Week 171: Hiking the Sonnstein

This week, we reached our 1200th day living in Austria!

The Traunstein at sunset as heavy clouds were rolling through

The bigger the days become, the closer we get to this expat journey ending. We still have nearly 600 to go, but reaching this number of days made us stop and pause to reflect on this once-in-a-lifetime journey we've been lucky enough to have. We’re not sure where we’ll end up next, but I guess that’s all part of the adventure.

To celebrate these 1200 days, we hiked up the Sonnstein–one of the mountain peaks you can see from our window.

We hiked here for the first time in Week 35. We came back again in Week 133. And this week we hiked it in the setting sun.

The beginning of our Sonnstein hike

Looking back at our recap and video from the first time we hiked, it is cool to see how our mentality has shifted and our bodies have adapted to these kinds of hikes.

Hiking the Sonnstein

Hiking the Sonnstein and pointing to the Feuerkogel

The first time we climbed this mountain, we said it was all uphill and strenuous. While it is still both of those things, the mental and physical hurdles seemed noticeably more manageable the second, third, or fourth time we’ve done it.

Looking out at the Ebensee valley

I suppose this hike can be a metaphor for our expat journey. Since we’ve done it once, the mental and emotional hurdles for the next move will seem noticeably more manageable….maybe ;)

The Ebensee side of Traunsee

Closeup of the mountains towering over the Traunsee