Dec 30th to Dec 31st - Salzburg
Early Morning Flight Again
This trip was sort of a last minute decision. I wanted to go somewhere after Italy since nobody will be in my flat for new year. We managed to secure the air tickets (return) for less than 38 pounds, just two weeks before the actual trip. We took a 640 am Ryanair flight and arrived in Salzburg at around 920am (Austria is ahead of London by an hour).
Salzburg has lots to offer, especially because it’s the birth and residential place of Mozart, and because most scenes of the highly acclaimed film, The Sound of Music, were filmed here. However, Salzburg didn’t manage to charm me as much as Innsbruck did.
Dec 31st to 2nd Jan - Innsbruck
White New Year in Austria instead
A bit of snow is nice but not too much of it. An overdose of anything isn’t good. The exact right amount would be perfect.
The weather was bright and sunny the moment we landed in Salzburg, after which it snowed everyday. Light snow started on the second morning in Salzburg, which followed us to Innsbruck, and then it got the heaviest and worst in the last day in Vienna. Heaven decided that we had enough snow by then, and so there was little snow at Graz.
New Year Check-in and 1st New Year abroad
We took an evening train and arrived in Innsbruck at 1030pm on New Year’s eve and to our astonishment, we discovered the reception of the hostel is closed and will only open at 1230am.
So the two of us waited and stared blankly at the numerous fireworks that lit up the winter sky. There was a party, however, in the hostel and when the year 2004 arrived, everybody, including us, hugged and wished one another Frohe Neuer Jahr. Not a bad start for 2004 to be greeted by so many exuberant youngsters and strangers despite having to wait two hours to check in.
My 1st pocket watch and 1st Swarovski crystal
I like Innsbruck (provincial capital of Tyrol) - one of my 2 favourite places in Austria that we visited. It’s a small but beautiful town. The snow-capped Alps surrounding the city, the marvellous confectionary, the fireworks on New Year’s eve, my 1st ever pocket watch and my 1st ever Swarovski crystal that I bought (Yes, Swarovski is Austrian, Tyrolean to be more precise. I didn’t know that till I came to Innsbruck) are all the things I will remember Innsbruck for. Being a ski town, it’s a pity we didn’t go skiing due to the astronomical costs involved. We did go up to the base of the peak at an elevation of 860 metres and the scenery is simply stupendous. I will definitely come back here, but not in the near future I guess.
2nd Jan to 5th Jan - Vienna
This was the worst of the worst. Somehow capital cities never managed to captivate me thus far (same as Italy, I prefer Florence and Venice to Rome).
Nonetheless, Vienna, which is most famous for the Blue Danube, has beautiful palaces, churches and numerous museums, opera houses and so on. Shall describe more with pictures in my gallery in a few days time.
Perhaps one of the reasons why Vienna didn’t leave a good impression on me is its heavy snow and strong cold chilly winds. It was the lowest temperatures I have experienced thus far - around negative 7 to 10 degrees Celsius. *shivers*
By the way, the hostel we stayed in - Wombat’s - is one of the best thus far. Friendly staff, good location, spacious rooms, en suite rooms etc etc.
5th Jan to 7th Jan - Graz
This is another favourite Austrian city of mine - the second largest city in Austria (the biggest being Vienna). To be honest, Graz has nothing much to offer in terms of sightseeing. I guess it’s the people you meet, the place you stayed in that makes the difference. My words won’t be able to do Graz justice.
We missed the train from Vienna to Graz, and Kurt (Wenda’s Austrian flatmate) was nice enough to pick us up late at night at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). Upon reaching his place, we were greeted by his super friendly parents in English. They don't know English at all, and according to Kurt, they got so excited, when they knew that they are going to receive guests from a far far away place called Singapore, that they tried learning English a few weeks in advance. Very hospitable family indeed!
We stayed in Kurt’s place which is at a small village called Zettling, part of the countryside about 10 km away from the city centre. It’s a really nice place, a small cosy house (not really small though, it’s like Singapore’s bungalow) with its own farm.
During breakfast, Kurt's father showed me the Austrian newspaper and tried to tell me what has happened all over the world, including the SARS case in China, and asked me if Singapore has the same problems. Too bad my Deutsch is still at a very elementary level and I could only reply in a few phrases. After which we attended a mass in a Catholic church - it was their religious public holiday that day called the Epiphany.
We toured around the city centre in the afternoon and then headed back to his place for dinner and a night of board games. Its a simple stay in Graz. Simple and peaceful.
We practically saved quite a bit of euros by staying at Kurt’s place, by sitting in Kurt’s car touring around the city centre, by having home-cooked Austrian meals for that two days. Basically, every kind of food is home-made, with the exception of rice. From milk to bread, from vegetables to meat to eggs, and even juice, everything is grown or reared or baked by them.
To be able to work on the farm and harvest personally what is grown is satisfying. To be able to live away from the bustling city centre is bliss. If only I can stay there forever for the rest of my life…
7th Jan - Back to London
We got so used to the freaking freezing colder weather in Austria that we feel warm when we touched down at London Stansted Airport (3 degrees Celsius then).
Back to reality…
Hopefully the four bottles of wine that I bought in Austria are able to make me drunk occasionally and take me away from reality when necessary (before the next journey to perhaps Belgium and the Netherlands...)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment