After breakfast a group of about 6 of us set off to explore Innsbruck. We walked fairly fair, just observing the town on a quiet Sunday morning. In Innsbruck, most shops are closed on Sunday so not a lot was open. We did walk to the Olympic Park where the Winter Olympic Games were held in 1964 and 1976. It was raining for the first half of our walk, but the sun began to appear through the clouds by the time we had walked to the Olympic area. We also saw the tall ski jump, but didn’t go to the top because we weren’t sure if we had time. We walked back into the heart of town and ate at about the only restaurant that we saw open, a little pizzeria right around the corner from our hotel. It was good, but nothing to overly brag about.
One thing that I’m really loving about Austria however, is that everything is SO MUCH CHEAPER than in London or France. Water is not more than 2 Euros normally here, when compared to 3-3,50 Euro for water in London or anywhere in France. Food here is also cheap, only around 5-6 Euros for an average meal when it seems like we were paying 10-12 Euros a meal in France. I have also discovered a new candy that I’m addicted to. It’s called Kinder Buenos and it’s amazing! It’s a wafer covered with chocolate filled with a nutella type substance in the middle!
Anyways, after lunch we came back and got ready to go canyoning! Canyoning is where you dress in a wetsuit and have a harness attached to you. You repel, slide down, and jump off waterfalls and rock faces in canyons located up in the mountains. I was a little nervous because apparently canyoning is illegal in the United States, but I was more excited than anything! We met downstairs in the lobby at 2pm and left about 30 minutes later. Turns out that there were 50 of us going on this excursion! That’s 2/3 of the entire study abroad group! It was about a 45 minute bus ride to the Wiggi Rafting business site, and once we got there it probably took us another 30 to get fully suited up and back on the bus. Then we traveled another 30 minutes up very windy (and SMALL!) mountain roads up to the canyon. We passed a sign that said 1,500 meters, but I bet the canyon started at about 2,000 meters up. That’s around 6,000 feet high in the mountains.
When we pulled up to the site, the instructors pointed to a bridge with a river running below it and said, “that’s how we’re going to enter the canyon.” I was like, “excuse me?!?!” The bridge was probably a good 50 feet above the river below it! We were lowered off the bridge and repelled down to the FRIGID water below. The guides also said that today the water was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit! We were in thermal wetsuits, but that still doesn’t help too much when your feet are constantly being submerged in nearly freezing water. I was a little terrified of being lowered down into the canyon by rope, but quickly decided I wanted to go near the front our subgroup, because I didn’t want to stand there just freaking myself out about it for longer than was necessary. It wasn’t that bad. Actually, it was pretty fun!
We then carefully stepped through the rushing water onto rocks and the riverbed until we reached our first obstacle; a jump off a waterfall that was about 4 meters high (or around 12 ft). We were supposed to cannonball into the freezing water below and then swim to the shore. UHHHH WHAT?! Once again, I made myself go near the front of my group because I figure I’m here, and I’m doing this so it’s now or never! The water was so cold it literally took all the air out of my lungs when I hit it. Being submerged under the rushing water was a little terrifying though. Your body starts panicking and going into the survival mindset… which is basically summed up as “get me the heck above the water!” I wasn’t too terribly cold up until this point, but after that jump, it was all over. My hands started going numb with my feet shortly to follow.
As it turns out the first of our 3 jumps we had to make was the highest, so they were a little easier from there on out. However, we had some other very high rock faces that we had to repel off of into the water below. For some reason, I wasn’t very good at repelling down, and normally lost my balance and swung into the rock face. That REALLY hurts when your fingers are cold because everything hurts worse in the cold for some reason.
Towards the end of the canyoning session, one of our last obstacles was a slide. I was slightly nervous about the slide because we hadn’t encountered one yet. I was getting fairly comfortable with the jumps, but there is always a fear of the unknown. The guide said that the slide was “long, but nice,” whatever that meant. He was wrong. The slide was neither long nor nice in my opinion. They didn’t tell us that at the end of the waterfall slide (which the ride lasted all of about 4 seconds) that there was a 10 foot drop into the churning water below. I didn’t see this until about half a second before my body flew off the ledge into the icy water. I don’t even remember if I took a breath. All I do remember is panicking underwater, opening my eyes and only seeing the greenish tint of the water all around me, and trying to find my way to the surface. I felt like I was under that water for ages, although I know it couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds. What I would give to see my face when I popped up from underwater. I must have had a look of shear fear and panic on my face. The slide was definitely the one part of the whole experience that I would not like to repeat again.
By this point of the nearly 2.5 hours that we were in the canyon, my feet had gone completely numb. I could even tell when I was walking on the ground or when my feet were submerged in the water anymore. They simply had no feeling! Laura said, “Now I know how the people on the Titanic felt!”
The experience was a great one and one that I’m so glad I had the opportunity to participate in. I took away so much from today’s adventure in the canyon. I was able to sort of conquer some fears of my own regarding doing risky things. I just have to trust in my body and trust in the instructors that they will keep us safe. By entering the canyon with the mindset of, “I’m here, and I’m doing this, so I might as well do it right,” I was able to be a little more at ease with some of the scary things that we did. But even more than that, canyoning was a great study abroad bonding experience for our whole group. When someone seemed hesitant to go off a jump or repel off a rock face, people were always at the bottom shouting encouraging things. It really made it feel like we were all one unit and all supportive of one another; something that I have to admit I haven’t really felt thus far on this trip. Everyone was able to put aside personality and clique differences to just immerse themselves in this amazing experience and take it for all that it was worth.
Once we finally made it out of the canyon and got back to the base camp, it was nearly 7:30. We didn’t get back to the city of Innsbruck until around 8:30pm and without showering we headed straight to Theresien Brau (the restaurant we ate at the night before) and ordered food. We were absolutely starving combined with exhaustion which meant a cranky Amanda. But no worries, I ordered the Rump Steak (a study abroad favorite for this restaurant), and it didn’t disappoint! It was downright amazing! Probably the best thing I have eaten on the trip thus far! I don’t even like green beans, but I thought these tasted amazing and completely cleared my entire plate.
Now, sitting back in my room reflecting on the events from earlier today, I realize that today has quite possibly been the best and most rewarding day of my study abroad trip thus far. I couldn’t be more proud of myself and how I handled today!
Oh, and one little side note: today my little sister graduated from high school and I had to miss it ☹. I did get to skype with her and the entire extended family afterwards and was able to tell her how excited and proud of her I was! Congratulations, Courtney!
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