I woke up with a renewed sense of wonder and excitement. Mariazell was the exact ferry tale Austrian town combined with the Mecca of motorcycle roads surrounding it.

What an amazing setting to wake up to! The bike was in the hotels personal garage so it took a little time to get it out. It didn’t matter as I was ok taking my time now. I moved fast from Germany to get to a place like this and I’m planning on heading deeper into the Alps and staying in Salzburg.

After a morning breakfast and a little stroll through town, I was off!

It’s a quick 3 to 4 hour ride to salzburg and I have full intention of jumping into the clear and clean sort of waters only the Alps can provide.

You know those moments when everything feels right?  Yeah me too!! This was one of them! I could spend a weeks riding through the Alps and thats exactly what I intended on doing, until…..the break down!!

The camel and I felt completely in sync and as I was rolling into the picturesque town of Hallstatt, it started to overheat. I pulled into this gas station below and shut it down. Not sure where or who to turn to, I got off and walked up to an older lady smoking on a picnic table with an older gentleman enjoying a beer. It turns out its also a bar.

I ask her “can you help me?” She’s says, “No!”

I thought she was kidding and I said,  with a chuckle “I need Wifi!” She says, “No Wifi!” and then she waved towards my motorcycle and said, “Move!”

Confused, I now was speaking in complete english sentences. Telling her I needed help and need to look up information.

She then began to yell louder and telling me she’s going to call the police!

Now I’m completely confused!

So she preceded to call the police while the gentleman sitting down started waving at me and saying, “Bye, Bye! Bye, Bye!!!” In the most condescending, childish manner a grown man could possibly be.

I realized she was trying to tell me I could not use that parking spot. I Told her “I’m not on purpose, I’m broke down!” She was being completely unreasonable and  down right offending. The bike had obvious leaking issues. You could see puddles beneath it.

Frustrated, I snapped!! I began yelling back in not so nice american way :)! I then walked to my motorcycle, (Probably with a walk and pout that looked like a 5 year old) and rolled it out of the parking spot and near the sidewalk, but still on the property.

She then called the police for a second time. WHAT THE @#$@ I CANT MOVE, ITS BROKE DOWN!!! GO AHEAD AND CALL THEM! Realizing I could be completely out of my element. I started it up, and pulled the throttle to get some momentum. I immediately  shut it down and rolled into a parking lot with tourist buses galore!

“Tourist info” Are the words I saw coming from this building next to the parking lot and as I looked towards the lake I also saw probably one of the most beautiful settings for a town I’ve ever seen, it looked like it was straight out of a fantasy land. Not to mention there were crowds of tourist to prove its worth!

I walked in and asked the lady behind the desk for help. I explained the story to her and she told me that the “Helga” at the gas station is just mad at everything and everyone because the town is inundated with tourist.

She then asked me, “What can i help you with?” I said, “I could use some coolant! Where do I get that?” She said, “At Helga’s gas station!” We both laughed out loud!!!! As a courtesy she called Helga to explain and Helga told her that I was just there to just “hangout, and use her wifi!” So she did not want to help me. JEEZE!!! Crazy lady!!

Either way, she then did agree to sell me coolant. I walked back and Helga and I looked at each other with disgust. Begrudgingly she sold me the coolant and I walked away from the gas station feeling validated.

With no clear idea of what do yet, I found a KTM motorcycle shop 30 miles from Hallstatt. I wasn’t going to get anything done at 5pm.

So I started to look for a place to stay.

This town was so overcrowded and I could almost feel Helga’s anger! 🙂 To my luck no hotels available. What am i going to sleep in the street? The nearest town is about 15 miles away.

I then remembered when I was coming into to town, there were signs for a campground. So I took the coolant. Filled the bike back up with it, and pretty much idled around the lake to get there. As I rolled in the bike overheated again, and I just cruised to a stop. In what looked like private property.  I walked into this house and saw a young lady at her desk. I explained to her what I needed and she said, she would help sort out my bike troubles in the morning.

As the sun started to go down, I took a deep breath and realized I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful setting to break down!

Right across from the overcrowded Hallstatt, I was in my own Oasis. Oh well, nothing like sleep to help start a brand new day. There were Glamping sleepers like this one below, but I opted for my tent, fully expecting a hefty service bill in the morning.

The next morning, after a few failed attempts to actually get a tow truck and not just a service vehicle to try to fix it. It finally arrived, and my bike and I were taken to the KTM shop 30 minutes away.

A BMW in a KTM shop!??! I’ll take it! 🙂

In this video below, I tried to encapsulate what it felt like. The high of highs to the low of lows. Even if the lows are being stuck in a beautiful place like Austria it wasn’t in the plan.

Let’s see what happens!!!!!