Travel Journal: Day #2 (Austria)

view from my window this morning!

goats on the farm

deer at "Kinder Park"

weird birds and the one duck that thought he was also part of the weird bird family

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Sunday began at 11am when I woke up to my eye mask around my mouth and my earplugs on my face, listening to the strange noises of farm animals. I could’ve stayed in bed forever but I felt like anything over thirteen hours of sleep was a little excessive. Fresh rolls had been delivered to our apartment/rooms this morning so we had those for breakfast. I needed caffeine and Mom tried to give me herbal raspberry tea (which always tastes weird) so I decided that if I was going to suffer I would rather suffer by drinking black coffee. After finishing the entire cup of black coffee, I decided that I’m about as tough as they get and I had this strange feeling of invincibility: “If I drink black coffee, I can do anything!” (even though I had to run and brush my teeth because I still had the bitter taste in my mouth).

Later on in the day, we went for a walk down the trail that kind of follows the main road in Untertauern. It was a beautiful walk through the woods and they don’t seem to have many bugs here – just flies. SO MANY FLIES. At the end of the trail was “Kinder Park.” There was a small restaurant and a few different areas with animals. I started to go in the area with the two cute little donkeys but right when I approached, they started mating, so I hustled out of there and went to the muskrat pen instead. We fed some grass to the reindeer and then stopped at the restaurant on the way back for some chocolate ice cream.

It started to rain on the way back so naturally I took a nap when we returned to the farm. It was the perfect weather for a nap! But Mom was displeased with all of my napping… always yelling “Megan Louise! No sleeping now of you won’t be able to fall asleep tonight!”

For dinner, we ate here at the farm – potatoes, salad, carrots, watermelon, hamburgers, sausages, etc. Also, white wine from a soda bottle that tasted like it would be from a soda bottle. But it didn’t end here because Martin, the owner of the farm, said he had a surprise for us. We met in the house and he gave us a brief history lesson about his family farm and the area in general. He then wanted to show us the oldest part of the house and we went down to a cold wine cellar. Here he told us about all of the jams, honey, and liquor that they make. We got to try some but it was all so strong. The best part was the nonalcoholic drink that was similar to apple juice.