Austria

This morning I paired up with my mate Thierry, and together we embarked upon a chilly but pleasant exploration of downtown Salzburg. Our ultimate aim was to reach the hilltop Hohensalzburg fortress; but we had no hurry, so we managed to take in a fair few of Salzburg's attractions along the way. Salzburg is a gorgeous town, perfectly preserved over more than 500 years, and ridiculously compact and convenient to wander around in. The weather was freezing (quite literally — town signboards read -2°C) — but at least it was reasonably sunny. And anyway: it was my first-ever exposure to a frost- and snow-covered cityscape, and I for one was revelling in its beauty.

I met these two guys this evening in (where else but) the bar at Yoho. Thierry's a bearded Québécois from Canada, who adores Mozart — and since Salzburg is Mozart's home town, he's in paradise. Wilson's on holiday from Hong Kong, and he is (with no success that we're aware of) looking for a local European girl to have some fun with. I had some drinks with these guys at Yoho, and I went exploring with them the next day.

I popped into a cheap café in Salzburg today for lunch, and ordered something called a Fitness-Salat. I wasn't expecting much: but what I received left no room for complaints. The Fitness-Salat is a salad dish consisting of fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, corn, grated carrot, olives, egg, mozzarella cheese, and (I think) more. Tastes great: and the place that I went to served an enormous portion at a great price. Nice change from the "can't afford a decent meal" phenomenon, that I've been facing of late in Europe. I was really hungry: but even so, I struggled to finished this one.

Yoho International youth hostel is quite easily The Best hostel I've stayed at so far in Europe, as well as The Only hostel you should consider staying at when in lovely Salzburg. Yoho is one of those hostels that's the perfect size: not so big that it's impossible to meet anyone; and not so small that there's nobody there to meet. The bar is open every night, it's there to be visited, and visit it is what everyone does. Yoho is also famous for playing "The Sound of Music" in their TV room, every single day at 10:30am — if you're crazy enough to want to watch it while you're there, then feel free. I think the hostel's slogan says it all: "easy to find, hard to leave".

This morning I said goodbye to Vienna — it was only a brief stint here — and jumped on the train to Salzburg. I scored my 4^th free Wombat's brekkie before I left: although for the first time, this one was legitimately free, as they gave me a free breakfast voucher as a bonus for staying at both the Munich and Vienna hostels. If only they knew :P. It was a quick but cold walk through the back streets of Vienna, from the hostel to the Westbahnhof train station; and then the 3-hour ride to Salzburg began. As with the train to Vienna two days ago (which passed through Salzburg, and which thus took the same route), I was rewarded with beautiful snow-covered scenery most of the way; otherwise, the trip was smooth and uneventful. I reached Salzburg by about 12:30pm; and once there, I had no trouble finding my hostel, and walking the short distance to reach it.

In the past three weeks or so that I've been train-hopping around Europe, I've been seeing Christmas markets everywhere I go. You may have noticed my blogging about them again, and again, and again. That's because at this time of year — in December, leading up to the big holiday itself — it seems that you're guaranteed to find them in virtually every city and town around. I've seen them in Switzerland, in Belgium, in Germany, and now also in Austria. Here in Europe, they really take their Christmas festivities seriously: every man and his dog's off to the local Christmas market, to share in the spirit and to have a bit of fun.

To finish off my exploration of Vienna, this afternoon I went and visited the Schönbrunn palace — the largest of the many mansion residences built by the Habsburg dynasty in Imperial Austria-Hungary. The Schönbrunn is considered "the Versailles of Austria" — although having visited mega-opulent Versailles several years ago, I assure you that the Schönbrunn is hardly competition, neither in its size nor its majesty. It's just a quick trip on the U-bahn over to Hietzing, in the city's west, from where you can enter the palace grounds from the Tiergarten gate, and from where you can start by exploring the extensive gardens.

Here's a good little souvenir for all your confused American friends. Around here, they also prefer a good schnitzel to shrimp on the barbie.

This morning I hopped on the U-bahn (i.e. metro) from the Westbahnhof (central station) to Stephansplatz (city central square), and embarked on a walking tour of Vienna. It was rather freezing here — so chilly that the ground was covered in frost and ice in many places — but that did nothing to mar the Imperial glory of this, one of Europe's most charming cities. Vienna is a city of soaring churches, imposing palaces, and grand town squares — and of all those I saw plenty.

It almost seems like I haven't left Munich at all: because here I am in Vienna, and I've just moved from one Wombat's to another! The Wombat's chain in strongest here in Vienna: they have two separate hostels in the city (both near the main train station); and I stayed in the bigger and older one, "the base". Wombat's (the base) isn't quite as crazy a party venue as is Wombat's Munich, but it still has a great bar (with a free welcome drink upon arrival), nice facilities, and tonnes of Aussie guests.