The Sound of Music......lingers on....and on....and on....

No, A-junior has not stopped his cheeky comments and I have not stopped enjoying them either...

But I have been focusing a bit on "HijiBiji"--my first Bengali book....hence could not pen down my thoughts here.

On top of that there was the summer vacation.

......and on top of that, A-senior was traveling for work!

.........and on top of that.....let it be. 

I am back. I still appreciate "The Gift of Life", everyday.

;-)

Austria.

This country which I visited for the first time, definitely deserves a blog post. 

There are some places on Earth where the moment you set foot on, it brings back your faith on many things. This was the feeling I had when we reached our small village Kleinarl in Austria.

Snugly set between rugged mountains, gentle slopes, lively waterfalls, narrow roads and beautiful flowers...this village is a life size version of the painting we all made in our childhood. Mountains, river, birds, sun peeping out................restores faith in everything good, unpolluted, pristine!

I found it prettier than Switzerland. It is still left with lot of untouched freshness. Still very new to my eyes and not immediately recognizable (thanks to Bollywood) with "Ah , I know that fountain! Govinda danced around it in Jodi No. 1" or "That's the cow that Sharukh Khan and Kajol patted in Dilwale". Jokes apart, far less commercialized.

I would definitely want to go back again for another vacation to Austria.

The first day, after a very long drive of almost 12 hours, as we checked into our vacation house, we were informed that there is a "summer festival" in the village. Local people dressed in traditional Austrian dress gathered in the village center to celebrate with beer, music in the background, talking loudly, singing and some dancing as well. We sat down to enjoy with some beer as well. It is the ambience that creates the magic. Normally I do not like beer at all...but I had no clue how and when I ordered my second. The church bell in the distance took me away to some faraway land where I was also dressed in that traditional attire dancing to the tune of something that A-senior was playing on a guitar (ahem!). A-junior was trying to ....trying to...
'Ma, can I have another chocolate ice cream?'....brought me back to my senses...

'No you cannot!, you just had one!!'
'But it is vacation Ma!!'

The view from the balcony was the highlight. I really wondered if I should go anywhere else or just sit around and laze for the rest of the week, absorbing the beauty around me! Whether it was the long walks by the stream or the cycling paths or the garden chair...there was beauty all around. Even going to the supermarket around the corner of the street was like going for a sightseeing trip. It had a tiny waterfall, a wooden bridge, pine trees, wild flowers and a log cabin..all within those 100 m between the house and the super market.

Everything around me were perfectly synchronized with each other...and there was the sound of "peace" everywhere. I just cannot stop writing now.......bear with me.

One of the other highlights was Salzburg with its smell of " The Sound of Music".

Once upon a time this movie was shown in my school..one of the very first 'romantic' movies we were allowed to see, shortly followed by "The Roman holiday".Seeing these movies at an age when 'romance'  was THE thing to be curious about and THE thing which was not freely discussed--these movies are very special. These two movies are capable of triggering nostalgia at any point of time. So taking the "the sound of music" tour in Salzburg was so very special that I did not hesitate to sing the song Edelweiss or Do re mi full volume with our tour guide!! They were definitely "few of my favourite things"...Thanks to Whatsapp, I could even share this beautiful moment and experience with my classmates with whom I had shared the movie together in our school blue skirts all those years ago!

Remember this house??

Most of you know what a big foodie I am.( the word 'big' has no double meaning, by the way).

Food was fabulous. Schnitzel was the highlight of course, and the sausages and the ice cream and the cheese cake and the lamb and the....uff!

Yes, we did walk a lot and cycle a bit. This was not so much intentionally done to lose the calories from the above intakes (refer to photos above), but this is what you do in Austria. The land of mountains demand that you walk, run, cycle, ski, trek and climb.....so we did.

A-senior and A-junior

But in one specific case even though we had the energy we actually did not have the right shoes (I see that 'what an excuse' smirk on your face!)

The day went like this.

After some initial googling, we decided to visit this beautiful lake near our house -Jagersee. It was a very warm day and was the last day of our vacation. I put on this pretty skirt with a pair of light pump shoes, both A-junior and senior had short pants with strap shoes and we set off for the lake visit. The lake was stunningly beautiful complete with crystal blue water with a white swan swimming in it. I am sure the first photo of this blog captures a glimpse of the beauty I am talking about. However, after a few photo session clicks, we noticed a narrow dirt road on one side of the lake where many cars were going. A man was sitting there with what appeared to be tickets. The cars stopped by him, got a ticket and moved on into the mountains. The Bhattacharyas got excited too. A-senior immediately went to get the car from the normal parking lot while I waited close to that road with A-junior. Suddenly the man with the tickets came up to me..." well ..ahemm....actually ....are you planning to go up?"

I happily said "yes!!" assuming that he will be happier to sell another ticket.

He said , "Well...hmm...I think you are not suitably dressed for that!, it has a car drive of 4 kms and after that there is a trek of 2 hours to the other side of the mountain!"

I mumbled a 'thank you'. But by then the car was there and there was no turning back ...so we got the ticket and drove on. He smiled.

At the end of the 4 km drive through a very narrow muddy road, we came to a parking lot.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, my dress hit me like a shock wave. All around us were people fully geared up for the trek...shoes, walking stick, water bottle, rug sack--the whole package!

The Bhattacharyas looked so out of place..as if we were invited to a fancy evening party on the mountains!

These hikers also gave us the 'looks'!

Not to be snubbed, the Bhattacharyas decided to at least go a few steps on the hiking path. So we did.

Within a 100 meters we realized that the ticket -man was right! No way can we go further with our ballerinas and strap shoes. We posed around for a few more photos while a few of those fully geared hikers crossed us (totally zapped look in their eyes). Finally we traced our steps back,got into the car and came back the way we went. I waved at the ticket man. He smiled , his eyes clearly said 'I told you so!'.

A beautiful country. Definitely want to go back. With the right shoes this time.

;-)