living in a castle

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself how beautiful your surroundings are? I know that at home I enjoy the fall colors, the beautiful blue waters of the lake. I have never lived in a place where I can not only see mountains, but I am surrounded by them. I am living in a valley of the Austrian Alps in a castle over 1,000 years old. We just finished our first class of the week and I trek through the hallways and up and down stairs until I come to my favorite place of all – the East Wing. Here there is a large community room with big leather couches and a massive fireplace – perfect for homework and talking with others after dinner. Then we step on a balcony and on the other side is a small glassed in cottage. There is glass on all four sides and from each one, you are looking at mountains. Even writing this now I can see for miles the tall peaks and forest covered mountainsides that seem to stretch forever along the sides of the valley we are living in.

We are living in a castle called Schloss Mitersill – which over the years has turned into a Christian supported retreat center for travelers or groups. It feels more like a very large house with so many rooms and places to sit and relax. But where you can tell it is the castle is from where I am sitting. I see the exposed rock and stone on the balcony. The inside is full of wood and sitting in class makes you feel like you are still in college somewhere. But outside, with the mountains, the castle makes you feel like you are living hundreds of years prior.

The other night, we found a stairway to the top of the castle and a large deck. There was a ladder going up to a small platform on the roof and we just gazed at the stars. Myself, Waller, Jesse, Stefanie and Erik tried to find some constellations, saw shooting stars and had many laughs.

We had our own church service in the Schloss on Sunday morning. Dan and I played and sang a few songs and Jake introduced an audio sermon we all listened to. Later that day, we took a 45 minute bus ride to nearby Krimml, home of the tallest waterfall in Europe. The falls are in stages, so you can’t really see the grandiose scale of it, but there was a beautiful trail that led up to the different stages. We stopped along the rocky shores of the river to eat, between the upper and lower parts of the falls. I dunked my head in the cold water and we sat out on the big boulders in the middle of the river.

The IT Crowd (information technology) is a show on BBC that Ben Waller turned us onto. We watched 2 episodes last night and I have never laughed out loud as hard at a show. It reminds me of The Office, but a little more zanier.

So the Schloss is up a few hundred feet from the town, which makes going into town quite the adventure. It takes a good 15-20 minutes depending on your speed and going up is fairly strenuous. We are talking about going down the hill today to get some more snacks and to explore a bit, but that climb sort of forces us to stay and relax here at the castle. That is totally fine by me, as this place truly is amazing.

This coming weekend, we are heading into Slovenia, a former communist country. I’ll write about Slovenia when I get back home next week.