Day 19 Theres Ghosts in the Woods

I'm not a big believer in ghosts.  Not in Canada, not in the United States, and not in Germany.  But Austria, well, they might have some ghosts walking around the woods.

The girl we met last night, Sybina, had an old creepy house.  During our interaction I joked her house might have ghosts, which looking back is kind of rude, but I had to say it.  She said' no, we don't have ghosts, but there are some where you are sleeping tonight..'

We joked it off, had another beer, and then John and I went to camp.

I fell asleep.

The dream I had was a scary one.  It involved me communicating with ghosts for a documentary.  The message the ghosts had was not clear, but it was clear they were trying to communicate with me through my dream, and I was the only person who could do it.  I refused to sit down with them in the building to interview them, the ghosts that is.  It was a very powerful dream, and very scary.  I had to force myself awake, and when I did, they were still there.  They were talking, it was 3 of them, two women and one man.  They were asking me questions and trying to get me to hear their voices, but it was too much that it wasn't clear.  I laid there panicked.  I was so afraid I couldn't move.  The voices went away but they were still there.  It was pitch black and I was in the middle of the woods in Austria paralyzed.  When the voices left it was the most quiet sound I had ever heard in my life.  Not a cricket, not a trickle of water, not a fish, frog, bird, car, plane, train. Nothing  but the ghost feeling was louder than thunder.

I slowly reached for my phone for some sort of comfort to run away from the entities.  I scrolled through emails, played a Tom Petty song, and checked Snapchat.  I think it was the Tom Petty that scared them away.

I could have just fabricated some weird feeling and scared myself, ir maybe the dream scared me and trickled over to reality.  Maybe there was no ghost.  Or maybe there was.

This morning was okay.  I slept half decent, and John didn't sleep much. 

My wrist and biceps are in deep pain from wakeboarding Sunday.

I had a great, superfood and vitamins breakfast with an apple.  And I shot out of the gate.  Not before John and I ran into some other guys paddling to the Black Sea.  So with a little competion fueling me, I was ready.

I passed by everyone and paddled about 30km in 3 hours.  I think I stopped for 1 minute 2 or 3 times.   I accidentally left John behind  but waited for him at the next lock and dam.  It was a beautiful but very hot day.  Lots of trees and small little towns, lovely.

We had some herbal lemonade at a little shack, made one long portage around the dam, and headed off again.  

The chance of rain hindered our momentum so we stopped for one beer and John ate some fresh caught fish.

We are at a lock and dam outside of Melk Austria.

I got a little frustrated today.  These locks and dams are really annoying in Austria.  They slow us down by at least 30-60mins sometimes.  Sometimes more.  I know we can have days where we paddle normal and get really far, but it just feels difficult right now to pick up good solid momentum.  I need to get back to appreciating what's going on, and stop trying to force everything to go at my pace.  It's absolutely beautiful here and I really love what im doing, I just need to breath a little more and smell the gosh darn roses.

After Vienna, apparently the river opens up and there are less dams, but we shall see.  Vaienna is about 110km away, I think.  We are trying to be in Vienna by the 4th of July.  Vienna is the nation's capital, and we thought it would be fun to shoot some fireworks off for the old US of A in another countries capital.

The day ended us pulling upnto portage a dam and there were small rocks and flowers together, like someone put them there as a gift.  How wonderful.

Also wonderful, we seen a snake!  Might be a viper but I don't know.

One last thing, the weather men and women of Europe are awful.  THEY said 0% chance of rain all day ALL DAY.  then.... 30% chance, then 40%, then 50% then 80%.  Then it didn't rain!!!!  This all happened in 1 hour.

Goodnight pleasant people.