St Johann and Tirol
I couldn’t book the bus out of Munich, so I had to catch the train to St Johann in Tirol in Austria. The train ride was scenic enough to more than make up for it though.
The Tirol region is a large mountainous area of Austria, with loads of small alpine towns. It’s full of stunning scenery, and I imagine a lot of time it’s also full of tourists. There’s hiking, paragliding, skydiving, etc. to do in summer, and of course skiing in winter.
I was in a compartment in the train from Munich for a while with a middle aged American couple that were quite nice, and then I had to change trains to head into St Johann. It was a really nice (and hot) day, so when I got off the train I had a full view of the mountain range towering above the town!
It took me ages to check-in though, because no-one was around at the hostel/pub. I did eventually get a room key though. I was staying up the road in a guesthouse in my own room. The place was packed with several different tours. They run Oktoberfest tours from St Johann, and bus everyone down to Munich each day. It’s not a bad idea really, because the trip is less than 2 hours and the accomodation would be much cheaper and easier.
There was apparently a big party going on that night that I could join. The three big tour groups (plus others, including me) all get together in a big tent with some live bands. I decided that in the interests of meeting people here in this new town I should shake off the hangover and join them! 
It was a good choice – great party!
The next day the weather started to turn shit. It started raining, and the temperature was dropping. The weather forecast wasn’t promising either, but I wanted to see some more of the area so I booked another couple nights. The following day I went to Innsbruck (aparently the capital of the region) to spend the day doing something productive. It was pouring down rain, but I wandered around the old town and saw the “sights”.
Today I decided to do a hike, because the weather was sunny again. The tourist office was only moderately helpful as to what to do, but I got a map and some idea of what to expect. I was on my own and not quite sure how fit I’d be (..too much beer drinking lately), so I didn’t do the most difficult, awesome looking walk that I’d been checking out on the skyline. The one I did was really good though, with great views! It was on a ski mountain, so there were times that I could tell that I’d be on a ski run in winter. I climbed to about 1700m (the top of the gondola) but didn’t have the time to do the remaining steep section to the peak (another 300m altitude). The cloud was thick up there anyway. Would have been awesome on a clear day though!
The great thing about walking on a mountain like this was that I could catch the gondola back down . Cost me 6 euros, and was worth every euro-cent!
I’ve been a bit bored the last few days (despite the alpine scenery). I’m a bit isolated and not meeting anyone, so I’m looking forward to the bus out tomorrow lunchtime to Italy!