I have discovered a new happiness that can be reached through hiking up steep trails, breathing in crisp, thin air (however difficult that may be), and sitting atop a peak looking out upon layers of mountains. My trip to Monte Lussari with a fellow CouchSurfer and company gave me all these things and more. What is the more? A primal motivation to speed up a mountain to get to the food at the top.
I met Renata from Poland on CouchSurfing, and she invited me to drive with her and her friend, Dailys from Cuba, to Italy for a hike. I found out Renata had also been an AuPair, but her experience was not as positive as mine.
We drove over to Tarvisio, Italy and stopped at a café for "the best croissants." Then, Renata said we would meet her friends at another restaurant. We had cappuccinos there as we waited. Her friends consisted of consisted of 4 men and 1 woman from Italy. One of the men is part of a band that tours all around, including the United States. Renata met him when he played at a music festival in Klagenfurt.
We started the trail after driving to a parking lot at the bottom of a ski lift. The path was steep from the very beginning. “So this is how it is gonna be,” I thought, ready for the challenge. I sped ahead with my "Guingrich legs" (my father is always boasting about our family's powerful hiking legs), and earned the name of a superhero because I was going so fast. What they did not realize, however, was that the faster I went up, the sooner I could take a breathing break while waiting for them to catch up. My legs could go on forever, but my lungs could not!
Along the way, we witnessed a man running up the trail ("What on Earth? How -"), someone trekking barefoot ("...But why?"), and a man moseying along with his white lab ("That dog is fitter than we are.").
We had only been hiking for about thirty minutes when my stomach began to rumble. With every breath I took, the air made a hollow sound in my belly. The others stopped to eat granola bars. I thought of the restaurant at the top, asking how long it would be before we reached it (only another 1.5 hours, Tatiana said). Alessandro quipped,"Ah, so that's why you're going so fast - to get to the food!"
Renata, Dailys, and I began to lose the group because we chose to hike up the steeper dirt trails that cut through the turns of the wide, gravelly path. We found a trailhead that said "Lussari, 30 min," and decided to part ways with the others so we could get to the peak more quickly.
Wow, was this path a killer on the legs. I thought of the man who ran past us earlier and was mildly embarrassed at how many times we needed to stop for a breather. Alas, we also reached the top of the trail (just more slowly), and fell to the grass on a sloping hill with gorgeous views of the mountains on either side. Some alarmingly large cows grazed in the distance. "Don't get too close unless you have a stick," Renata warned.
We scaled yet another peak to finally get to the crest of the mountain, where a large cross was lodged into a rock. The view - oh, the view - was spectacular. Words cannot quite grasp the beauty of this place. Rolling mountains stretched out on either side, layers of rock and trees standing stark against the thick, fluffy clouds in the sky. A small cluster of white buildings and a church sat atop the hill on the other side.
We contacted the Italians and told them where to meet us, only to find out that they had stopped for a beer at a small cottage along the way. So, the three of us women decided we would get our own celebratory drink at the restaurant while we waited.
Once the others joined us, we had a tasty meal of bread, meat, and pasta. The ones from Italy joked about stereotypical Italian phrases and hand movements, and we laughed at how much of a mess we were making with all the food. Then, all of a sudden - "Was that thunder?"
A beautiful storm rolled into the mountain and the rain began to drizzle around us. Dark clouds approached the peaks before us, and lightning struck in the distance. We finished our meal to the sound of thunder and scurried over to the ski lift. They decided to take the lift down, since “downhill is bad on the knees and we don't want to get stuck in the downpour, no?"
Alas, the ski lift was brought to a halt due to the weather, and a couple hundred people packed into the small building as the rain started to come down, heavy. A group of Austrians began to sing as we waited for the storm to pass, their voices echoing within the concrete walls. Dailys decided to take a nap on the ground, and we circled around her. Renata almost woke Dailys up before the ski lift powered back up, but Manuel told her to wait, saying with that classic Italian lift at the end, "Oh no let her sleep; she sleep like a fresh baby."
Finally, the ski lift was turned on again and we shuffled along the "line," which was more like a throng of tired, cold cows (much like the ones outside that were getting rained on at the moment). We all made it down to the bottom and said our goodbyes. Renata drove us back to Klagenfurt with two beautiful rainbows leading the way as friendly reminders that the storm had finally passed.
All in all, it was my favorite activity I have done in Europe so far. The mountains are my happy place. Thank you, Renata, for the kind invitation, and to the rest of the group for being so fun. I can officially say I have climbed a mountain!
Now, on to conquer the next.
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