Austria finally introduced me to my first mountain pass that I had to cross, the picture above is from that pass and with a bit of irony in it. The moment I took the picture I had already climbed with the bike for 2 hours
I was so sure I was just about to reach the top, only to find out I was only halfway up. The the first part of the climb I had to stop every 15 min just to catch my breath.

'' this is impossible''

I thought to myself the first hour of the climb, even the trucks seemed like they had a hard time going up the mountain driving with something like 15km/hour.
But as my body started accepting what was happening i got into some kind of flow:
I kept my breathing under control while i was getting used to the acid feeling in my legs and the baking sun burning from above, I kept going slow and steady and eventually reached the top. Despite how hard it was, I actually really enjoyed the climb and it amazed me how fast I adapted to the challenge. I had anticipated I eventually would run into a challenge like this and it was so cool to finally try it and I think I did well for a first timer.

When I finally reached the top, it was time for my well deserved reward:
When I saw the restaurant I was quick to find a lot of reasons why I should treat myself with a nice meal. I have a tendency to do that, a lot of times.
The menu was in german language but I did understand the word burger and without caring what was in it I ordered the perfect burger for the perfect moment. Filled with egg, beacon, beef and barbecue sauce I could not help but dedicate a part of this in my blog, it was so tasty and thinking back on it I almost get jealous on myself, I know you are jealous as well.

When you travel alone you start appreciate things in live and opens your eyes to what's important to you.

(not only talking about the burger here)
When I started my travel I had to admit I mostly thought of nature as the most important thing on my trip, to bike through the deep forest and to wild Camp in the mountains.

But if you have read my other posts it's no secret that i have started to appreciate the many people I have met along the way, almost making them the star of the show and here's another story about just that:

(I'm the one in the green shirt if you should be in doubt)

I met these guys on a camp site and I heard they spoke English so I kind-of out of nowhere asked one of them where they came from. It was a student Group from Vienna and they came from all sort of countries to study in Austria.

I just engaged in a conversation with them and they ended up inviting me on their last trip to a small village where we ate some sweet ice cream and i had some very nice talks with some of the people in the group.

sadly there were too many people and too little time that I did not have time to talk to them all, although I wish I had.

You could feel they were so curious to who I was and naturally also made me very curious to them and those I actually had time to talk to left a really nice impression on me, I almost wanted just to go with them back to Vienna.

This whole scenario is something very valuable to me and while I have already tried this before on my tour, for some reason it stood out more clear to me:

It's funny how much a single question can lead to a whole experience in itself.

How easy it would have been for me to just walk by this group of students and never have asked them that one question '' where are you from? ''
But because I actually asked, I can now think back on my time in Austria and say, that was really nice to meet these guys although it was only a couple of hours, but who knows? maybe our paths will connect again some day?

It also made me think back on how many possibilities I have had before, where I decided to just pass by.
I start to realize how much a bit of curiosity can do to not only your travels but also your daily life. First I thought some of my meetings with past people was just pure luck, but when reflecting back on it almost all of the incidents started because either I or the person was a little curious in one way or another and took the step to ask a question.

Before when I was curious about people i had this stupid habit of looking busy or '' important'' (stupid i know) instead of just harmlessly approach them.
This is for sure something I already have become way better at and will keep pursuing. I think it's a important yet not always so easy ability to master, especially when travelling alone.
So I have promised myself to start asking even more questions.

I hope you guys enjoyed part 2 of Austria(and also the last part)! Tomorrow I will be crossing the borders into Slovenia and who knows how that will turn out? I will let you know!

You never know what answers a single question can lead you to.

Holm