This post is just the intro to Salzburg. It captures the market, Mozart's childhood home, and most importantly the misery of being cold, hungry and tired. Feel free to enjoy the pics and skim it, but the amazing experiences in this little city happened the next day and were so wonderful, I put them in their own post under "The Sound of Music Tour".
As I've said, Austria was my favorite European country (besides Cyprus itself) and a big part of that was Salzburg. If you are wondering what could possibly be so special about this small city of 200k in the Alps, then I will tell/show you. First of all, this city had a bit of that magic like Prague. This first part is a little miserable story of my circumstances, but you can skim over it and get to the good stuff. Some of the details are to help me get back there, or for you to feel like you are experiencing it yourself if you care to read it all. The thing is, as wonderful as you imagine a trip like this to be, we are always human and life is rarely entirely perfect. Therefore, it is important to me to capture everything. The pictures convey the general scenes, but not the smells, sounds, emotions, and feelings that happen along the way. This isn't a fairy-tale from a storybook, these are real experiences..to me the cold and fresh mountain air and hunger made this a unique experience and differentiated it from other people's experience of the same place.
After leaving Mozart's home, we ventured on desperate to find a market, and with some luck and a good sense of direction, we found one.. this was one of my favorite markets. If you've been to my house, I've probably made you try the cheeses and also the mystery spread that everyone is obsessed with. (Still have a jar if you know me and want some).
This was one of the BEST places we stayed! Look how huge the room is! At least compared to all the others which are TINY, this felt like a luxurious room.
So, we arrive in Salzburg in the afternoon and once again it is rainy and cold. In fact, the entire Europe trip a weather system followed us, hence why a lot of my pics are overcast. To set the scene, I have now been traveling and on the road for over 2 weeks nonstop. Every single day I get up way too early, grab some continental breakfast, steal hotel food and then run all over whatever-city I'm in, to squeeze everything in the day or a few I have in that particular city. Then I get home late at night after going at least 10 miles each day by foot, crash asleep, then get up at 5am the next morning and hop on the bus or a train and head off to the next destination. In Berlin it was 20*, windy and snowing as I was outside ALL day, at Dachau and Bratislava it rained and was freezing and in Vienna it was barely above freezing, so we got icey rain whipped into our faces all day. Also, my funds were dwindling away. I literally lived off of hotel food mostly. I had it for breakfast & brought baggies from Cyprus to put food in. At breakfast, I'd take an extra plate with bread, cheese, garnish, croissants, fruit or whatever they had and then would make a make-shift sandwich and have that and the other snacks I took for lunch. For dinner, I often had samples from markets or would buy a big thing of nuts. When we were starving, we ate at McDonald's or split a 9E pizza. Although I had some money, I needed it to afford the expenses of the trip, so rationed accordingly. Just giving you a sense of the point of exhaustion my body was at.
So, by the time we got to Salzburg, I was beyond exhausted. But starving, so we wandered (as usual, no idea where we are going and everything is in Dutch and no one speaks English) in the chilly rain and finally found a market. I came to rely and absolutely love markets. We have nothing like it here in the USA, so it's hard to imagine. But they are my favorite. All sorts of workers come with their products: food, alcohol, wood carvings, crafts and conjugate in a central area. There, you can wander and barter for things. I met so many wonderful people, heard stories and learned the most about different cultures and such at these markets. Anyway, so we found one finally. There, for dinner I had samples of DELICIOUS cheese and meats, bought a pretzel and was insisted to try some schnapps. This was NOT American Schnapps. I felt bad bc this guys family has made all these flavors for generations and I tried several shots of them, but dear god they were awful. Imagine drinking rubbing alcohol or Gappa..that's what it tasted like. The first one was so dry I was gasping for air and felt like I was dying hahaha. He didn't mind, he thought it was funny. Anyway, super exhausted and low-on-food me was now intoxicated and we had to find our way back to the hotel. We got back, around maybe 4pm, cold, wet and a little miserable. I sat on my bed and PASSED OUT like never before. I slept forever, wasting my evening away and I didn't care one bit. I've never had such great sleep. I even slept in till almost 8am the next day and that is where my super amazing journey in Salzburg started. Please see the NEXT post and be swept away by the charm of this quaint city.
As I've said, Austria was my favorite European country (besides Cyprus itself) and a big part of that was Salzburg. If you are wondering what could possibly be so special about this small city of 200k in the Alps, then I will tell/show you. First of all, this city had a bit of that magic like Prague. This first part is a little miserable story of my circumstances, but you can skim over it and get to the good stuff. Some of the details are to help me get back there, or for you to feel like you are experiencing it yourself if you care to read it all. The thing is, as wonderful as you imagine a trip like this to be, we are always human and life is rarely entirely perfect. Therefore, it is important to me to capture everything. The pictures convey the general scenes, but not the smells, sounds, emotions, and feelings that happen along the way. This isn't a fairy-tale from a storybook, these are real experiences..to me the cold and fresh mountain air and hunger made this a unique experience and differentiated it from other people's experience of the same place.
This is the home that Mozart grew up in. They turned it into a museum, pretty darn cool!
This was one of the BEST places we stayed! Look how huge the room is! At least compared to all the others which are TINY, this felt like a luxurious room.
So, we arrive in Salzburg in the afternoon and once again it is rainy and cold. In fact, the entire Europe trip a weather system followed us, hence why a lot of my pics are overcast. To set the scene, I have now been traveling and on the road for over 2 weeks nonstop. Every single day I get up way too early, grab some continental breakfast, steal hotel food and then run all over whatever-city I'm in, to squeeze everything in the day or a few I have in that particular city. Then I get home late at night after going at least 10 miles each day by foot, crash asleep, then get up at 5am the next morning and hop on the bus or a train and head off to the next destination. In Berlin it was 20*, windy and snowing as I was outside ALL day, at Dachau and Bratislava it rained and was freezing and in Vienna it was barely above freezing, so we got icey rain whipped into our faces all day. Also, my funds were dwindling away. I literally lived off of hotel food mostly. I had it for breakfast & brought baggies from Cyprus to put food in. At breakfast, I'd take an extra plate with bread, cheese, garnish, croissants, fruit or whatever they had and then would make a make-shift sandwich and have that and the other snacks I took for lunch. For dinner, I often had samples from markets or would buy a big thing of nuts. When we were starving, we ate at McDonald's or split a 9E pizza. Although I had some money, I needed it to afford the expenses of the trip, so rationed accordingly. Just giving you a sense of the point of exhaustion my body was at.
So, by the time we got to Salzburg, I was beyond exhausted. But starving, so we wandered (as usual, no idea where we are going and everything is in Dutch and no one speaks English) in the chilly rain and finally found a market. I came to rely and absolutely love markets. We have nothing like it here in the USA, so it's hard to imagine. But they are my favorite. All sorts of workers come with their products: food, alcohol, wood carvings, crafts and conjugate in a central area. There, you can wander and barter for things. I met so many wonderful people, heard stories and learned the most about different cultures and such at these markets. Anyway, so we found one finally. There, for dinner I had samples of DELICIOUS cheese and meats, bought a pretzel and was insisted to try some schnapps. This was NOT American Schnapps. I felt bad bc this guys family has made all these flavors for generations and I tried several shots of them, but dear god they were awful. Imagine drinking rubbing alcohol or Gappa..that's what it tasted like. The first one was so dry I was gasping for air and felt like I was dying hahaha. He didn't mind, he thought it was funny. Anyway, super exhausted and low-on-food me was now intoxicated and we had to find our way back to the hotel. We got back, around maybe 4pm, cold, wet and a little miserable. I sat on my bed and PASSED OUT like never before. I slept forever, wasting my evening away and I didn't care one bit. I've never had such great sleep. I even slept in till almost 8am the next day and that is where my super amazing journey in Salzburg started. Please see the NEXT post and be swept away by the charm of this quaint city.
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