Blog: Greetings from Ostereich

I've arrived in Bad Ischl, thus completing 40% of my walk.
Having enterred the Alps, the scenery has picked up significantly. I am in the region called the Salzkammergut. It is a national park with lakes and mountains. It is still too early to make comments about Austrian people, they are helpful but perhaps not quite as friendly as the people in Bavaria. The section between Munich and Salzburg was one of the best simply because the people were so kind and generous. I got invited to camp in someone's back garden and had a BBQ of various kinds of "wurst"and some fish. I was sad to leave the next day but I know that if I don't keep going I'll never arrive in Istanbul.
Then in the village of Halfing, I was greeted by a myriad of locals in traditional costume: liederhosen for the men and pretty dresses and blouses for the ladies. I asked someone where I could get some bread and we started talking and he invited me to some chicken and a Radler in the beer tent. The villages were celebrating the 100th anniverary of Halfing's brotherhood(?) - an organisation originally set up to help people who were too ill, or unable to work and earn their own living.

Tomorrow I head south deeper into the Alps and to the World Heritage Site of
prehistoric Hallstatt.
Hopefully I'll get to the museum to see the painted skulls before it closes!