up to her, introduced myself and we started talking.
She was with a friend, who excused herself to let us talk more privately. From the first moment, the chemistry was just there. She was almost as tall as me and very well spoken.
We talked about everything and nothing and eventually started making out in the club. She suggested to take a taxi to her place, which we then did.
It was a wild night. Nothing more to add, I let you imagine the rest.
In the morning we had breakfast together, then I walked back to my friend's place with a huge smile on my face.
What an awesome experience!

After a few days, playing Starcraft and doing nothing got boring. After a short farewell, I drove back home.
This is where my story about a short adventure ends.

It made me grow as a person and played an important part in me becoming the person I am today. With all my qualities, good and bad. I feel grateful for having opportunities like this and also realizing my luck, taking the opportunity.

Until next time :-)

Edit: added links to Google Maps coordinates to some pictures

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