A circle closes - visit in Hausmening

Trichy aiport - 13.6.17

We were super lucky and didn’t need to wait long at our spot in Vienna till somebody picked us up. It was a nice and fancy looking Mercedes and therefore in the beginning we didn’t think the guy would stop to pick us up but he was. He was in his mid fifties and just visited his son in Vienna. We started to talk what we do, that we lived in India the last year and now are traveling back home by land. He wasn’t sure if he understood us and so he asked again:

You travel back from India to Germany / France by land? So by train, bus and hitchhiking?

He was clearly surprised and didn’t expect that. And when we continued our story that we would go to our friend’s place in Hausmening now who lived with us for a year in India he was totally overwhelmed and decided to drop us at the doorstep of our friend’s house.

It was amazing, nice, weird and unreal at the same time when we knocked at Matthias’s door and he opened. It has been almost three months since we left India, since we said good bye to him at the airport in Trichy and since we started our travel. He was there when everything for us started and now that it is almost ending he is with us again. At the same time it was such a normal feeling to hug him, to joke around and to spend time together. Also his mom was there to welcome us. She was quite excited, very kind and happy to (finally) meet us!  

Matthias in his favorite clothes - our little Robin Wood

The next day we woke up and it was raining… and since then it seems to have stopped. But after an amazing and talkative breakfast with Matthias and his parents we went to their cottage a little bit more in to the forest. On the way we collected to of his friends: Michael and Luise. Inspite of the rain we walked up the hill and tried to image the amazing view which was covered by fog and clouds. Matthias as very keen on showing us the hunter spots as well as trying to spot some deers or wildlife. When we came back to the cottage we were wet and cold and we moved on to a small but traditional Gasthaus – a kind of inn. We ate some nice traditional food with lots of fresh mushrooms!!! So yummy!!!

As the area of Amstetten is famous for their Most – and also called Mostviertel (Cider quarter) we went to a small, interactive museum to learn something about it. Most is made out of pears traditionally there instead of apples. As Michael is from a family company where they produce Most he invited us over to try different types and explained us some more about it. We never have drunken Most before but we both liked it and ended up buying a bottle.

Chilling and having fun in the kids' section of the museum

In the evening we were all together invited to Matthias’ cousin’s birthday party. Laura just turned 18 and was throwing a big birthday party. It was nice to meet a bunch of Matthias’s friends and family and to receive an impression on how and where he was growing up.

The next day was all about Matthias’s welcome back party. We did different kinds of preparation during the day and got to know his sister and her boyfriend who came from Vienna for the party as well as his grandparents. Almost 40 friends and family members came to celebrate with him is belated birthday and to welcome him back home. It was a nice evening with good food, nice people, good beer and cyder, some funny music and dances and some funny presents like this one: 

the similarities are there - so there is a reason why he gets called Jesus

After a good sleep we woke up and helped to tidy up the place before Matthias’s mom showed Julie and Hannah how to make Kaiserschmarrn. The translators suggested the following translation: cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins. It was delicious and we started to pack our things before Michael and Matthias to dropped us at our next hitchhiking spot. A short time after they left it started to rain but luckily for us we didn’t need to wait for long this time as well … off to Salzburg our last stop before our final destination!!!

Close to Salzburg

Thank you Matthias, your family, Michael and Luisa for welcoming us so kindly to Hausmening, for showing us around, speaking English or standard German with us and giving us the feeling to have a home for a couple of days!