This week marks 400 days abroad, our second thanksgiving in Austria, and discovering another beautiful hiking spot.

On Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our neighbors.

We are so thankful to have good neighbors! Everything I made was vegan and it was just as good, if not better than Thanksgiving feasts we have had in the past. Although Austria is known for pumpkin soup and pumpkin oil, pumpkin pie is nowhere to be found. So, unfortunately, no pie made it to the table, but we were stuffed with what we did have!

Here are links to the recipes I used to create our Thanksgiving meal!

• Stuffed Butternut squash

• Green Bean Casserole with Cream of Mushroom soup from scratch

• Sweet Potato Casserole

• Mashed potatoes

• Apple walnut cranberry salad

• Homemade lemonade

After a little research, I learned there are just shy of 10,000 Americans living in Austria. Austria does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but in Vienna, Americans can go to select restaurants where Thanksgiving meals are prepared! I thought that was pretty cool, but it has been cancelled the last two years due to Covid.

This weekend, we discovered Gosausee!

Gosausee is a mountain lake overshadowed by the Dachstein and only a few twists and turns from Hallstatt. Hallstatt, a town of 800 people, brings in a million tourists a year, but only a fraction of those tourists know about Gosausee. With close proximity to Hallstatt and the Dachstein rising above the mountain lake, Gosau is one of the top travel destinations in the Salzkammergut.

As we were approaching our final destination, it looked as if Dachstein was an Austrian version of the Italian Dolomites.

Once we parked the car, we walked up the road to get to the beginning of the trail. Gosausee is divided into two sections “Vorderer and Hintere” or “front and rear”. We just walked around the front section this time, but when we go back we will make sure to see both. The front section took about and hour and a half to walk around. Everything was blanketed in fresh snow which made for a magical walk.

Gosausee is more than a lake, it is also home to two via ferratas. If you recall Week 29 and Week 33, we learned how to use the via ferratas. The routes at Gosausee are the Laserer-Alpin via ferrata and the via ferrata on the Donnerkogel.

After 20 minutes into the walk, we discovered the starting point for the Laserer-Alpin via ferrata! It is a secured route that runs directly above the water. We will have to wait until May to take our turn on the route.

As for the via ferrata on the Donnerkogel, we noticed it high up in the mountains. We heard about the “stairs to heaven” when we moved here, but never knew where it was–until now. This route would not be for the faint of heart, but we will conquer it before our time is up in Austria.