Salzburg and Mariazell

I know this is very long overdue, but we have not had internet for 2 weeks. I don’t even know where to begin it has been so long… ( I apologize now for the length of this one…)

Salzburg

Two weeks ago I went to Salzburg with two other Swappers, Simon and Steph. We stayed at a youth hostel, Yoho, which was pretty fantastic. It was right between the train station and down town core of Salzburg, so it was very convenient. The rooms were actually quite nice, with 3 sets of bunk beds… It reminded me a little bit of summer in Panorama. We arrived on the Friday night and had dinner at the hostel, some typical Schnitzel, and then headed out on the town. I had read about the Augustiner Brau monastery that instead of producing cheese, made beer. We headed there first. This place was unreal. I think that it could sit about 2,000 people in 4 different rooms. There were 2 options of beer size, a half litre, or litre. We opted for the litre. It was such a cool setting, except that there were pictures and sculptures of Jesus everywhere so you felt like you were committing a sin. We had some fun and met some members of a Scottish stag party, who had all worked in B.C. the past summer. The walk home brought on some adventures, including a few funny occurrences with reference to the Sound of Music, which was filmed in Salzburg (More on that later). We returned to the hostel, only to find the bar busy with an international tour group. We met some of the Canadians who go to Western and Dalhousie.

When we woke up we discovered that Salzburg offers something that is a rarity in Vienna, sun. We woke up to a beautiful day, and realized that Salzburg is basically surrounded by snow covered mountains. We decided that it would be a good idea to visit the fortress that overlooks the city of Salzburg, the Festung Hohensalzburg. It is basically all you can see from anywhere in Salzburg. When we actually arrived at the top, after a short but heart pumping hike, the view was stunning. It was cool to walk around the fortress and try and imagine what it must have been like actually living there. We explored it for a little bit, Steph and I took millions of pictures, while Simon tried to deal with his 2 day old hangover. Looking out from the cannon holes, all you can see are church steeples and mountains, it was quite beautiful. When Jodi and my dad were here this summer, she had taken a really cool picture that captured all the steeples of Salzburg. I desperately tried to find the spot, but am pretty sure that it wasn’t here that she took it. I think I found it the next day. As we walked down, we decided that today would be the perfect day to do the Sound of Music tour. None of us really remembered the movie, or the songs, but we knew that we were in Salzburg and that this was our chance to have a little piece of Julie Andrews. So we put our pride aside and boarded the bus. The best part about these tours is the fact that you learn something, and see things that you have otherwise not known about. The Sound of Music tour brought us to…

Leopoldskron Castle: Where the boat tipping scene was filmed
Hellbrunn Castle: Where the original gazebo has been moved to
Nonnberg Abbey: Where the real Maria was a nun
St.Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang: I don’t think this was in the movie, but it is in the breath taking Lake District. It reminded me a lot of Invermere.
Wedding Church Mondsee: Where the wedding of Maria and the Baron was filmed.
Mirabell Gardens: Where a lot of dancing and singing took place.

The majority of the tour was people like us, but then there was one couple that made the tourist level soar. They gasped and sang and loved every moment of the tour. I vowed to never turn into that kind of couple. And where were they from? The U.S.A.

Feeling touristed out we headed back to the hostel and all fell asleep, for a power nap. We had great aspirations about what we were going to do that night, we wanted to go to a club that hosted a lot of MTV d.j.’s, but we ended up sitting with a group of travellers and played Uno all night. At least we stuck to a budget...

We had to check out by 10 a.m. the next morning, so we put our stuff in a locker and set out for another exciting day of Salzburg sightseeing… Until we realized that we had seen most of Salzburg the day before (it is not very big). We headed up to the ridge that follows the Salzach, the river that flows through Salzburg. We were able to see a panoramic view of Salzburg, and it was incredible. I am pretty sure that this is where I took a picture similar to the one that Jodi has. We headed back into the town; I wanted to buy some of the painted eggs. I am not talking about tie-dyed kids eggs, these are amazing. They are painted by students and housewives, and I just hope I can bring them home without breaking them. Hannah had also asked me to pick some up for her mom. We also walked by the Christmas in Salzburg shop, and I saw a lot of ‘Pyramids’ – These Christmas candle things. I felt inclined to buy one, but reality kicked in and I remembered that I only have 2 suitcases… After that we collectively agreed that we had seen Salzburg to the best of our abilities and headed back to the train station.

That was the end of the Salzburg weekend.

Mariazell

Last weekend, I decided that I needed to go skiing again, to fully justify the fact that I dragged all of my skiing stuff out here. After much deliberation, I decided on the town of Mariazell, which the Pope visited last year. The trip there was almost more exciting then the skiing. I left Vienna at 6:45 a.m. I had to transfer once in St. Pölten (Where the trial is currently being held for man that held his daughter hostage in his cellar for 24 years, raped her over 3,000 times and fathered 7 of her children. She gave birth in the cellar each time, with no doctors). From there I took the ricketiest train to a town 2 hours away. There is so much snow that the train could not go further, so we had to get off and board a bus. A man was putting chains on the tires of the bus literally from the 60s. My first thought – Safe. The ride was alright, except for the kid sitting in front of me who puked the ENTIRE time. That was nice. As you enter further into the interior of Austria, English starts becoming very rare. Luckily, my german language skills kicked in and I was able to figure out what time to arrive back at the station in the afternoon. Skiing was fantastic. All the rain we have been receiving in Vienna has clearly been snow there and I literally skied powder all day long. The mountain still wasn’t as high as I had hoped, but I am waiting for Easter to really take a long journey into the heart of the Austria Alps. Although I do not know what my surroundings looked like because it snowed all day. I had a little 'experience' on the chairlift. I was riding up with someone who clearly did not know what he was doing. As we approached the top of the hill, I tried to lift the bar up, but he would not take his skis off… He did not take his skis off until we were half way around the top pole, heading back down the mountain. We were the chair that made the chairlift stop, and had to jump off. Thanks buddy. The lonely day came to an end; it was a good day, but not talking all day kind of takes a toll on you… Driving back down to the train station (1 hour) you could really see how much snow they still have. Some of the snow banks were taller than the bus we were in. It makes me hopeful that Easter will be fantastic.

My friend Tara is arriving on Friday. We are going to the Spanish Riding School on Saturday, and hopefully the Opera on Friday or Sunday night.

I received an e-mail from Sky Europe saying that they have cancelled the flight from Prague to Venice, the one that Conor and I were suppose to take. Instead, we are leaving for Italy on an overnight train from Vienna 2 days earlier, and taking Budapest off the travel plans. We are going to head to Prague when we return from Italy and before we head home. This way, we can maximize time in Italy, which takes the stress away of needed to be in places at certain times.

Sorry for the long post, my life is just that exciting…

p.s. I will add pictures as soon as we have internet back at our apartment.