Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts

Sometimes when you travel Europe too much, you get a little numb. Another palace, another cathedral, another museum, another statue. Does anyone else feel the same way? Not to say I didn't enjoy myself with the boys, but half the time in Austria, I felt that I was still in Germany. In Austria, they speak the same language and eat the same food (I love schnitzel, but I've had so much in Germany). Activities wise wasn't that diverting as well in the main cities, perhaps when we hit Obertauern where we went skiing! Other highlights to me were riding a snow mobile for the first time, the meat buffet we had in our hotel, some of the best Christmas markets I've been to in Europe, snow filled balconies which we used as a fridge, and random moments, like Ron's "turbulence" in the toilet, me paying my debts to Seetoh in photos and Peter's "fascination" with birds. To put it in a constructive way, I personally feel that the main draw of Austria isn't in the main cities of Salzburg and Vienna, but in the outskirts like the small towns of Hallstatt and Obertauern. And that is why my photos are a little uninspired :(

Hallstatt is a bus, a train and boat ride away from the nearest city in Austria, Salzburg. It's a stunning, albeit sleepy town trapped in a funny limbo between the mountains and lake, untouched and unreal. It snows non-stop when we are there, and I don't think I've ever been colder anywhere else. When we first saw the colourful buildings nestled at the foot of the mountain across the lake, we couldn't believe it was real. The ferry ride across reminded me of something from a Hayao Miyazaki film, like we were going into another fantasy dimension. Anyway, I'm afraid my pictures don't do the town itself much justice - Hallstatt is something you have to see with your own eyes - it's a place where man and nature work hand in hand to be truly amazing. Winter berries. Why are they so red?