Mountain high friendship
After an amazing week in Budapest, it was time to head deep into the Alps to one of the most picturesque places I’ve had the chance to visit. Innsbruck is just wow. Surrounded by snowcapped peaks on all sides, nestled into the valley below them, it’s the quintessential alpine town.
My travel day to Innsbruck was divided in two with a welcome stop in Budapest’s rival city, Vienna. Everyone seems to have an opinion on which is better. Unfortunately, I only had a few hours in town, which is definitely not enough time to create any real opinion. I grabbed coffee in a wonderful cafe and wandered around the old town, casually passing the time. I found it clean and charming, but not as striking as Budapest.
I was coming to Innsbruck to visit my friend Ramona, whom I’d met in Kotor, Montenegro back in June of 2022. We’ve stayed in contact and become good friends and great pen pals. It’s one of my absolute favorite parts about my adventures to meet new friends and then meet them again elsewhere in the world.
This is Ramona’s city, and I love getting that local perspective on everything. It takes your immersion level up many, many notches. With only a few days together we got right to the exploring and all the catching up. We walked into town for coffee, then explored the old town before having drinks up at the 360 Cafe, a bar with amazing views of the entire city.
Over the next couple days we did a few hikes into the mountains around the city, enjoying stunning views of the valley and city below. We indulged in different coffee shops each morning and imbibed in a few cocktail bars at night.
All the while, we caught up on each other’s lives over the last two years. I was extremely interested in hearing her tales from hiking the Te’Aroroa, which I’ll be attempt at the end of this year. She had great stories and provided me with an immense amount of first hand, practical information.
Sadly, my time in Innsbruck was brief and after only a couple of days it was time to move on again.