life without a plot

Firstly — Merlin 5.05, where things are finally getting serious. (And a bit more ambitious than ~comic relief~, thank God.) The one minor quibble I have is that I seem to remember that Arthur was already more respectful towards magic/the old religion, but my memories are more than a bit fuzzy here because for the last couple of seasons I haven't exactly been watching very attentively. This aside, The Disir is the best and strongest episode in a very long while, and it made me go from meh to genuinely curious what kind of an ending we are heading towards.

( spoilers )


Secondly, picture spam. This is from my brief and too-soon-over holiday last week, before the snow. From Hallstatt up to the Wiesberghaus (1.884m). I only regret not taking pictures on my way up when it was still sunny... (In case anyone is interested, this (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is what it looked like on top. I'm only linking these pictures because they're really crap photography-wise, but there is little you can do if the sky is completely colourless/white...)

( descent into the mist )

These are from last Sunday, although after last week at work it feels so much longer than that. From Mitterlengau up the Schusterkogel, and then along the rim of the valley via Teufelssprung and Hohe Penhab back down again. The mood is very different here, because while the mountains are about the same height, this is slate rather than limestone, so there are alpine meadows right up until 2.000+ m. (Which personally I'm not so very fond of, because cows? Large heavy animals with pointy horns, and not always so peaceful, especially when they're in a herd with their calves. I'd definitely prefer them behind fences. At least it was apparently still too early in the year for them to be all the way up, so most of the hike was blessedly bovine-free...)

This was also the most relaxed tour, because I didn't put any pressure on myself, but let myself stop for taking pictures, breaks, or just to sit down and enjoying the view for a bit, because I knew I had to drive back to Vienna the next day and really, really didn't want to leave. I don't remember having felt so at peace for a long time, although sadly last week killed that mood pretty fast.

Horses, for a change. At least better than cows, although I try to keep a respectful distance too...



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Finally sorted out and uploaded (although admittedly still rather indiscriminately) my pictures from last week's hiking tours in Salzburg to flickr. They're really nothing much photography-wise, all credit is due to the sheer gorgeousness of the landscape, but I enjoyed that time so much that my sense of self-critique refuses to cooperate. Hence, picture spam.

My level of fitness, or rather lack thereof, still makes 1.000+ m of hight difference a bit of an exercise in masochism, but I've never been to Salzburg this early in the year, and not only was it still incredibly quiet and peaceful — even on a Sunday I was more or less alone for most of the day and only met a handful of hikers towards the end of the tour —, but it caught me by surprise how much spring still lingers up in the mountains. Above 1.700, 1.800 m there were still plenty of snowfields, and in other places you could still see the pressed-down dried grass where the snow had molten only recently, with the first flowers coming out.

This batch of pictures is from Monday when we had a heatwave and I got up at 4:30ish and started out at 6:15 in the morning to avoid the worst of the heat, up to the Passauer Hütte. (Which I forgot to take a picture of, but you can sorta kinda see on a high resolution version of the tenth picture, where the right edge of the clouds meets the top of the mountain.) The pictures were taken on the way down, so they're in reverse order, snow and rocks to tree-line and flowers...

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It's a bit weird posting these pictures now, and almost impossible trying to recreate the mood three weeks further into spring and back at home, but I was so busy writing that I didn't even look at them once I downloaded them. From my trip to the Chiemsee on the 11th, which was just completely, utterly gorgeous. I was walking on the beach rather than the footpath for the most part (from Chieming to Seebruck & back again), completely alone except for gulls & ducks; all pastel blues and browns, the water on one side, a cloudless sky for most of the day, the mountains faint silhouettes across the lake, and on the other side dry, yellow reeds blending into the brown of the still bare trees; stones covered with half dried mud and shells under my feet. All very quiet and lovely. It was a strange in between state of things, not quite winter, but not really spring yet either. In the woods you could already see the first flowers, snowdrops and Schneerosen and crocuses and Leberblümchen, but a couple of days later I was going for a walk up the Bluntautal, and although the altitude isn't really that much higher, it was like a trip back into winter especially towards the end of the valley that doesn't get a lot of sun; everything, including the path, still covered by an unexpected amount of snow. And then, walking back again, gusts of warm wind on my face, a striking contrast to the chill from the snow crunching under my feet, tearing last year's dried leaves from the beech trees and blowing them across the snow. It felt like spring cleaning, and somehow strangely joyful.





( +8 )

And two more from the Hallstätter See. I barely took any picture on that day because everything was just bound to come out like the worst kind of postcard kitsch, but it's a really beautiful place...

( +2 )

Some more photos from a week ago, this time from Hallstatt. Again, nothing much photography-wise, but it's a pretty place...






( +11 )

Zero points for originality, since a version of this photo probably exists on millions of computers all over the world, not to mention photo albums before that, but I still kind of like it...

( +3, because I couldn't decide which to pick )

Sunday with sister & niece, who is being very cute, climbs up to the slide (no steps, just round wooden rungs) all by herself, leaving me open-mouthed and staring, and, noticing a spider-web says 'Spin-nen-netz' with near perfect articulation. Three weeks ago I was blowing soap bubbles for her, now I'm holding the soap water for her to avoid major spillage & she's doing it herself. And catches them again. Clearly the bestest & most intelligent niece ever. *g* She still loves unpacking my bag & wallet, and was fascinated by my Pet Shop Boys Actually CD. Neil Tennant is the funny man ('lustiger Mann'), Chris Lowe isn't so funny ('der nicht lustig'). They're so much more fun when they're growing up, instead of vomiting milk on you.