It’s November 15, 2006. The internet is booming with animated gifs of Zidane when I click the register button on a -for me- ‘new’ site: Last.fm. I’m thinking: “Boy… another startup? Well, let’s do this!”. Today, it’s September 6, 2011 and I tend to forget my iTunes library is still tracking every song to my Last.fm account. Since 2006 it tracked more than 38000 song plays. Now that’s cool.
Once and a while I check my top 15 and wonder if it’s the same as I’d expect. My music taste seems to switch every half year or so… maybe it’s because I’m getting older, maybe it’s because of the shit I went through the last years, maybe it’s just because of the season change, but I guess it’s because I’m one of those fools who listens to music until they are sick of it, can’t help it. Lately I’m addicted to Adele’s beautiful voice and piano.
What’s nice about Last.fm is that when you really love a song, you can tell them by clicking the “love” button :) When I check my loved tracklist, it’s full with songs I totally forgot about or just don’t have anymore in my music library. Awesome to rediscover some old songs. Here’s one I totally forgot about, enjoy!
Last February in Austria was all about snow… And last week I visited Austria again for a summer-trip. Unfortunately it was a bit rainy, but I had an awesome time and met some cool people again.
With a couple of Belgian journalists and bloggers we started our trip in Innsbruck Airport where we got a rental car and 2 GPS devices: a Mio car GPS and a Magellan eXplorist. Main goal of the trip: to find our way on to the next item on the program by using Lat and Lng coordinates. Which actually wasn’t that hard tbh ;)
First item on the program: “Via Ferrata” next to the Stuibenfall, with 150 meters the highest waterfall in Tirol. I had no idea what to expect from a “Via Ferrata” and thought we would just walk towards the waterfalls and back, but when I got a safety harness and helmet I realized… this might get ugly with my fear of heights. On some points it got a bit scary but by the time we got on top of the mountain, the rush of standing next to a 150 meter high cliff was awesome. I even wrote my name in a little book that lay next to the mountain for visitors to write in. Check this movie if you haven’t seen it yet to get a pretty good idea of how it felt. It all looks pretty cool and it was cool too but totally not difficult, because you just can use the iron steps to climb the mountain… thats why it’s called “iron road” Sherlock. You could call it: “mountain climbing for the rest of us”.
Day two started out pretty cool too. With the use of the GPS-devices we found our way towards Area47. Area47 is a 20.000 sqm water paradise in the hearth of Ötztal. There are a lot of concerts and events that are sponsored by big-shots Red Bull, Adidas, KTM, etc. There is water world with a huge slide, diving platform, water canon, … You can go rafting, canyoning, wall climbing, do a high-rope course, etc. Check out the site or download a PDF to check what Area47 has to offer.
We went rafting and tried out the high-rope course under a 30 meter high bridge. Rafting was a first for me but I totally love it and love to do it again some time. The high-rope course was not my thing though. Strangely enough I wasn’t scared of the height, but the course was pretty heavy. I ended the course with pretty sore arms but I’m just a wuss and my physical condition isn’t what it should be so nevermind that ;)
Day 3 looked promising, schedule of the day: E-Biking with some cool KTM bikes and … yes … beauty + spa + herbal-massage at the hotel! E-Biking is not cool if you’re a real mountain-biker, but can be as heavy as you like. The main concept is that you get a boost by the electronic motor in the rear wheel. You decide how hard the motor pushes you, but you have to keep pedaling for it to work. You could call it mountain-biking for the rest of us. Again, at this time in my life my condition sucks donkey balls so for me personally that last climb up the Vorarlberg mountain was the heaviest thing on the whole trip, even with e-power :P But that’s all pretty relative if you start noticing the beautiful landscape and mountains that Austria has to offer. Makes you feel so small.
Thank god for the person that added wellness and a massage to our schedule! I’m not a regular beauty and spa visitor, but I sure couldn’t have picked a better place and time to enjoy the well-ness of the hotel wellness. Hotel Fernblick in Montafon is a luxurious hotel, with a cosy bar, cool bartender, nice spa and sauna, pool, panorama view, etc. I’d strongly recommend this hotel if you would like to visit this area. Not sure if it’s the perfect hotel to go with children but perfect if you’re out to relax and chill.
On the last day we visited Aktivclub Montafon. There is a climbing course like the one in Area 47 but not so high and definitely not that hard. Perfect if you have brave little kids. The coolest thing at the Aktivclub is not the climbing course though… there is a reeeeaaaalllly fun ride downhill with an “alpine coaster” (video below). You’re in a cart like this going downhill on a track. You can brake wherever you like, but if you don’t, the cart will brake for you at some points and will get speeds up to 40km/h :) Sweet indeed!
The Cover Song Archive is a collection of songs you know by people you don’t. I love it! Small warning… once you start, you’ll spend some time there :)
