Happy 2014!!

Hello to a NEW YEAR!

I can not believe how quickly time has flown by and that it is 2014! I hope that you spent your NYE with good friends and loved ones and have already started this fresh year off on a good foot! I've been spending my last week in the beautiful mountains in Austria with my sister and her boyfriend, who are visiting from Canada. We are now back in Budapest after a well rested and wonderfully spent mini vacation.

(We went a little camera happy and took a LOAD of photos -over 1000+ so here are a few of them...)

Enjoy the lovely scenery.

Had to post this one... they were so exhausted on the train...

This is the beautiful, serene town of Gmunden

We took a trip to the small town of Hallstatt

The town square of Hallstatt

A small cemetery

The Beinhaus (bone house) in Hallstatt dates back to the 12th century. There are over 1200 skulls; 610 have been painted in flowery designs and they are neatly stacked in rows along with next of kin and have the date of decease written on them. Since the cemetery is so small without the possibility to expand and due to the fact that cremations were in former days forbidden there was just not enough space. The skulls were removed along with other bones. The skulls were cleaned and exposed to the sun and moon light for weeks until they were bleached ivory white. As one would decorate a grave with flowers, the skulls were painted symbolically with a crown of flowers. This tradition began in 1720 AD. The last skull to go into the Beinhaus was in 1995. It is directly beside the cross. The woman died in 1983; it was her last request to be stored in the Beinhaus.

Fun fact: Chinese tourists took soo many photos of this beautiful village (and later came back to take measurements) to re-create this village in their country. Read more about this HERE!