Weekend in Austria: Vienna and Salzburg

On Thursday evening, Kate and I took a plane from Lyon straight to Vienna, Austria! Before we got the plane though, we had to wait a while at our gate. Luckily we had some entertainment though, lol. This little boy (probably around 1 and a half years old) was running around and trying to take everything from everyone. He came over to us a few times, and tried to take my suitcase and phone…haha. He also tried to take other peoples’ phones, books, tablets, magazines, etc. The poor parents and grandparents had to run around after this kid… well, they will have some funny stories to tell him when he gets older I suppose!

Anyways, we landed around 9 30pm, and then took a 45 minute bus from the airport to get to Westbanhof station. Then, we found our way to my friend Mira’s place! It was so nice to see her again! We had a nice talk about life in general, and then Mira gave us lots of advice about what to see/do in Vienna. 

On Friday, Kate and I started the day by just exploring the city on foot (taking a path that Mira recommended) towards “the ringstraße” (ring road) which is a circular road that surrounds a district in Vienna. This road has lots of nice buildings on it which we passed including the Parliament Building. 

Kate and I in front of the parliament

As we were passing through and admiring a nice area, a random guy dressed up old-fashioned comes up to us and asks us if we are interested in classical music, and he tries to sell us tickets to some show… We really were not that interested, and even told him in german “nein, danke”. The guy kept talking to us even more though, especially when he realized that we were foreign… and once he realized that he wasn’t going to sell us the tickets he said (try to read this in a heavy Austrian accent, one clue: “w” is said as “v”), “Forget about the tickets, I want to party with you guys! Where you party?” We didn’t quite know how to respond, but just ended up telling him we didn’t know and that we had a limited time to visit the city, so, bye! And we never saw him again, but it was quite a funny experience.

near the area where we met the guy trying to sell us tickets and then later trying to organize partying with us, lol

We continued to walk around and we saw some nice cathedrals. Then, we started getting hungry, so we asked some Austrian guys if they knew a nice schnitzel restaurant. Their english was quite good (all of the young people spoke pretty good english here). They recommended this restaurant called: Figlmüller, near Stephensplatz, so we headed over there! We were lucky that we went when we did, because we barely got a table! There were so many people there, and people who came a few minutes after us even got turned away because it was so full. 

So the Schnitzel was very good! It reminded me a lot of “kotlety schabowe” (Polish food- which is basically the same thing as Schnitzel). We also had this yummy potato salad with it!

Schnitzel and potato salad

After lunch, we explored the St. Steven’s cathedral which was very beautiful!

beautiful church

Then, we met up with my friend Elke! It was so nice to catch up, and she was kind enough to spend the rest of the afternoon with us. She showed us around Vienna and it was really great to hang out. We had a drink in the MuseumsQuarter as well to unwind from the busy afternoon. 

Elke and I

As we were walking by the Opera, Kate spotted one of her Uni friends from England! It’s so crazy that he was here as well. Later on that evening, we met up with him and his group of friends (after about an hour of riding the metro, lol). While on the metro back that night, I ran into another Austrian, Nico. At first I wasn't sure if it was him, but then Kate helped me figure it out, lol. Then, I had a quick chat with him on the metro. What are the odds that we would bump into each other?!

On Saturday, Kate and I spent the day seeing more of Vienna! We started off by going to see the Prater (famous ferris wheel in Vienna) and in the area there is a really nice amusement park. 

the prater

Then we headed off the Naschmarkt, which is a pretty famous outdoor market. There we walked around, and found a nice restaurant to grab some lunch. We had viennese sausages with horseradish and mustard on the side, as well as some potato salad!

yum lunch

Then we bought this yummy milk-chocolate almond treat at the market, it was soooo good!

delicious but overpriced treat (4 euro!)

After the market, we headed off the Schönbrunn Palace. There we explored the gardens a bit and then walked up to get a nice view. After getting a few photos, we just chilled on the grass and enjoyed being outdoors. Next, we walked back to the palace, and explored the Easter Market that was set up right in front of the palace. There were so many tourists here at the palace. I heard quite a lot of eastern european languages, and even overheard some conversations in polish :). 

Chillin on the grass

the palace and some tulips

Easter at the palace!

There were little stalls with easter themed items (little decorative eggs) and all kinds of food (little desserts, pretzels, and sausages). At first I wasn’t going to buy anything, but then I saw this lady eating a pink cube cake (Punschkrapfen) that looked pretty good. I decided that I wanted to try it as well, so I bought one. The frosting was really sweet, and inside there were three layers of cake. It has a taste of rum which complemented the sweetness of the frosting quite well.

mmmm cake

After visiting the market, we headed back to Mira’s where we relaxed until dinner. We had made a reservation at the 7 Stern Brau (thanks to a recommendation by Elke). We had tried some of their beer and we both had some goulash with a dumpling. It was pretty good, and filling.

Goulash

After dinner, we met up with Elke and her friend Anna at a popular bar called: Look Bar (thanks to Mira’s recommendation). It was pretty crowded and hard to find a table. we ended up sitting at a table that was reserved for a big group, but they didn’t end up using the table, so it worked out well for us!

On Sunday, Kate and I went to Salzburg for the day! We decided to use car-sharing to get there, so that we could save money, and it was our first time ever using this website! Mira had called the guy (named Dieter) the night before to confirm where he was going to pick us up, and we found him pretty easily at the Hütteldorf train station in the morning. I was a little worried about participating in car sharing, but it went perfectly fine! Dieter was really nice and talkative! He was a really easygoing guy, about 40ish years old, and kinda looked like a surfer dude (with long dirty blond hair). Luckily for us, he spoke English pretty well. It was about a 2 and a half hour drive, so it would have probably been awkward in silence… Anyways, we all talked the whole way and we even showed off a bit of our german, lol. I know a very useful sentence in german: “Ich habe einen Ragenbogen gesehen” It means: I saw a rainbow. He was impressed, haha. Overall the ride seemed to pass pretty fast, and we got some advice about Salzburg from him because he comes here quite often. It was strange saying goodbye to someone that we probably won’t ever see again, but I will always remember this car sharing experience. 

Once in Salzburg, Kate and I walked around the streets. There were so many pretty buildings! 

pretty Salzburg

After a bit of walking, Kate and I got lunch at an Italian restaurant. I got schnitzel again, but this time with potatoes and veggies. I enjoyed my meal and it really reminded me of polish cooking!

After we ate, we headed over to the gardens where the parts of The Sound of Music were filmed. We got some pictures next to a fountain that was in the movie! It was pretty cool to visit a place where the movie was filmed!

Here is a pic from the Sound of Music...

...and here we are!

Then, we continued walking around and saw some more nice buildings, one of them being Mozart’s birthplace! It’s now a museum and one of the most visited museums in the world I believe!

At Mozart's birthplace! 

Next, we continued to walk around and we admired all of the beautiful buildings! We also went inside the Salzburg Cathedral, which was breathtaking! Definitely one of the prettiest cathedrals that I have seen so far (and I have seen lots of them around Europe).

Beautiful ceiling!

Afterwards, we headed up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is the largest, fully preserved fortress in central Europe! It was quite an uphill walk, but we made it through. It was definitely worth the 8 euro entrance to get some awesome views of Salzburg! There was also free wifi at the fortress which was pretty cool! 

Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking the city

nice view of Salzburg

After we toured the fortress, we walked down and found a cafe where we tried Sachertorte, which is a special Austrian (originally from Vienna) chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam inside. It was very tasty! We also had a Mozartkugel with the cake! Mozartkugel (originally from Salzburg) are these little chocolate balls filled with nougat and marzipan. They were pretty good, but I think the cake was better. I was so excited to try one though, because they are sold all over Austria! I was a bit too excited though, because I unwrapped it quickly and somehow, it escaped my fingers and fell on the ground… but luckily, the waitress witnessed all of this, and brought me another free of charge :). 

Sachertorte and Mozartkugel

After this little tea and sweet break, Kate and I took a train back to Vienna. We ended up taking a Westbahn train, which ended up not costing us too much (about 23 euros). It was a nice train, and we could even buy our tickets on board. 

After we got back to the apartment, Kate and I cooked dinner. Then, we went out to a bar not too far away called, Freiraum. It was a very chic and classy two story place. We met up with Elke and another friend of mine named Julia. It was so great to spend time with them and to reminisce about the good times at UGA :). 

Julia, Elke, and I

The weather this past weekend was alright, but mostly overcast. On Monday morning (when we had to leave), the weather was beautiful! The sky was blue, and it was so sunny! Kate and I couldn’t believe it, haha. I took a picture at Westbahnhof just so I would have proof of the blue sky.

waiting for the bus and enjoying the blue sky

We took a bus from the station straight to the airport, where we then waited for our first flight to Zurich. On the plane to Zurich, a lady from Valencia, Spain sat next to us, so Kate got to practice some spanish with her! Once, we landed in Zurich, I felt pretty comfortable, because I had flown to/from this airport before. The plane even arrived at the same gate as when I visited here in February. Before leaving Zurich, I had to get a bar of this delicious honey-nougat, white chocolate! I went up to the shop and paid with Euros, and was surprised to get some strange change… I had forgotten that Switzerland uses the Swiss franc…. haha… embarrassing (especially since I have been here before and obviously converted my currency, whoops). Oh well, the guy still took the euros, which worked for me. 

On this second flight, we sat next to this french guy named David. He was a bartender in Lyon and he was really friendly. He told us that if we were ever back in Lyon, then we could stop by the bar where he works which is called, Obamo. One day, Kate and I may stop by there :). 

I love sitting next to interesting people on flights! It’s fun to talk to someone new and it makes the flight pass by a lot faster.

Monday evening we arrived back in Roanne, really exhausted, but content after a wonderful time in Austria. Thanks to Mira and her wonderful family for allowing us the stay in their home! Also, thanks to my friends Elke and Julia, who were so willing to spend time with Kate and I during our stay. I loved hanging out with all of you! :)

Not ready for another week of teaching,

Magdalena