Dornbirn, Austria

***This post was not finished in time to have it in proper sequence - read it as after Innsbruck. Also, a post for Vienna, which followed Dornbirn, is soon to come.***

Carla and Mathias extended the offer for us to join them in their hometown, Dornbirn, over the long weekend. Dornbirn is located in the far western tip of Austria, bordered by Switzerland, Germany. Mathias' mother's birthday party was to be held on Saturday, and she told Mathias to bring along whomever he wanted. We opted to accept, excited to see their home and to experience a place that we knew nothing about. After a two and half hour train ride, we arrived in Dornbirn and walked two minutes to Mathias' home to meet his parents. We were welcomed warmly with wine, coffee, snacks, and delicious Swiss chocolates that Mathias so generously offered to share. After a short visit, we dropped our bags at Carla's house where we met her mother and would sleep while in Dornbirn. Afterwards, we went a friend's house where we drank some tasty Austrian beers while playing a drinking game with a unique set of cards made specifically for this game. We had a great time and shared lots of laughs and a few too many rounds of schnapps. On the way home we were all craving food, so we stopped at the only kebab shop still open by the train station. They were closing up and made us eat our food around the corner out of sight from other hungry potential partrons that may keep the night crew there even later. On our stroll home, Marisa explains here questionable sidways stumbling "I just like to walk horizonatlly when I'm having fun." Despite the time change the next morning came a bit early for everyone, but we had to make it to the open market in the city center to pick up various produce, snacks, cheeses, and meats for the birthday party later that day. While Mathias and Carla rounded up everything on the list, we tagged along and wandered around a bit, stopping for fresh baked breads for breakfast and sampling some delicious apple and grape juice that was pressed before your eyes - amazing. Despite being the 9th largest city in Austria, Dornbirn is a small sleepy town by American standards. It has an intimate feel to it, especially at the market -everyone seemed to know everyone, and the atmosphere was very friendly.

After the market Marisa and I made our way back to Carla's house to get a nap and a shower in before the party. Upon our arrival at the party, we sat down in the kitchen and admired the well composed hors' d'orves trays that Mathias and his mother had been working on. There were large spreads of speck, ham, smoked salmon, marinated olives, emantaller, boursin, breads, radishes, peppers, carrots, cucmbers, etc. As the guests arrived, we greeted them and introduced ourselves and by the time dinner was to start, there were about 14 of us including Mathias' twin brother Sebastian, older sister Angelica and her boyfriend, as well as a few friends and relatives. Immediately there is an interesting twist to an Austrian birthday, at least to this family's: the dinner begins with the birthday cake! Before we knew it we were humming along to an Austrian dialect version of "Happy Birthday," and promptly had a big slice of homemade chocolate mousse cake in front of us and a glass of chapagne in our hands. BIrthday presents were next, which included a comical yet endearing poem composed by Sebastian about the family coming together for Mom's birthday and two beautiful scrapbooks composed of pictures and momentos from the family's trip to India earlier this year. For the next several hours we lingered over wine or beers, eavesdropping on conversations, taking in all the animated facial expressions and gestures, trying to piece together stories, and then being filled in by Carla or Mathias on what silly point was being argued or which story was being recounted. At one point a joke was cracked about the shirt that Sebastian was wearing that day... and the day before, and the day before, saying that it was "self-cleaning". Sitting at the end of the table and at this point under the impression that very little English was understood, we VERY sarcastically joked, "haha, kind of like our underwear." This would later come back to haunt us as we were having a beer at the local pub with Angelica, Mathias and Sebastian's sister. It is key to remember that although we don't speak German, they understand English. Joke at your own risk. (I would like to clarify that our underwear is washed very regularly with soap and water.) By the end of dinner we enjoyed a little lemoncello and a mystery lime green digestif, and were invited back to lunch the next day at the house. We decided that night that we should get an early start on the day and drive out to Lake Constance.

Voralberg at this time of year is beautiful with firey foliage of reds, oranges, and yellows streaking across the trees, reminiscent of Vermont or Tenneesse in the height of Autumn, and with a similar elevation and landscape. Along Lake Constance is an outdoor opera house that which features a performance over the mild weather periods, with two years between each different opera. The set is magnificent, set about 100 feet into the lake with stadium seating just on land. There was a poster hung, with pictures from all of the previous sets, each one immaginative, enormous, and highly dynamic. The opera house has always been a popular destination for locals and regional residents, but it has enjoyed recent fame from a sequence shot for the latest James Bond: Quantum of Solace film. After admiring the lake and strolling along its perimeter, we returned to the car where we were whisked up a steep, twisting road. We arrived at a church perched atop a large hill with a commanding view of Lake Constance, the Alps, Dornbirn, and the surrounding villages and farms. We admired the view for a bit and then worked our way back to Dornbirn for lunch.

Lunch began with Leberspätzle, a brothy soup made of beef liver and spätzle (flour and water dough, boiled to pasta) and fresh chives, followed by a wonderful vegetarian Lasagna. For dessert we each had a plate of a pear poached in red wine until tender along side an amazing chestnut mousse. Afterwards we enjoyed strong esspresso and tea. We sat and chatted about what to do now, weighing our options for far too long. We finally settled on a hike, in which Sebastian volunteered to take us with his two friends from Bregenz, a town nearby. After changing into proper hiking attire, we took off for a mountain hike in the Alps.

Although neither of us couldn tell you the name of the mountain, it was about an hour away from Dornbirn. On the drive, we chatted with one of Sebastian's friends, who recently returned to Austia from a three month backpacking trip throughout the United States. She took the Greyhound bus from city to city (or sometimes small town). She was able to visit New York and Washington D.C. of course, but also a small island in Maine, reachable only by boat, and an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It was an interesting conversation on both ends. We all had cases of the "travel bug" yet she had seen more of the United States than we have, and we've seen more of Europe than she has. The hike itself was great. As always, just to be outdoors and in the mountains was such a treat. Sebastian had hiked this trail many years ago and was excited to make it to the cave at the top. The trail was on par with a lot of hiking that we have done in New England, but at one point there was a small river that we had to traverse using steel cables tethered to boulders and gingerely planting our steps on mossy, slippery rocks, and finally leaping to the bank on the other side. It was intimidating to look at, but exciting, and not as difficult a manuever as we had originally thought. By the time we made it to the cave, darkness was setting in fast, so we retreated quickly, thankful for the headlamps and flashlights that we brought along.

Once back in Dornbirn we enjoyed a special saffron pasta that Carla's mom made for us, and then the five of us enjoyed a low-key night by the fire, exchanging stories and laughs in their backyard. We checked the train schedule for the next day and called it an early night.