Travelogue - Vienna, Austria September 2012 (2)

Definitely overstayed our welcome in Vienna when we decided to skip Bratislava! Needed a break from the constant traveling so much!

As we stayed in Nerbau, Tex managed to find a really nice place for coffee to kick-start our sight-seeing day! Went to this cafe called Amerling Beisl.

Went back to Westbahnhof to try the much-raved Happy Noodles! If you are heading to Vienna, this is a must-try! We love it very much! You could choose your own ingredients of course and they will fry them with their noodles and place it in a cup where you could walk and eat at the same time as well.

 

Choose chicken and shrimps.

The area also had hot dog stands and Tex decided to be adventurous to try meatloaf made of.. horsemeat! Hahaha, in contrary to the wide fascination over horsemeat recently.




Errrr, horsemeat meatloaf.

It tasted quite tough and wasn't very tasty? Not quite what we expected.

We scooted off to Schloss Schonbrunn next!

Embracing nudity.

My eyes!

I amuse myself at how much more touristy I could get.

The other pair of legs that will walk the distance and explore every single nook and corner with me, as long as I want to.

Tumbled back to the city centre for some light shopping and with no inclination to look for St Stephansplatz, we stumbled upon it!

Man, doesn't it just look grand.

We were pretty amazed by the dedication to their culture - as the Church was undergoing some restoration works, there were construction panels covering the exterior walls of the church. We believe that they didn't want to disappoint tourists, hence the construction panels were painted/printed with the exact images of how the Church would look like, if there weren't panels covering the building! Mad amazing.

Stayed after sunset and the Church looked overwhelming gothic at night. I was actually rather afraid to set foot near it. #scaredycat

See what I mean?

Went in and was fascinated by the interiors! Can you believe the works of the olden days?

Then we had the best Schnitzel ever!

 

 

This marked the end of our stay in Vienna! We headed back to Prague the next day so stay tuned for the last episode of the travelogues!

Travelogue - Vienna, Austria September 2012 (1)

Aaah, finally squeezed some time out to blog about another of our favourite city that we've visited - Vienna! Ever since we returned from Europe, Tex and I have been daydreaming about living in this city for a short while. The schnitzels that we had were to die for! Of course, it wasn't all about food. The people were friendly and the city was just refreshing to be strolling around in. A good mix of ancient architecture and modern buildings. Already in love!

We overstayed in Vienna simply because the hostel that we stayed in was too awesome to leave. Decided to give Bratislava in Slovakia a miss as we didn't want to just score countries - we were quite worn out by the travelling and really needed a rest. The Believe-It-Or-Not Hostel was such a home to us! Lily really did a good job!

Arriving at Wien Westbahnhof from Salzburg, we took another train to yet another station (which I completely forgot the name, the German!) before taking a bus to the district called Neubau. It is known to be a 'young and liberal' district but naturally you can expect slightly more dodgier characters around this area. Having said that, the area still felt generally safe at night. Perhaps I was with Tex all the time.

I know this looks like quite a deserted creepy corridor.

Reaching at the door step! Ringing the bell.

Called the owner, Lily, when we arrived at the door step and she let us in 'electronically'. I have no idea how she did that. She doesn't even stay at the hostel.

Coming through that door on the left!

I have a good feeling about this place already!



Behind those two doors - a closet and a toilet.

The hall area - where everyone mingled. I finally noticed on the last day that the yellow thing in the background was a hammock!

Travelling information for the travelers.

The book exchange corner! You take one, you leave one behind.

Moving on into the rooms! This is the 8-bed dormitory, the larger room.

This is a smaller room, only four beds. Tex and I slept on the beds up at the loft.

Spot my Dora The Little Explorer towel. Hahaha!

Very hungry after the train ride and all the transiting hence we headed our for some dinner/supper! Came across this Japanese restaurant which was still open at 10PM hence we went straight in!




I can't decide if this is Chinese or Japanese. It's Roast Duck Ramen.

Yummmmmmm!

Yaki Soba? Can't remember.

Went in search of our next quest - the Viennese Schnitzel! It is one of the best known Viennese cuisine and where best to eat it but in Vienna itself! It's sorta like our chicken cutlet but pounded by a hammer and mainly made from beef or pork.

Had one here. Not impressive, in my opinion.

Viennese sausages.

One thing Tex and I noticed was that the sausages served at kiosks were really tasty and they were normally cheaper than what you have in restaurants! So if you're visiting Europe on a really tight budget, kiosk food can give you a run for your money! One hotdog is prolly about only €2!

When I woke up early the next morning and was having a cuppa with Lily, our hostel owner, she recommended me to visit Cafe Central, since I told her we love hunting around for cafes and would love to experience the coffee culture there. Quoting her, "It's really hard to get a table, you would normally need to make reservations. If you do not manage to get a table, it's even worth it to just enter and take some photos of the place!"

With such recommendations, we walked around for about half an hour, battling the cold winds and rain because I underestimated the weather! Tex had to buy me a dual-cardigan from a very nice old lady and it's his best €29 spent!!

Reached and it was located at a very odd corner of a fork. And we managed to get a table without even waiting for long!!

All these tortes! Ahhhhhh!

Hello sir.

So we ended our day with roaming the streets of the city centre in Vienna, tried to buy my Ferragamo shoes and my Longchamp bag but didn't in the end because the colours and sizes were not to my liking. Oh well! "Money saved!"

Hahahaha, favourite phrase whenever I miss something from a particular launch. Blogshop shoppers would understand!!

Pardon my really slow posting - the weather in Perth has been crazy. 38 degrees Celsius is not doing my body good and I've just been really lazy, drinking a lot of water and well, lazing around. Not to forget that I've been enjoying getting my hands on the fresh ingredients here and cooking all sorts of dishes for Tex to try! I do update regularly on Instagram though, so you can check my photos out there!

Alright, till the next! :)

Travelogue - Salzburg, Austria September 2012

I'm not sorry to say that I've littered my little blog with brainfarts and thoughts that were so intense I had to blog it out. Thanks for sticking around, y'all!

Very excited to blog about this part of the travelogue. It's now classified as one of my top favourite cities. I can conclude I like any city that gives me that bright blue sky. Hehe.

Very scenic view along the train ride from Prague to Salzburg.

Gotta admit that I love taking train rides in Europe. Quick, fast and enjoyable experience. We would normally very cheapo-ly, plopped ourselves and our bags in any first class cabin that we see. When the train conductor came by and check our tickets, the nice ones would let us stay since there wasn't anyone else with a proper first-class ticket looking for a cabin. The more "on" ones would ask us to top up our train fares or move to the economy class. I must say we have been blessed with very nice train conductors so far. Only one required us to top up, which Tex very kindly offered to pay. T.T

Sleepy heawd, sleepy hair.

Prague to Salzburg was one of the most troublesome transits we had to make during the trip. We had to take a train from Prague Main Station to Linz and board another train from Linz to Salzburg. The entire journey took us about six hours and we finally reached Salzburg at around 2pm!

After rubbing shoulders with the grumpy Czechs, the Austrians that we met at the visitors' centre seemed soooooo friendly in contrast. A very nice lady was so patient to explain to us where we could visit within our short one-night stay and even advised us where we could attend musicals or concerts, which was on our to-do checklist in Salzburg!

If you ever visit Salzburg and are keen on visiting museums, cable cars, historical sites and interesting tourist attractions, please buy their Salzburg card for €26 per person for 24 hours. They come in 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours. Trust me, you will save so much more than €26. One cable car ride for an adult (ascent and descent) already cost you €21 and with the Salzburg card, it's free! Moreover, you will get free admissions or more than 50% discount on other attractions' admission rates, it's totally worth it! :) Know more about it here.

Checked into our hotel, Hotel Schwarzse Rossl. It's an academic hotel so it's open during their holidays seasons to travellers when their long-term students go back to their countries or homes. Reminded me strongly of Tex's room in his Perth college when I went to bunk in with him four years ago! See some reviews here! Kudos to Tex - he always, always never fails to find us affordable, clean and unique accomodations wherever we travel! :D

Tex's sexy butt while he checked out what was outside our window.

Dropped our bags and we headed out immediately to make full use of our Salzburg card! First stop was to Mozart's birth place! Oh, did you know that Salzburg was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Therefore you could see many shops selling souvenirs related to Mozart, like chocolates etc. They even had a chocolate named after him called Mozart balls. I know rightttttt. It's also called Mozartkugel.

Free admission. Thank you Salzburg Card!

Walked around the city to look for more places to go to and stumbled upon.. HOTEL SACHER!!! Now now, I've only heard of Hotel Sacher in Vienna, which was also one of my to-go list and they produce the famous Sacher Tortes. I didn't know Hotel Sacher existed in Salzburg too!

And now that we know, we had to patronise the cafe to give the famous torte, which also means "cake", to give the desserts a try! I couldn't wait till we visit Vienna, I had to eat it then!

Cafe Sacher.

Ohhhhh look at those cakes.

More souvenirs suitable for friends and family!

We ordered a small selection of cakes and sinned.

This was so so so awesome.

And of course, the very famous Sacher Torte in praline size or in cake slice size. We ordered one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic in praline sizes for tasting!

Chose our seat by the Salzburg River for a quiet afternoon, resting our legs. It was a long day with us waking up early and rushing around changing trains.

Hotel Sacher Salzburg
Schwarzstraße 5-7, A-5020 Salzburg
Tel.: +43 (0)662 - 88 977 0
Fax: +43 (0)662 - 88 977 551



Photo-taking time at the river banks.

Sunset at Hotel Sacher.

 

 

 

Got hungry and found a nice restaurant for our dinner! Had traditional Austrian food! I don't particularly like horseradish. They tasted rather weird and spicy to me and only then I realised that they were of the same Brassicaceae family which consisted of mustard, wasabi, broccoli and cabbage. Tex didn't seem to mind it though.

 

 



As usual, couldn't finish our dinner and we packed home again!

Walked to Mirabell Palace to attend a classical concert! Flashed our student cards and managed to get tickets at student price rates! :D Happy! The Mirabell Palace was really a wonderful place to hold a concert! An old lady told us to get married there. She also advised us that we had to wait for two years. LOL.

Strolling along the river bank again after the concert.

That night was relatively cold and we huddled to sleep together. :)

Went over to the cafe next door for free breakfast and spotted a cute little Vespa!

Love having quiet breakfasts like this with Tex

We packed up and left our backpacks with the hotel before starting our day proper! It was a good good good day!

Don't you just love the sky?

Staring at these photos again makes me feel like every dollar I spent there was worth it.

 

 

Went to rent bicycles again! Took some time to choose bike again because I am short! T.T

That's Tex going very fast in front. I'm trailing behind because I wanted to take photos.

We cycled along the river banks with the intention to visit Untersberg and take the cable car! That's the mountain in the below photo. Only after we have been there, then we knew that we were at the Austrian part of the Alps! OMG, holyshit!

Taking a breather -  we were lost. We must have cycled continuously for about 6km or so or close to an hour but Untersberg seemed so near yet so far! I guess we have deviated away from the main roads and made some detours here and there. But fret not! It was also during this part where we took the nicest photos that tour buses could never have brought us to! :D

 

 

 

Cycled for what seemed like another 4 km through the residential estates and entered another small town nearer to Untersberg.

Finally reached!

Took the cable car ride up to the Alps! Yay!!

While waiting for the cable car, we chatted an old American couple up and they told us they have been travelling around Europe for more than a month now. Hai, I would totally do that when I am old too.

Cars and houses getting smaller and smaller.

At one point, the cable car just went vertically up and it was rather scary.. given that the carriage seemed a little weathered. Hurhur.

How about alfresco dining right on a height of 1972 metres?

Tex was totally not dressed in hiking gear please. As Salzburg enjoyed quite an awesome weather that day, the summit was rather chilly! It must have felt like 12 degrees Celsius or so!

No idea where/what he was looking at.

Had to tame my very notorious hair.

I packed bagels from the day's breakfast and we had our lunch while enjoying the breathtaking view.

This was the old couple we talked to.

There was snow!!! Not falling though. :(

Hai, just to see this, the ride there was totally worth it.

It was, soooo worth it. That was the best day I had.




I really like the photo above. I felt really blissful with the opportunities given by so many people to be able to travel to such a wonderful place with Tex.

On our descent down the mountain.

Retrieving our parked bicycles!

We then moved on to where Tex really wanted to visit - the Red Bull Arena!!! Mad soccer fan, he is. At first the stadium was closed, only the merchandise shop was opened. Then we stumbled upon an office and very earnestly explained to the lady that we came from Singapore and blah blah and really wanted to see the stadium and blah blah. Thank goodness she was so kind to open a door for us to enter the stadium! I thought we even saw some players training! Heee.

Happy Tex with his purchase.

We then had to leave to catch the train to Vienna. I had a small regret that we didn't get to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress due to time constraint! Had really wanted to take the furnicular. Oh well, it just means that I need to be back again! :)

The platforms at Salzburg Main Station were mad confusing and most of the announcements were made in German so we could only try our best to grasp what they were saying, mostly listening out for words like 'Wien' and the likes to make sure we were at the right platform. Alas, the train that we were supposed to be on, got delayed time and time again and we got so confused we eventually got up the wrong train! Better to be on the wrong train then to miss a train?

Turned out that the train that we were on was managed by WestBahn and not OBB, where our tickets were bought from. Hence, the train conductor told us that either we could get off the next stop to catch the right OBB train or continue with WestBahn on this train but we had to get new tickets. We looked around and Tex decided to just spend the money because the train was sooo nice and new! It was really different from the OBB trains that we took and WestBahn trains had food carts, double-decked seatings and free WIFI! Also, the fares that we eventually paid for WestBahn was cheaper than OBB! Tex made a good call after all! :)

The WestBahn train conductor also advised us that after we reached the Vienna Westbahnhof, we might be able to lodge for a refund of the unused tickets from OBB. So off to the counter we went when we alighted at about 9pm and submitted our forms. We seriously thought there might be no hope because it was purely due to our confusion and slow-wittedness, if I may say so, that we boarded the wrong train. However, Tex just informed me a few days ago that they processed the refunds and we got our money back! OBB, you still rock after all! :)

Upper deck.

Seriously we were free to choose anywhere we wanted to sit. Shiok sia!!!

Nine classic faces of Tex eating sticky sweets.

And here's one of mine.

That's all for Salzburg, loves! Next up would be the Vienna leg! Ahhhhh, I love Austria!