Cloud 9

From Ellmau I moved on to Innsbruck, one of Austria’s bigger towns.  With about 100,000 people it’s a bit bigger and busier than Ellmau, but still a nice little place surrounded by mountains in all directions.  This whole mountains in all directions deal is a pain in the bum.  At one stage I walked out a laundromat (yay for clean clothes!) keen to head back to the hostel.  I saw the mountains and was like, oh yeah, if they just stay on my left I’ll be back to the hostel in no time.  Der, wrong mountains and I ended up half way across the wrong end of town before I realised!

Innsbruck has a really lovely little tourist strip of old buildings, winding alleys and a place called the Golden Roof.  The roof is made of over 1000 gold tiles and was built in the 1500’s.  One thing I noticed in Innsbruck is that there are a lot of beggars.  Clean, well-dressed beggars.  And a lot of women too.  I really don't understand begging in first world places, especially when it's not drunks and drug-fucked dicks who have done it to themselves.

Not sure what these shifty buggars are up to, but one is holding a beer so it must be a super plan they're scheming

      

 

One of the touristy things you can do in Innsbruck is go to the mountain-top via cable cars.  It actually takes 3 separate cable cars to get you to the very top, but it's well worth it, the view is spectacular.  At the top of the second cable car is a ski, a bar and some deck chairs.  There wasn't much snow, but enough for some tricky-dicky's to be doing some jumps and stuff which was cool.

 

Another thing I did was go out to Krystalweltten.  For some reason, I think maybe because a lonely planet guide said take a jumper, I thought the place was like an ice sculpture place.  It wasn't, it's the Swarkovski crystal museum, still pretty cool if not a little bizarre and had the most expensive gift shop ever.  12,000 euro crystal dragon anyone?