Backpacking Austria (Part 1)

I made no iteneraries or grand plans this time round - apart from my proposal that we arrive in Salzburg, take in as much as we can, and hop on the night train to Croatia. From Croatia, take a bus to Split, and from there, catch a boat to Dubrovnik, which is at the heart of the Adriatic Sea. Spend time on the coast of Dubrovnik, and then catch a train to Vienna. I had the maps printed out, and was pretty set on it. Trust me, I said. No itenerary. No grand plans.

We limited all essentials to ONE backpack (not bad going, considering P managed to pack hair straighteners too!!) Arrived in Salzburg, thought about hiring a car for our escapade, but the car rental place was shut (in Austria it's illegal to open for business on a Sunday and almost everything is closed). So we took a 20 minute bus from the airport to the town, and realised we were already pretty zonked. We got to the Salzburg train station and proceeded to inquire about trains to Croatia.

Dude! Thats when I found out its 7 hours by train from Salzburg to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.... and then half a day's journey by bus to Split, and a further few hours by boat to Dubrovnik. Hnmnmn.... okay, that kinda wastes alot of time. So I asked about trains to Slovenia... I've read alot about the pretty Slovenian capital called Llublyana... only 4 hours away from Salzburg by train. Do-able... until we found out how much the train fare would be from Croatia to Vienna, our penultimate destination. And again... we thought... DUDE!! So, two tired backpackers sat down on the bench in the Salzburg train station and thought long and hard.

Do we, dont we.... and then P looked at me and said "Hey... we havent even seen Salzburg yet. Why dont we just explore here first?" The big genius. It was the best proposal yet. We hadnt made any arrangements for accomodation, and so we hunted down the tourist information office and asked for a list of youth hostels. We grabbed a map of the city, and circled where was close to us, and central to the city too. We found it... a youth hostel on Paracelsusstrasse. (Strasse = street) We walked it... and when I thought my feet couldnt take any more, and my braincells were crying out for an ice cold AUSTRIAN BEER, we finally arrived. A wonderfully clean, pinewoody hostel on the outskirts of the old city.

By this time, it was about 5pm... so we put our bags down, freshened up and only had one thing on our itenerary. SEEK ICE COLD BEER. Then maybe dinner... We grabbed the map, headed out and eventually, all the way down Franz-Josef Strasse... we crossed into the old city and suddenly... I saw this:

Salzburg is breathtaking. It's so beautiful.... we ended up staying in Salzburg for 3 days, and we explored old churches, old streets, the old town, the new town, and many, many hills! The building you see on top of the hill is a castle... we walked all the way up and the views were amazing. There is an Augustinian monastery on the other side, where the Augustinian monks brew their own world famous beer (how ironic!!) but we didnt get to go in. I did drink Kaiser, Radler and Edelweiss though... three different beers... all very nice.

See the river bank in the picture? You have to climb over railings to get to it - and we did. I took off my shoes, and plopped myself down... only to realise 5 mintues later that I'd sat on an ant hill. My only complaint about Salzburg is that their red ants are malicious! The blasted thing bit me on my back, but it was so painful I thought I was losing feeling in my leg! And no, it wasnt psychosomatic pain. Nonetheless..... I soon recovered, we shifted spots, watched the sun set, shared a Topfen-und Heidelbeerstrudel (farmer's cheese and blueberry strudel) that we bought from the market and went back later, smelling like grass, sunshine and blueberries.