Saturday, 12th of October, 2019.
Hall it is a cute small town with a weird name. At the main square, this local market is happening and there are a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, bread, jams and other stuff being sold. I try a piece of Camembert cheese and it is just the best one I ever had. It makes all the other Camembert taste like shit. There are also clothes and shoes for selling.
I walk a bit around the town. I visit one church. I see a wedding happening. I try to go a bit up and check if there is a good place to take a photo but I decide not to walk so much. So I just keep low, walking around the historical centre.
I even find a second hand shop. But apparently the items are Queen second hand because the price it is absurd! And they are not even from good brands. Not much of adventure and since it is almost midday, I decide to go.
From the bridge I can have a quite good shot of the town. The beautiful turquoise clean water at the river it gives a good look.
The spot to hitchhike it is not bad at all. Pause for pee behind the cars and so I start.
Martin is married with a Brazilian woman, Gloria, from Paraíba, and they have a daughter. They also met through a website, like Peter and June. He has been in Brazil a few times but for a short period. Apparently her parents were a little bit not happy about him at the beginning, maybe because he is older than her. We talk a little bit about a few things and he drops me in a autobahn. It is not the best place to stand but at least there are a lot of space for the cars to stop and there is not much traffic.
A few minutes after he leaves, Anna stops. I am so happy to see a young girl, alone, who decide to stop. She is not exactly going to Zell am See, where I am trying to go, but to a town which leads to there. Anna works as physiotherapist for sport players. It is kind of cool because she said to travel also with them for the competitions and stuff. And she was in Brazil just a few weeks ago, visiting a friend. Cool! We stop to pick up her sister, another very cool young lady. It is a nice ride and we have a good time, even if small. I even tell to Anna’s sister about the possibilities of her also going to travel. The town where they live it is called Kitzbühel and during winter it is very popular for the Hahnenkamm sky race. Apparently the whole town changes for this weekend, even the prices, which according to the sisters go up crazily! I give them my blog address and they leave.
Pause for pee again, in the woods this time, and I carry on.
Another strong lady, Tereza, who stops for with with her young son, Leonard. They have a organic farm nearby and she tells me this wonderful good news: she keeps the cows and other animals who cannot full fill their “duty” with her anymore, like given milk or something, leaving in the farm, instead of selling or eating them. Is not that wonderful? I than tell her that just the other day I was talking with Ruide about how said it is that I do not find anyone else who, like me, wants to keep animals in a farm just to have them, nothing else. Leonard is very interested in talking to me even that he can just speak Dutch so I try to follow his conversation and Tereza helps with the translation too. They drop me in a such great view place. It is down the mountains, in front a restaurant. The view of the icing mountains it is truly amazing so I decide to sit there to have my breakfast.
The next lady who stops for me is a waitress called Julia. She is quite cool but I cannot remember from which country she actually is. We talk a bit about my travels during the short lift, since she is just going to a town nearby but she said that from there it is very easy to go to Zell am See. And she is right.
The next car it is a family from some Arabic country. Maybe Syria. But I start to believe that Ruide was actually right when he said that a lot of Arabic people were living in Zell am See. Reason for which why he did not like there. He said to have some particular reasons for that. This family, Heinz the father, Diana the mother and their son, William, is very friendly and they are going to shopping in there. They also got surprise about travels and everything and they drop me in the middle of the town, between the lake and the start of the old town. I stay around the lake for a while, admiring, after all it is the mainly reason for which I came here. During that time I see a lot of Arabic people. Visiting or just passing. I am wondering why so many of them in here. What is special about this place to attract them that much to here. I also walk a bit around the old town. Nothing too special though. What I notice that there are a lot of tourism companies offering hiking options and adventures stuff. It might be nice, of course, but I think that even nicer if you just go around hiking yourself, you know? Going up to the mountains around the lake and having a great view from there, making food and spend the night up in there to come back next morning. I wish I could have done that.
For stupidity I let to buy some food later on, forgetting that it is actually Sunday and everything closes earlier. But also in this tiny shitty town, the big supermarkets are actually out of town so I have to buy something in one of the quite local ones. I got this nice tip from a nice guy in a shop. I buy some cheap toasts, a spread cheese and yoghurt for the morning before going to a hotel to get directions and charge my camera a little bit.
I sit in a bus stop to have my dinner. Everything in the way to there it is close. What a fantastic tourist town! The spot where I supposed to make my camping is actually just beside the railway and I cannot hide behind or between any trees. Luckily, it is out of town, like a highway, so there is not much light and I do not think anyone will come here in the middle of the night by walking. The cars can barely see me as well. So I make my camping about 50 metres or more from the road, in the darkness, regretting later at figure that it is full moon night. Of course nothing happen and no one came at night. Just some animal, as usual.
Early morning I realize that the view from there is actually wonderful. The icing mountains again. I take a picture and start to hitchhiking because even though that my next destination is about one hour from here, I do not want to risk anything plus I have no reason to stay here, freezing, while I can be somewhere else visiting the place and I do not know where I will go or what I will do after Bad Gastein, my next destination.