Salzburg, Austria - Day 1

Location: Our 8-bed mixed dorm in Euro Youth Hostel, Bad Gastein

If you're wondering why Bad Gastein, when the title says Salzburg, well, there are hardly any hostels in Salzburg, and all of them were fully booked due to the Euro matches. So the only option we had was this hostel in Bad Gastein which is about 1.5 hours south of Salzburg.

Because of this, when we arrived at Salzburg, we could not immediately check into our hostel like we've been doing so far, but had to keep our luggage in lockers at the train station till evening. Paying about 5 Euros for each large locker was definitely a better option than carrying our heavy backpacks all around the little city! But before I get ahead of myself..

The day started off with us taking the metro to Nepliget Interchange, and taking the 7am bus (Volanbusz this time) to Vienna. Nicely slept on the bus, which was as nice as the Student Agency one, but slightly more expensive. Much cheaper than the train though. Once we reached Erdberg in Vienna, we took the metro down to Westbahnhoff to catch the 1044 train to Salzburg. Familiar ground! Had to say our final goodbyes to the Eastern-Europe-and-Vienna part of our journey as we now move on to explore other cities in Austria.

The train from Vienna to Salzburg was completely packed with boisterous Swedish fans, all ready to watch their match against Greece (which is going on now btw!). It was REALLY exciting! To see them all clad in yellow and blue, cheering away madly with their fellow Swedes. So much patriotism :) Couldn't really take pictures in the train, without looking very obvious. But when we got to Salzburg and were running around looking for an empty locker (Salzburg is obviously too small a place to accommodate this many people for the matches!), we were greeted by the sight of really HIGH-spirited (pun!) Swedes, with painted faces and crazy hair-dos singing away in glory. They grinned at us in all their highness (definitely drunk too) and we grinned back in sheer excitement :D

Hordes of Swedish fans who'd come to Salzburg to catch the match live

I felt so goosebump-ish. Can't wait to watch the matches in the fan zones whenever possible! But anyway, we were also getting a little worried as we couldn't seem to find any lockers which were big enough for our backpacks. After walking around for about an hour, we got hold of a decent-sized one and all three of us used brute force to push and squash our bags inside. Disadvantage of not having a guy with us! But we were strong and managed to fit everything in and excitedly started our day :D

After grabbing some food at a cheap-ish Gyros shop outside the station, we headed out of the city centre, to Schloss Hellbrunn, a palace full of trick water fountains. The original plan was to rent a bike and cycle all around the city centre, looking for the various Sound of Music sites which I'd located online. Unfortunately, we had to scrap that plan because of the Euro crowds. So we just took a bus down to Hellbrunn Palace instead. I was extremely curious to see what this place had in store for us, as all the guide books raved about it. It didn't disappoint!

When we got there, the tour guide warned us about getting wet, but we already knew that, so just stayed cautious. So when he asked for volunteers, I smartly stayed away while Neela and Krups eagerly ran forward :P They were asked to sit around this innocent-looking table while he was talking away, explaining the history of the palace when suddenly...

Do not trust anything at Schloss Hellbrunn!

hehehehehe. Water just sprayed out of nowhere and I laughed like a maniac :D Awesomeness! These two got COMPLETELY soaked after this hehehe. But of course, I didn't escape. Throughout the tour, the guide used to spring surprises on us and controlled the harmless-looking fountains to randomly squirt water on all of us! Such an interesting place. And there were some mechanical exhibits which were fully running on water. Very cool stuff.

The history of this palace is that, the guy (Archbishop AND Prince, Markus Sittikus) who designed it was very fond of practical jokes. So the whole palace is filled with these little surprises and pranks, making it very popular among tourists! Definitely different from the castles and palaces we've seen so far. After the tour, the guide left us to do some exploration on our own. The interior of the palace was similar to Schonbrunn in Vienna. Looked absolutely gorgeous and spacious. There was a room called the Octogon, named after its shape, and Neela and I tried harmonizing "At the Beginning" there. Great acoustics and we sounded really nice too hehe.

One of the huge rooms in Schloss Hellbrunn

We continued our way through the huge palace, stopping to admire the designs and quaint furniture and portraits. After that, we moved out to explore the lovely gardens and looked out for the Sound of Music gazebo. Unfortunately, it was closed. (Rachu told me they closed it to the public because many elderly couples pranced about in there, assuming Liesl and Rolf's characters, and ended up injuring themselves :P) We did take some jumping photos outside it though hehe.

The "I am 16, going on 17" gazebo in Sound of Music

The grounds were really pretty and peaceful. Grassy lands with kids and dogs running around. We found a playground and Krups delightfully exclaimed "AAAH SWINGS!" like the rest of the kids surrounding us. So we joined them. There was one very interesting swing which all of us took turns to relax in.

Neela's turn to relaxxxx

It was extremely sleep-inducing too, so after each of us slacked there for 15min, we continued our touring. No more obvious Sound of Music sites there, though various parts of the movie were shot around Hellbrunn Palace. I'd read somewhere that the yellow walls of a walking pathway were the backdrop to the "I Have Confidence" song so we took some lame photos there as well.

Krups and I making funny poses

Most of them are really too lame to put up here heh. Anyway, after this, we took the bus back to the city centre. To our dismay, the sites where the movie was shot had been closed off or were under construction. Especially the Do-Re-Mi Horse Fountain, and the location of the film festival right at the end of the movie. We did find the bridge (also Do-Re-Mi) which they run across, Mozartsteg.

Mozartsteg Footbridge

By the way, I forgot to mention that Salzburg is Mozart's hometown. So there are many areas dedicated to him. But we didn't visit any, as we're not particularly into Western classical music. Even Mozart-related items, like Mozartkugeln - marzipan covered with nougat, and dipped into chocolate. We managed to try this and the dark chocolate one tasted AM-AZ-ING! Neela says they're available in Singapore as well, so woohoo!

So after crossing the bridge and getting some food, we went to explore Mirabell Gardens, which was right next to the train station. It looked absolutely gorgeous! Colourful flowers amidst perfectly manicured hedges. This garden was also featured in Do-Re-Mi. Right behind the garden was Schloss Mirabell, but we didn't go in as there's nothing much in there.

Krups and I in Mirabell Gardens, with the Palace in the background

And by this time, we'd experienced Euro-mania firsthand (all the fans swarming the city centre) and were feeling REALLY mad. Decided to watch the France-Italy match in the Zurich Fan Zone and expressed our glee in all the photos we took, which I'm definitely not putting up! Except this one.

Krups posing hahaha

That was the last one we took before rushing off to catch our train to Bad Gastein. Unfortunately, the last train leaves at 1904 daily, so we couldn't stay in Salzburg longer. Luckily we're spending tomorrow here as well. The train journey was uneventful, and we slept as usual :P Not much of a scenery as it was getting dark, but we got the impression that we were travelling through mountainous terrain. We'll be able to know for sure tomorrow morning. The hostel's very close to the station, just a 5-minute walk away. Found a pub at the basement, so we're gonna head there now.

Oh but before that, we wanted to shower first and sleep immediately after the match ends. Bathrooms are super clean here, but OH GOD, combination of Prague bathrooms' light sensors plus doors with no locks!!! It's CRAZY man! We had to go in pairs too, coz one person had to stay back in the room to take care of our stuff. So when I showered, Neela was standing outside and moving around to prevent the lights from going off. I guess this'll be funny when we think about it after a few months, but SERIOUSLY how is someone supposed to shower in peace if the lights keep going off?!

K it's getting late, and at this rate we'll end up missing the match heh. Off to the pub to watch Sweden vs Greece wooot! G'night and will write again tomorrow after ICE CAVES!!! :D