S-P-O-N-T-A-N-E-I-T-Y

I don’t hear nor use that word often, yet this perfectly explains Shannon’s and my lifestyle this weekend.  Instead of driving up to Salzburg with Adam on Friday night, who was passing through there anyway to pick up his girlfriend in Germany, Shannon and I waited until Saturday morning to start our adventure so that we were assured reservations at a youth hostel in the area. 

SATURDAY—DAY 1

We took our time getting out of bed Saturday morning (or, rather, Shannon did), but finally by 10:45 we were on a train and headed to the city where the hills are alive with the sound of music (and, no, we did not do the Sound of Music Tour).  We got there in the afternoon and walked through the old city, stopping to pose for eachother’s pictures among the Mirabell gardens and get the best chocolate icecream I’ve ever had at the famous Demel’s Delikatessen even before getting settled in at the hostel.  We finally made our way over to the building, though, and were fortunate to find that we were getting a room upgrade at no extra cost to us because the one we reserved was no longer available.  As I’m a stickler when it comes to money, I was very pleased to say the least and the room did turn out to be just lovely.

There were a few hours left in the day, though, so Shannon and I left most of our stuff back at the hostel and made our way to the Bahn that takes us up to the castle (as a security guard told us earlier that morning, you can walk all the way up, but “that is just stupid”).   The weather was beautiful so  we snapped lots of pictures and because I was in a hiking mood, we took the long walk down that landed us right in the center of the old city where the Bio Fest was going on.  I followed my nose to a delectable-smelling stand where they were making potato chips and they were absolutely delicious with the red Sturm I ordered as well.  After Shannon and I were finished mingling with the Salzburgers (aka after Shannon was finished with her beer), we searched out a good place for dinner and came across a delightful little restaurant tucked away in a courtyard.  I splurged and ordered a schnitzel, as I’ve been here almost a month and hadn’t eaten this favorite Austrian dish of mine yet!  And it did not disappoint; my dish came with the cranberry sauce and perfectly crisp potatoes on the side that are a personal necessity in completing this lovely meal.

After my roommate and I were stuffed and happy, we wandered the rest of old city streets that we had not yet explored but we ended up back at an Irish pub that we had passed on our way to the hostel earlier that afternoon.  Shannon wanted to try some different beer, so I tried some white Sturm this time, as we watched some Europeans trying to pull off a professional American football game on TV.

SUNDAY—DAY 2

The next morning, we had  our weird complimentary Austrian-style breakfast before checking out and heading back to the Bio Fest to grab some more potato chips, and then to Demel’s where Shannon originally wanted to try one of the cakes but the place was too busy to sit down the day before.  We had plenty of seats to choose from this time, at 11 in the morning, so she got a coffee and we split a lovely slice of walnut cream cake as we decided our next move.  We decided most of Salzburg had already been discovered by us, except for Mozart’s house, which we planned on passing by on our way back to the train station, so we thought we’d make a little side-trip to the village of Werfen, home of the world’s largest ice caves. 

With our awesome Vorteilskarte, in which Shannon and I (and everyone else under 26 who registers for one) get ÖBB train tickets half off, the trip was dirt cheap and just before we rounded the corner to the Werfen platform, I eyed the Werfen castle high above us out of the train window— it beats every other castle I’ve seen from the outside.  My roommate and I were on a mission, though, and we already knew we weren’t going to make it back to the city in time for the last castle tour.  Our mission to the ice caves included taking the bus that zigzagged all the way up the mountain opposite the castle before buying our tickets for the caves and the 3-minute cable car (versus the 90-minute uphill hike, no thank you).  Reaching the cable car took a 20-minute hike in and of itself, however, and Shannon and I were exhausted by the time we reached the loading platform, but not exhausted enough that we didn’t freak out with the insaneness of the cable car ride.  We expected that once the cable car dropped us off, we’d be there but, no, we had another 20+ minute hike to go.  Phew, I’d been begging for Shannon to go on a hike with me, but this is not what I’d had in mind.

At long last, we arrived at the entrance and the freezing temperatures in the caves were a warm welcome (pardon the pun) to the two of us.  The ice formations were pretty cool (oh my goodness, I swear I’m not doing this on purpose! haha) but all of the stairs were almost more than Shannon and I could bear.  After a good hour and a half, we finally headed out the way we came and my roommate and I took our sweet time going down the mountain, taking pictures along the entire way.  The castle on the opposing mountain was soooooo tiny now!  Back on the train to Salzburg, we decided to fit one more stop into our weekend: the village of Bad Ischl.

By the time we got to Bad Ischl it was dark, but not too late.  As fortune had been going our way all weekend, I discovered a sign for the village youth hostel but of course our luck couldn’t last forever and the reception was closed so we had to search for a hotel instead.  We came across a cute simple one and were just glad to have a place to rest our heads (and our feet) for the night.  I was starving though so, as Shannon loves Chinese food as much as I do, we went to the Chinese restaurant (pretty much the only restaurant open) we had passed earlier when we were scouting out the village.  It was delicious and we went to bed with happy tummies.

MONDAY—DAY 3

Monday morning we ate our complimentary breakfast (I must admit, not only am I getting used to the salami sandwiches in the morning, but I think I’m really beginning to like them—I made myself some for breakfast a few days after coming back from my class reunion) but we were still wiped out from all of the walking we had done the two days before, so  instead of visiting one of my favorite Austrian towns St. Wolfgang, which was just a 1/2 hour bus ride away, we headed back towards the train station.  Shannon had read about 2 villas in Bad Ischl that her tour book highlighted (how we heard out about the village in the first place) so we tried to find the one that was on the way to the train station but we totally walked in a circle and then after we’d given up, we passed right by the entrance, of course.  It cost money, though, so we just marveled at the outside before getting on the train for the 3 and 1/2 hour ride home to Vienna. 

And that is the story of our first 3-day weekend; my roommate and I had some good bonding time, we asked ourselves ‘who needs the boys?’ (referring to the only 3 other interns we know, all boys, who for some reason insist on not hanging out with us), and we fit in 3 Austrian towns in 3 beautiful, perfect-weather, days. 

And we lived every day spontaneously.

 

(Even more pictures to come—check out my pictures page)