Showing posts with label austria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label austria. Show all posts
Monday 8 June 2015

Austria

I am finally wrapping up my posts about my grad trip. Finally. On the one hand, I hate having posts that talk about things that happened so long ago. On the other, I also dislike having an overload of posts about the same travelling stint. And if I had a third hand, I also can't quite bring myself to simply stop blogging and move onto other things that I want to write about.

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I visited Austria ever so briefly on my 2013 trip however for all extents and purposes, I really didn't see anything. On that trip, I flew from Hamburg, Germany to Innsbruck, Austria to pick up a car to drive to Munich which we then dropped off at Salzburg, Austria since it was around 100 Euros cheaper than flying to Munich and hiring a car there. Yes, really. Like a lot of first time visitors, I went to the two popular cities: Vienna and Salzburg.

Vienna: 2nd January - 4th January 2015
Vienna confused me a little. I didn't really expect the city to be ... well what it was. I can't quite explain, but it was vastly different to what I expected. Perhaps it was because I stayed slightly outside the "main" area and in an area that was predominately commercial/industrial. It was also a little weird in the main square (the square with Stephansdom) with the hordes of tourists and people trying to sell tickets.

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I also visited a flea market at Naschmarkt and it was an experience. The "flea markets" that I am used to in Sydney are just overpriced "vintage" stalls at weekend markets but the one in Vienna really embodied the idea of "one man's rubbish is another man's treasure". There were stalls selling film cameras to kitchen crockery to piles of clothing on the floor and even motherboards just on the concrete.

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Another super touristy restaurant that I visited was Figlmüller for their famous schnitzel. The potato salad was pretty horrible but I'm not really sure if the schnitzel was really that good. But when in Wien.

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Vienna was a city that didn't really grab my attention. A funny situation happened on the final day where I had to catch the train to Salzburg. I didn't pay attention to the station that the train was departing from (rookie error) and only realised when I looked at the timetable at the wrong station. With 20 minutes before the train departure at the other train station which was conveniently on the other side of the city, I was quite stressed. But I did manage to get the train and it's just another funny story for my collection.

Salzburg: 5th January 2015 - 6th January 2015
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Salzburg, the city famous for the Sound of Music and the gazillion of tours that are catered for fans of the movie. Salzburg was a lot smaller than what I expected and the highlight of my 1.5 days spent there was definitely visiting Untersberg which is part of the Berchtesgaden Alps (it is also in both Germany and Austria). As there was a snow, it wasn't possible to walk anywhere (i.e a lookout) without proper snow gear. However it was a really lovely experience since it was so quiet and peaceful.

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Would I revisit?
The cities that I visisted, no. But I would love to go back to smaller towns and also with different/ no company. On a side note, the thing that I loved about Austria was Almdudler. I really liked the still version (although the carbonated one was still quite nice) and will be on the hunt for it in Sydney!