Road Trip: Hallstatt/Fountain of Youth

Hallstatt might have been my favorite city, if I had to pick one. I would love to go back one day. The houses are built right into the mountains, and there’s a big lake. 

Our first meal was along the edge of the lake.

We went down into the Salt Mines of Hallstatt and had to put on these jumpsuits to do so. We looked and felt like we were being admitted to an insane asylum, but we managed to have fun wearing them. (Maybe we should be admitted to an insane asylum)? 

 Just working on my sorcery. :)

There were slides to go down in the salt mines—they record your speed and take a picture (it felt a little like a Disneyland ride)! But Cort and Jordan sneaked away from the group to go down again, but little did they know that it records how many people slide down, so our tour guide thought that 2 people were missing at the end. She was a good sport about it, and when two pictures of both Cort and Jordan showed up, she said they had to purchase both photos, which would total up to 10 Euros each. She was totally kidding, but she had Cort and Jordan believe it for a little while. It was so funny! 

Afterward, we had ourselves a little picnic lunch and then went swimming in the cutest little area! There was a pretty cool park, a diving board, a little island, and the weather was perfect! The lake was really cold, so we would jump in, swim around for a few seconds (maybe minutes) and then get back out again.

We went hiking in the Alps afterwards (it’s our new favorite activity). We ran into Cort, Sarah, Luke, Anna, Andy, and Jenna. Who else just runs into their friends when they’re hiking in the Austrian Alps?! I felt like I was in the middle of a Caspar David Friedrich painting! It was just so beautiful. I tried to capture the beauty through taking photos, but it seriously doesn’t do it justice. 

 The troll under the bridge.

 I feel like this could be an ad for spring water from the Alps!

Notice how pale my legs are...haha

 Caspar David Friedrich moment. :)

 On the way down the mountain, we played on the rocks by the waterfalls—FREEZING COLD WATER. Cort, the little daredevil/child that he is, decided that he wanted to jump into one of the pools of this freezing cold glacier water. He's got the best reaction!

The rest of the boys jumped in, too.

Then, we girls decided to as well! Everyone in our group jumped into this ridiculously cold water!

There was a little cave to explore after you jumped in, but all my thoughts left my head as soon as I submerged myself under that water, except, “I. MUST. SURVIVE. GET. ME. OUT. OF. THIS. WATER!” Needless to say, I completely forgot to go check out the little cave. Haha :)

So after jumping into the fountain of youth, boys became men:

Cort struggled to make a manly face…haha

And girls became women:

I compiled a video of everyone jumping in. It's on Facebook, so if you care to see it, check there. I tried uploading it here, but it's not working. If I can figure out what's wrong, I'll upload it here, too.