I mentioned before that I would give you a bit of a taste of the iPhone4 camera in my previous post. Had the chance to try it out on some Sichuan food last week in the city. The place is called Sichuan House and is within Melbourne’s CBD Chinatown. I caught up with some colleagues there, the first time we would be meeting since before I left for Europe.

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The best is to get off at Melbourne Central Station (if you’re coming into the city from the suburbs) and walk to the restaurant. The place serves lots of spicy cuisine, for those of you who are not familiar with Sichuan cooking. I was prepared for a burning dinner.

One of the starters we had was beef slices with coriander, sprinkled in chili flakes. The spice builds up with every consecutive slice you eat. I love coriander, one of my favourite spices.

Sweet and sour pork (soft-bone pork, so you can just chew straight through the bone and eat it with the meat or spit it out if you’re not one for eating “everything”) – yet another starter.

Eventually we moved on to the main courses and had our veggie dish, stir fried long beans with minced pork in garlic.

Probably the most entertaining dish for me was the “soup” we ordered. It actually was some beef dish, which today I still don’t know the name of. But it came in this giant square bowl filled with this thick sauce and lots of chili literally floating on the surface. To find the beef, you had to scoop it up from the bottom of the bowl. It was extremely spicy and I don’t think we managed to finish it either (I was pretty full after that dinner that I couldn’t stare at anymore food).

Moving swiftly on to a chicken dish for a change of pace and spice!

There also was quail, which surprisingly did not even look the slightest bit red hot.

My thoughts on the restaurant: The food was certainly delicious, but we ordered way too much for ourselves to handle and all I felt afterward was the urge to go for a digestive walk that would last the next hour. The menu has lots more to offer than what we ordered. If you’re interested in some spicy Asian cuisine, have a go at it. The value for money is pretty good too, we were pleasantly surprised.

My thoughts on the iPhone4’s camera: Well, certainly a huge improvement over the previous one I had (the 3G model). Response rates of the camera are also a lot faster (managed to take several pictures in quick succession). The only issue I always have with phone cameras is that while megapixel may be high, the pictures at that resolution generally don’t look too good. It is after you shrink them down to a smaller resolution that they start looking a lot nicer. So while the iPhone4’s camera does take some beautiful pictures, they are only as good as the size that you see on the phone itself (or in this post, for that matter). It is fair to say that they are nowhere near as good as those taken by any camera of the same megapixel value (understandable, because half the camera mechanisms are missing from the phone). If you’re not a quality freak and just want pictures to preserve memories, then the phone camera will do just as good a job as any other.

The three days in KL went by very quickly. Was dead tired on the first day because of the lack of sleep I had on the plane. Went to the city centre the day after and met up with some friends on the last.

KLCC was one of my major stops around town this time, the mall beneath the Petronas Twin Towers (once the tallest twin towers in the world). My primary reason for coming to the city centre to relax is thanks to Kinokuniya Bookshop and their cafe at the top floor of the mall.

You get a great view of the park and the skyline from the top and can enjoy a good and cheap brewed coffee. Kinokuniya seems to have a richer collection of books to look at too (not to mention the Japanese section, which I spend quite a bit of time in as well).

Just next to KLCC Shopping Mall is the convention centre. The annual PC fair is held there. I also have fond memories of town centre as I carried out a field study for my undergraduate research in this area, investigating the local microclimate within the city centre with a thermal camera (yes I did my Bachelor degree in Melbourne, but was able to travel back to KL mid-year for a break and to provide my project with some “international flavour”).

Centre courts of all malls in KLCC (seems to be a common design element) always seem to have exhibitions taking place. This one was for Ralph Lauren. Freebies? I have no luggage space so I’ll pass!

The structural design of the roof just fascinates me, a number of truss structures (triangulated steel frames) were used to create this “sort-of” circular covering above the centre court.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for an afternoon snack, need to make good use of my coffee bean card! I get points for every purchase, which I can redeem at the cafe for more food.

One side of the twin towers, the Celcom Tower is next to it on the left, weather not looking so nice so I’ll go back in. What I find quite convenient about the mall is that public rail transport passes right beneath the building, so as long as you can make it to the station near your place without getting wet, you’ll be dry all the way!

It had rained once, but in Malaysia, you’ll never know when it will start again!

Twas a very wet day when I went downtown. Amcorp Mall, which is a small shopping centre in the Petaling Jaya district is near the station I usually go to (because it was semi-close to where I was going out for dinner).

If you want to eat seafood, here’s a good place to go! “Fresh Unique Seafood”, I know it’s definitely fresh, but unique?

I guess you could consider the restaurant unique because it is the only place in KL that I know displays this much seafood in tanks in the eating area. Might not appeal to some and others may think that you’d be more than happy to have someone else’s dinner observe you as you eat their friend. I think there’re about 72 tanks of seafood on display and you select your dish from these tanks. Definitely a lot of species to choose from, so don’t worry.

Freshly steamed prawns are still one of my favourite seafood dishes, served with chilli in soy sauce as a dip (or a nice Thai lemon chilli sauce)! Of course that wasn’t the only dish I had, but it became quite difficult to take pictures of the other dishes once I had started peeling the prawns with my bear hands!

These fish are not for sale and would probably not taste good if they ended up on your plate anyway!

Neither is the crab! But you’ll certainly be able to find the place if you look out for it.

Apart from seafood, I got a change to have some nice Japanese food on the day before I returned to Melbourne. Izakaya Ichiban, a “Restoran Jepun” or Japanese Restaurant in Plaza Damas near Sri Hartamas (quite a well-known district in KL).

Lots of sauces, toothpicks, seasonings, etc to choose from. You can’t go wrong here!

I think the Japanese interior design adds to the atmosphere and flavour of the food! Loving it.

Chose a Japanese box set as it offered the most of the cuisine in one meal. Fruit, egg custard, salad, miso soup and the tea, all before the the main course!

Sashimi, eel, stuffed tofu and tempura, though you’d normally consider serving them individually!

Went to the nearby café after the meal for a late night coffee. Cafe Le Passione.

…for a lasting memory, how appropriate to put a picture of Venice as I definitely will have lasting memories of my trip. It’s almost the same angle as one of my pictures too.

The way the coffee is served reminds me of cafés in Austria, where you’ll always find a glass of water

Certainly a lasting memory and a lot of things went through my mind about the past three months in Europe (including the jet lag) the day after when I was heading towards my gate at KLIA airport.

These months just seem to fly buy like trains travelling back and forth between cities day and night (ok, bad analogy). August is almost over and I have been back in Melbourne for just over a month now! Missing Innsbruck a bit, happy to be back though. Found out earlier that it has started snowing Innsbruck: summer is over and for us in Melbourne, spring is about to start!

Although it’s taken me longer than expected to write up the rest of my Europe experience, I did decide to put in two extra posts for your enjoyment (= more pictures), so forgive me for taking so long The last post yesterday has completed my Europe trip experience. Look forward to one post that will sum up everything for your convenience and those visiting my site for the first time. There is still one post to do about my transit in Malaysia on my way back

As for the upcoming weeks, I will be changing the setting back to Melbourne, so look forward to that. Site admin is also knocking on my door for the nth time (I lost count), because I have yet to do those pages I have been talking about for months (that thing’s going to haunt me for a while until I do it, haha)…

I’m starting to think about putting up a featured post section in the sidebar to highlight some of the key posts I have written in the past months since starting Melodious Expeditions.

I’m quite happy to have come as far as 55 posts (this being number 56) and it is thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog over the past months. Google Analytics, which I got working about two months ago has been giving me some interesting information on my readership as well. The top three countries, which give me the most hits are also the three countries I have been in in the past months:

1st Place: Australia (in particular Melbourne)
2nd Place: Austria (Innsbruck takes the top, Vienna in second)
3rd Place: Malaysia (KL on top)

Studying the stats on Analytics is actually quite insightful! I definitely recommend it to anyone who is running their website. It will give you great information in an easy to understand manner.

As for the rest of my week, research work is calling me, so I will have to say goodbye for now! Hopefully this admin work for M.E. disappears soon! Will update the post if there’s something I missed out!

It’s been three months. I arrived in cold weather with mountains covered in snow. I have spent my last days in sunny summer weather with the snow gone. Fun times in Europe have temporarily come to an end and it’s time for me to leave. I spent the last week finishing up things at work so that I would have closure to my Innsbruck research exchange. Also had to pack early enough so that I could send a package home and gain an idea of how much luggage I had to carry across two countries! The 17kg package left Innsbruck a week earlier (it was an extremely hot day for me to be wheeling it to the post office, which was a good walk away!). My remaining luggage included a slightly overweight suitcase (roughly 22kg) and a light-looking, but fairly heavy roller to go on board with me (along with my laptop, which was also heavily loaded with books).

My last day saw me go down to town to inform the city council that I would be leaving (so that they don’t go looking for me in a month’s time wanting more information about me as you need to provide it to them if you plan on staying for longer than three months). It was a beautiful sunny day from start to end. Finished off the evening having a sun downer with my colleagues for one last time. Spent the rest of the night packing my things in preparation for moving out of my accommodation (some of the stuff I was going to leave in Innsbruck for the next time I come). Knowing that I had to get up at around 4am because my flight left at 6am, I was rushing to get things taken care of.

Eventually managed to wake up (although I desperately wanted to sleep!) and get ready. Was picked up by two of my colleagues, who kindly drove me in convoy to the airport (one leading, me in the back, haha, it amused me). They saw me off from Innsbruck airport with smiles. After a quick breakfast, I headed towards the boarding gate.

The Dash-8 welcomed me again and not surprisingly, I was sitting next to the propeller blade again. The plane left on time and landed in Frankfurt airport shortly after. I would now have to spend four to five hours in the airport before my next flight leaves at noon.

Although I had trouble getting WiFi at Fraport, I nevertheless sat down at Starbucks and did some work. After a few hours I got sick of sitting and started strolling around the airport window shopping. I also travelled between Terminals 1 and 2 several times to try and find a transfer counter as I had not received my boarding pass yet. I only found out later that I would receive the pass at the gate before boarding the plane.

Was tempted to relax here for a bit as well as buy one of those fancy pillows in preparation for my long flight, but I decided to just rough it out. The pillows on board weren’t that bad. Nice name for a shop though

Eventually it was time to board and I walked to the gate only to find out that there was one seat left on the plane, for me, and it was in the second-last row, window seat (oh great…). My luck had however only just started as one of the managers was present at the gate. She was nice enough to upgrade me to Business class for free even though I hadn’t requested it. The next thing I knew I was holding a business class boarding card as I walked through the gate and into the aircraft.

Though I had to switch seats several times within the class (once to give way to a disabled traveller, who got a seat near the front of the aircraft and once to get an aisle seat), I eventually settled in and decided to enjoy the privileges. Gin n’ Tonic anyone?

Dinner started with Malaysian Satay (something I hadn’t tasted for months!), served to you on a plate on your table. Fine dining!

I then got my starter (yes the Satay was not the starter, haha).

…and the main course, I chose a black pepper beef dish with vegetables.

Dessert was blueberry cheesecake with a hot drink! Yum!

I continued to make full use of Business class features, which included working at my spacious seat, sleeping for only three hours because the of the nice entertainment system and massive screen to watch movies on.

When I was eventually woken up for breakfast, I was greeted with fresh fruit and muesli…

…followed by the fattening stuff

and just for fun, these were my seat’s controls. You have landing mode, bed mode, dining mode, relaxation mode and the manual adjustment buttons. Talk about technology! There’s buttons for the lazy and the smart

I was very happy to have been upgraded. Whilst I did not mind flying Economy for 12 hours across from Europe to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it made the travel less tedious. Arguably enough, I fell asleep a few hours after my arrival (battling jet lag and a lack of sleep), but I made sure that I only napped for a few hours during the day of my arrival so that I would not suffer the serious effects of jet lag for longer periods. I must say I did pretty well with handling the jet lag. Six hours time difference can be quite challenging and to break up the trip back from Europe to Australia I thought was definitely a good idea. Time to relax for three transit days.

Goodbye Innsbruck,
Malaysia, I have arrived…

Spätzle, a type of egg noodle, baked with egg and fried onion served with salad on the side. Vegetarian!

One of my favourites if I felt like meat! The “Hausspieß”, meat on stick. That’s pork, chicken and frankfurters with capsicum and onion grilled! Served with chips and salad on the side.

The lunch I had at Area 47 (as you’ll remember), barbecued pork chops with soup and salad on the side. Comes with garlic butter, grilled zucchini and tomato.

My reward for hiking through the hail storm that hit us in the Stubai Valley, a nice big sausage with roasted potato and Sauerkraut on the side.

Remember my Innsbruckian Ramen? This was the first Asian dish I had after going without it for half my trip.

A beautiful pizza with ham, mushroom and artichokes (called differently in Venice and in Innsbruck). I actually acquired a taste for artichokes (cannot remember when I had ever tried it before).

Goulash soup, my favourite soup, served with a bread roll or “semmel” on the side. This one was in Vienna, but I also had several in Innsbruck at different restaurants. Black pepper goes really well with it

My first Wiener Schnitzel. I had a few others after that, but it wasn’t the biggest craze for me.

Stroganoff on a Sunday if you remember my little stroll through the Altstadt, the first time I had visited it. It was a good balance of pasta, meat and veggies, served at the Golden Eagle hotel (“Goldener Adler”).

Champignon Schnitzel, one of the many varieties of Schnitzel that I had while in Innsbruck.

Salbeischnitzel, my very first lunch in Innsbruck, remember this? It was several months ago! How time flies…

Potato salad that our family friends in Bonn, Germany made. There are generally two types, a sweet and cold version that I have made for parties quite frequently and this more savoury kind with vinegar. I like both versions and should really learn how to prepare this kind.

Noodle & Rocket salad also made by our family friends when I visited Bonn, Germany.

When I visited Tyrol mall the other day (the day it rained heavily down on Innsbruck, you’ll remember me talking about it), I decided to try this Arabian Curry for lunch because it looked delicious. For European style cooking, it was pretty good curry!

That same day I ended up having an afternoon snack, because the curry was not enough. The pastry you see here is called a “Topfengoulatsche”, a Goulatsche is a kind of wrapped pastry that I seem to only have come across in Austria so far.

Since we’re currently talking about sweet snacks, you’ll remember the original Sacher cake that I had in Vienna! Cannot also forget the coffee and tea that go well with snacks like these

Also thinking of the crepes I had in Germany!

Alright back to savoury! One thing I did start eating a lot more frequently in Innsbruck was salad (due to the lack of freshly cooked veggies). This farmer’s salad came in a huge bowl full of colours and topped with fried egg and bacon! Despite its looks it is highly filling!

Souvlaki, well sort of… the meat was cooked the right way and topped with onions, served with lemon and tsaziki, truly Greek!

One thing I notice is that the salads are served with quite a lot of meat, like this beef salad…

…or better yet this Swiss Ham Salad (shaved ham, shaved cheese and healthy veg beneath, can you spot the capsicum? hehe)

More Schnitzel with Macaroni on the side, what makes each of them different are the sauces!

The place I have lunch at with my colleagues during the week also serves Indian from time to time in the most creative manners possible! Meatballs in Indian sauce served with potatoes… fusion cuisine right before your eyes!

What I probably enjoyed the most and definitely miss about Europe is the breakfast! At the local bakery, I would order myself a small breakfast every morning. I would sometimes opt for the single bread roll and coffee meal or the double bread roll and bottom-less coffee (free refills). You can choose your spread as well. I would usually choose butter and a liver or meaty spread. I’m not fond of jam in the morning, never really was.

On days where I was rushing to get somewhere (such as this morning when I headed off to Bonn), I would grab a coffee to go with a pastry. It gave my stomach something to deal with until I was able to eat something more substantial!

…and finally, the traditional Asian style snack: cup noodles! I could not let the chance slide by to try one of these and on my very last day in Innsbruck in the later afternoon managed to get to it! Tastes exactly like all other types of cup noodles of the same flavour!

Hope you had a good meal!

It got sent with the free rubber casing to protect the phone from the infamous “DEATH GRIP!” as you may have heard. I’ll talk about the signal issue later on…

Slick new phone comes in a nice little box with new ear phones (needed new ones, my old ones have lasted me for two years and while they’re still usable, they’ve “decomposed” quite a bit! It starts with the rubber rings around the ear pieces followed by either the cap on the ear piece breaking and coming off (what happened to my iPod ear phones) or the rubber rings, which shield the area where the cables are attached to the ear piece, tearing…

A charger and USB cable are also provided along the nice packaging that is typical of Apple. Apple stickers are also included, but NO CLEANING CLOTH! I found it quite useful as it would clean the dust and smudges off the device quite efficiently. Oh well, I won’t return the device just because they didn’t provide it.

The new phone is flatter than its predecessor and more squared. I have heard mixed opinions of how it holds in your hand. I actually like the feel of it. I believe it is only slightly heavier than its predecessor (by a few grams), but fits nicely in your palm. I think the flattened sides of the phone allow you get a better hold of the phone and even if you hold it with three fingers like I do most of the time (thumb, index and middle on three ends), you feel like you’ve got a firm grip on it.

If you compare the screen of the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 3G (my previous model) you’ll be able to see the difference in sharpness and brightness. Apple definitely have a point in promoting their new retina display. The appearance of text and colour on the new display is quite impressive. Some other points worth mentioning include:

- Battery Life: I have noticed that the battery life on the phone has improved. Even though I still have my habit of sticking it in its dock every night before I go to bed, I notice that the battery level does not drop as much as my old phone. I also believe that I seem to be running more things on the new phone during the day, which may chew through more of the battery than usual. There has definitely been improvement in that area.

- Operation Speeds: With the release of iOS4, I have noticed that my old phone was starting to slow down. Working the new phone in comparison has been great as the upgraded hardware has sped up the opening, closing and processing times of the applications.

- New Operating System Features: As the previous model I had was the iPhone 3G, I had the opportunity to look into the multi-tasking feature and background wallpaper functionality. I am having a bit of trouble with the multi-tasking at the moment. Some programs like Skype and Windows Live Messenger keep me logged in even after I return to the home screen and despite being able to simply sign out of Skype, I have on occasion forgotten numerous times to do so.

- Nike + iPod: I’m thinking of buying the Nike sensor and using my phone to assist me in my exercising, has anyone tried it? Any good?

- Camera: The new phone has a front and back camera. I have had the opportunity to try both, I will post pictures of the front camera in another upcoming post soon (will link it to this page). The front camera is a new feature that allows for video chat. I have not been able to try out FaceTime (the video chat interface developed by Apple) yet, but will do so eventually. Handling the camera has been great, the software has been improved, is a lot more responsive thanks to the upgraded hardware and allows you to take pictures in quick succession. I have yet to take a high definition video clip and view it on my computer. Will get to that soon as well.

- The DEATH GRIP: Apple has been dealing with the issue of bad signal quality when you grip the phone with your bare hands. This is because they have made the gamble to turn the entire outer metal rim on the side into an antenna. To solve the issue, they gave out free rubber casings to protect the metal from human flesh. While this problem has caused some consumers to shy away from the product, I would like to mention that it is not a problem that is plaguing all phones. I myself have not seen this happen with my phone or any of the phones my friends have obtained recently as well. The phone calls I have made so far have been crystal clear and have not dropped out either.

Overall, I am happy about the new phone. I can say a lot more things about it, but I think what has been written above are the essentials for now. If you’re wanting to know more about my experience with the phone, leave a comment. I have just about finished setting up the device (transferring all the applications from the previous phone). Just a bit more data transfer and the old phone can be opened and equipped with the SIM card for my Malaysian (or Austrian mobile phone number)…

Just outside my accommodation, you’ll probably recognize some of the houses nearby from previous pictures as well as the bushes and the sign on the right-hand side. I love the effects that long exposures can give you with moving objects.

Although I tried to avoid moving objects at times, it was difficult as there is considerable amount of traffic that passes through here even at night. The snow on the mountains by night can still be seen quite clearly in some parts. If you look close enough, there is a light atop the mountain in the distance!

The same scene I see everyday on my way to the office, except this time at night with cars passing by.

Taken from the main entrance to the University, the mountain in the background truly reminds you of the alpine valley setting!

The shops across the road from the University where I grab breakfast every morning and buy my groceries. Note the H painted on the road is NOT a helipad, it stands for “Haltestelle”, which tells you where buses will stop.

Streetlamps light up the street at night in most areas. As you walk along it you’ll come across the occasional dark stretches. I actually made the decision to do a night walk along here when I first arrived in Innsbruck and was taking an evening stroll around the area to do some exploring of the place I would be living at for the next three months.

Still need to work on my skills, but I figured I’d share some images with you of the street I lived in during a different time of the day

I got the idea for this post quite a while back, when I was thinking of what topics about my Innsbruck trip I could write on. I decided to wait til the end of my trip so that I could compile all the information I had. Three major malls came to mind in these three months and each of them saw me spending several hours in on Saturdays. You can click these to go straight to their section or just read straight through

- Tyrol shopping mall (Kaufhaus Tyrol)
- Sillpark shopping mall
- City Hall Galleries (Rathaus Galerien)

You’ll notice that they’re all within a small area. I primarily hung around the western part of town as everything was within walking distance and I was able to pass time very quickly (it also gives me another reason to go back to Innsbruck to see what’s east of the train station).

View Shopping in Innsbruck in a larger map

Let us cover these malls one-by-one!

Tyrol shopping mall (Kaufhaus Tyrol)

Tyrol mall opened just a few months prior to my arrival. It houses several shops on quite a few levels. The mall is located along Maria-Theresien street.

Compared to some of the malls in Malaysia, you’d probably find this mall rather small. It has quite a few different shops with a giant sports & outdoors shop, toy store and electronics store on the upper floors. Boutiques you’ll find from ground floor up and food courts in the basement. There are some cafes as you make your way upstairs.

The map pretty much shows you the outline of the building. A large air well in the centre with a fantastic but also slightly not-so-fantastic roof (which I will get to in a bit).

I frequent the Coffeeshop Company cafe because I can sit down and access the mall’s free WiFi on my phone, which I have used several times to make Skype calls (iPhones on roaming are good even if you don’t want to spend money on actual calls as there is still WiFi functionality!). In Austria, you will always receive a glass of water to go with your coffee. It is a good idea as you’ll probably not get that rehydration immediately after your coffee unless it is provided to you immediately.

The cafe is on the first floor, if you’re wondering how high up I was. Escalators will get you to and from the different parts of the building. There are staircases for those feeling healthy and a lift for those feeling absolutely lazy!

Coffeeshop company (Home in Vienna) will make you great coffee, choose from standing or seating areas.

I noticed that the escalator placement reminds me of a mall in Malaysia: they are at different locations on every floor and you are required to walk across the mall to get to the next floor. I don’t mind the concept so long as the building itself is small and you can easily get to the other side without having to dodge human traffic!

In the basement, you’ll find the MPreis supermarket chain (it is the biggest chain of supermarkets in Innsbruck) as well as some restaurants and shoe shops. If you fancy a nice lunch, try this place. If you need a quick snack-to-go, MPreis has a bakery that sells sandwiches and other delicious and freshly baked snacks. They do meatloaf slice on bread too, one of my favourites as it’s quick and easy!

The roof is pretty neatly designed. Lots of daylight enters the mall making it nice and bright. A hail storm followed by rain one weekend however damaged the roof causing water to leak into the building. I was unfortunate to have wounded up in the area during the storm. The mall had to be evacuated because there were worries of wiring coming in contact with the water. I guess there may be times when design flaws show themselves, but so long as they can be resolved, I guess it’s not something to go crazy about. I wonder whether they’ve fixed the leaking problems now…

Sillpark

When I first arrived in Innsbruck, my colleagues had told me that I would be able to get most of the essentials I needed from Sillpark shopping centre as it has department stores and shops that sell home stuff. You may remember me visiting Sillpark on my first day in Innsbruck.

I reckon Sillpark is about the same size as Tyrol mall, but with a wider variety of shops to choose from. There are several book shops, toy shops, boutiques, but only few electronics shops. You’ll find heaps of restaurants on the ground floor (including a beach bar outside, yes in the cold/warm, depending on the time of the year).

Store directories are available everywhere within the mall so you’ll have no trouble finding what you need.

Getting to the mall takes a bit longer from where I was staying as it is slightly out of the way of the main town area of Innsbruck. You’ll have to take a bus past the train station. You will also need to travel in this direction if you want to get to Tivoli Swimming Complex from town centre.

I bought a lot in Sillpark. Some relevant items that you may want to get yourself if you plan on staying in Innsbruck for several months might include: bed sheets, quilt and pillow, tea pot, cups, kitchen utensils and stationary, all of which (and including groceries and some electronics) can be found in the “Interspar” departmental store on the ground floor.

As you exit the store on the ground floor, you’ll also find all the eateries nearby. “Nordsee” (transl. = north sea) is a famous chain around Europe (I’ve seen it in Germany as well) that serves Fish dishes (smoked, fried, whatever form you can think of), mostly with bread and salad – a quick snack for those on the run in need of some seafood.

For getting essential stuff, Sillpark is definitely a good first place to check for things. As a place for window shopping, it doesn’t beat Tyrol mall (if you compared the two).

City Hall Galleries (Rathaus Galerien)

The third shopping mall is situated within City Hall. The City Hall Galleries or “Rathaus Galerien” as it is called in German primarily houses designer brands, several restaurants and a rooftop cafe that you’ll remember me telling you about in my previous

The entrance is on Maria-Theresien street, just opposite Tyrol shopping mall, you can’t miss the building, it looks befitting of a City Hall. I also had to come here to register myself with the city council so that they know that I would be staying in Innsbruck for three months (you do this if you plan to live in the country for a longer period of time).

You couldn’t really call it a “mall”, it is only a T-shaped gallery to walk through (one single floor) with a few shops down the one end and plenty of restaurants down the other. The upper floors house the offices of the City Hall.

An interesting design, it looks like the roof was placed over the building to seal off the area from the elements and to make it more comfortable for shoppers to convene.

At the end of the long stretch of shops (from the Maria-Theresien street entrance) you’ll come across a large convenience store and a cafe, the one side of the mall will lead you out to the one street, along which you’ll find some shops (and the tram line)…

…the other side has got a number of notable restaurants (I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to try any of them). I noticed a restaurant (called “Thai Li Ba”), where you can order some Asian cuisine. Would have loved to try it to see what it’s like. Will make sure I do that the next time.

Did I mention designer brands? You’ll find one shop after another. Don’t worry, the mall is not very big so whilst there’s the danger of blowing a hole in your wallet from shopping (only if you’re into these kinds of brands), it’ll be quick and painless…

Lichtblick (Light view) 360 degrees is the cafe I mentioned in my previous post of the Innsbruck rooftops above the Galleries. You’ll be able to see most of Innsbruck while enjoying a nice cup of coffee.

It’s a long way up!

But you get great views of the city.
But you already knew that from previously…

I took a trip down to Rathaus Galerien on one of my Saturdays to do some work. With my laptop in my bag, I sat at the Bakery in the mall itself and spent a good hour and a half typing away. It is a nice place to stop for a drink as it is not as crowded as other malls. As far as shopping is concerned, though, you may not find much unless you’re one for designer brands.

I visited Area 47 (situated on the 47th degree of latitude, hence the number) with my research group for an outing in my second last week in Innsbruck. We had booked a group canyoning tour. For those who are not familiar with the term (I know some people I spoke to did not know what it meant), it involves hiking along a river within a canyon and can require you to abseil down cliffs, jump off small waterfalls and slide along rapids. Definitely an extreme tour.

Having arrived and parked the car, we were greeted by the high ropes course. Fancy hanging from the bridge by a rope and trying to get from one end to the other across these obstacles?
That’s a highway bridge by the way…

Once in the Area, register at the River House for whatever activities you’d like to do and head into the park.

Rock climbing with the mountains in the background and a raging river below you sounds like fun doesn’t it? I know some extreme sports enthusiasts would love to do this.

I’ve got a pretty big fear of heights. Don’t think I’d every try one of these obstacle courses…

We headed in the direction of canyoning base camp and passed by the Water Area. Was looking forward to trying out the water slides!

Did not manage to take my camera with me while canyoning as we required both our hands and would be submerged in the waters of the raging river most of the time. So here’s a quick summary of how it went. Drove up to above 1400m, where we first had to abseil off a bridge (15m above the river). Whilst I had lots of trouble overcoming my fear of heights, I eventually gave in and managed to take that big leap of faith. We continued along the river afterward and were faced with a few jumps off waterfalls and abseils down cliffs. The whole tour lasted about an hour and by the end of it we were quite tired, yet energised for the remainder of the day.

Regained my physical strength after some nice lunch!

Delicious lunch indeed!

The schedule for the rest of the day swimming and just enjoying the day. The weather was on our side and the sun was shining brightly. For anyone visiting the Area, I recommend trying out all the slides. You’ll also have the opportunity to be blasted into the air by a high-pressure water pump, walk along a tightrope (or slackline as the adventurers call them) and scale a small rock wall. The huge ramp is for skiers by the way, who wish to pull tricks upon launch.

The fitness centre is called Venice Beach. Looks quite nice, being at the water edge. You can rent out chalets if you wish to spend a few days doing extreme activities, this would be where the fitness centre may become of use.

We swam for several hours and then decided to finish off the day with beach volleyball. Our whole group split into four teams and played a few sets. You can rent the balls from the Water Area’s reception for a small deposit. There are three beach Volleyball courts (with real sand!).

The last item of the day was a communal sun-downer at the Area’s cafe. A “Radler”, Shandy you could say (beer + lemonade) to rehydrate ourselves before we set off for Innsbruck. It was a long, but very enjoyable and exciting day.

I’d show you a map of the area, but since it is only a recent establishment, there has yet to be a satellite image uploaded onto Google’s Map service. Anyone interested, can however consult the Area’s official website. Plenty of information is available in both English and German, so enjoy the browse. If you are in Innsbruck and decide to visit the area, then I wish you the best of luck on your extreme adventures

The Nordkette, I knew, was not going to be my only hike with the many weeks I had left in Innsbruck. I was invited on another hiking trip with a few other colleagues, only this time it would be close to the Italian border in the Stubai Valley. They had asked me if i had ever seen a glacier before and I answered that I hadn’t. What an excuse to go see one. We headed out to the Stubai Valley, which was something like an hours drive from Innsbruck down the Brenner highway and eventually parked our car at the base of the hiking trail.

Beautiful day for a hike, the only forecast of concern was possible rain in the late afternoon. We started our walk immediately after parking…

…a long way to go, we were heading towards the snow in the distance!

The Franz-Senn Hut would be our pit stop, some 500m higher than where we were and it would take us about an hour to get to it. If you can’t find it in the map, it’s near the bottom. Look closer

Some cows, greeting us and wishing us well for our hike!

There were heaps of cows, grazing happily around the area…

The first stretch was a winding narrow path uphill and after a bit of walking we found ourselves a lot higher than where we had been. Can you spot the “lookout bench” in the middle of the picture? Makes for a good rest with a view!

Despite walking for quite a bit, it still felt like we had ages to go until we had the snowy areas in our reach!

We approached a raging river running down the mountain near our pit stop. Although it looks small, closer inspection of the picture will give you a nice size comparison (with the person walking along the path on the top right-hand corner).

Lots of water gushing out a dark cavern! I don’t think it would be a good idea to go exploring here

The Franz-Senn Hut, within our grasp, we only needed to walk a few more hundred metres (and this after an hour of hiking).

My colleague had brought along a topographical map and we studied it while relaxing at the hut to a cold drink. Once you reach the hut, you are faced with several choices of routes to take. Each of them would take you on an approximately 1-hour hike (one-way) in different directions. We chose to go to the Rinnensee Lake to get a much closer look at the Stubai glacier (pretty much the crowning glory of the valley).

At this altitude (above 2000m) you start feeling a bit cold despite the boiling hot sun shining down on the valley. Our walk continued uphill past another winding path. We saw this little house on our way up, probably a refuge for hikers fleeing from bad weather we will keep that in mind!

So three pictures ago we were below the hut and less than half an hour later, we found ourselves much higher up! It’s scary how fast you gain in altitude in this place! The reflection in the small pond near the hut is pretty awesome, such clear water!

While we got our first proper view of the glacier, it still felt like it was miles away with a long and narrow path leading closer to it.

With a bit of help from my camera, I managed to get a better view of the massive ice layer. Looks cold, don’t you think?

We came upon this open area, where we took a short break. Look! Snow! In summer!

The layer looks quite strange in its melting phase, but it was still very thick!

One small step for man, one cold step for me. I also used the opportunity to make a snowball to throw at my colleagues!

Unfortunately, our fun ended here as the weather took a turn for the worse. What was a shiny area has now become a dark and scary place. The rain was coming and we were still about half an hour away from the Rinnensee Lake. Seeing that I did not have much to keep myself warm with (I was not counting on needing it as the forecast did say that stormy weather should only have reached us by late afternoon and it was still one-ish) we decided to turn back.

Soon after we had taken a few steps did the rain come pouring down. Not only that, it turned into large hailstones only minutes after. We hurried along the narrow path, which I walked along slowly and carefully only a quarter of an hour earlier to escape the cold and painful barrage of stones. Everything was drenched within minutes, but we hurried along covering ourselves with raincoats and anything that’ll keep the cold away from us. Ironically enough, we saw hikers seeking refuge in that hut I mentioned earlier. We skipped it and headed straight for the Franz-Senn Hut, because I desperately wanted a hot soup and some meat to gobble down (yes, while in this crazy storm, I was thinking of delicious food!).

I rewarded myself shortly after with a huge bowl of soup and this nice sausage! This was after we had squeezed a swimming pool full of water out of our jackets, shoes, socks, shirts and everything else we wore…

We stayed at the hut until the rain had stopped and the sun had decided to come out again. The building lies at 2145m above sea level, so we would have roughly been at 2300m or so when the rain hit us (Rinnensee would have been about 500m higher than the hut). For the non-German readers, the hut was built in 1885 and extended in 1932 and 1962. It is run by the Austrian Alps Association’s Innsbruck Office, a beautiful stone brick and wooden building, which houses a restaurant and guest house. So if you’re lazy for the day, you can spend a night here.

Although it looks quite small, the area occupied by the hut is surprisingly spacious. Pretty much any hiker in the area will visit the place as it is a hub between the car park and the main tracks around the Stubai valley.

We did not have to wait long until the rain clouds cleared. People started hanging out their clothes to dry the minute the sun showed itself too. This was our window fro leaving the mountain and heading to the car back home. It was also about 3 in the afternoon and it would take us about another hour to get back to the car. We set off and were lucky not to get caught in another storm. Our shoes were however still wet and cold (and mine spent the next week drying), so our walk downhill was filled with interesting treading sounds.

I had a closer look at the paths we walked on our hike and here’s a summary for you on the route we took (until the rain decided to stop us).

View Hiking in the Stubai Valley in a larger map

You could say that it’s unfinished business and I will definitely have another go at it when I return in future. I hope to reach the glacier the next time, but we would have to see whether that’s possible within a day. I have purchased a copy of the topographic map as a souvenir from Austria (I have one of Innsbruck as well to remember my hike up the Northern Chain)! I will be sure to bring them with me the next time I go!