Sound of salzburg

Wednesday 17–Friday 19 September 2014

The great australian pilgrimage

The train journey from Ljubljana to Salzburg was a bit frenetic. Nobody seemed to know where the train was going from or which platform to go to when we changed, and there seemed to be a whole host of travellers (mostly other Aussies) heading in the same direction on their way to Munich for Oktoberfest, same as us. So we exchanged hurried and puzzled words of advice with a few other groups, and made it onto the right sequence of trains in the end.

The views of the lush countryside between Ljubljana to Salzburg were just spectacular.

Changing trains at Villach.

One of these other Aussies we met on their way to Munich via Salzburg was Craig, a former marketer from Sydney (for companies like Mortein; but don't worry, he wasn't behind that awful 'Save Louie the fly' campaign) who was an Oktoberfest veteran with some great stories to tell. We shared a compartment with him and parted ways when we disembarked in Salzburg.

For some reason we were under the impression that the directions we had to our hostel wanted us to find the local metro, which we couldn't locate anywhere, mostly because it didn't appear to exist. In fact, the directions wanted us to take a bus to our hostel, something we only worked out after approaching some helpful teens outside the station. 'Hello, do you speak English?' we asked. 

'Yes, of course,' they replied. We did presume they'd be able to, but it also seems rude not to ask. But then do you look stupid/ignorant/offensive by acting like they probably can't? The Anglophone traveller's dilemma.

We could really feel how close we were to Germany at this stage, as the bus was impeccably clean, punctual, efficient and legible (it's a well-known fact that Germany emanates an aura of efficiency that impacts every other country proportionate to its proximity), with an LED display helpfully listing the stops as we passed them, accompanied by a cheery automated announcement.

At our enormous and impersonal hostel, we were sharing a room with two other Aussies, Cam and Josh (of course, on their way to Oktoberfest), but we were starving by this point, so we went straight to the Spar Express to see what we could rustle up for dinner. We ended up taking home a simple yet surprisingly delicious combination of crusty bread, tomato and glorious, glorious hummus (something we'd been unable to find for quite a while on our travels).

Seeing salzburg

The next morning we headed out to a vegan cafe, Heart of Joy, for breakfast. I was feeling very vegetable-deprived, however, so I opted for a tasty tofu salad instead of a brekkie option. I picked up the camera to record my meal, as every Gen-Y traveller is mandated to do by the laws of the universe, only to realise that I'd left the battery charging in our room back at the hostel, a forty-minute walk away. 

Til and I proceeded to debate about what to do, with her experiencing a powerful bout of Hostel Patron's Reluctance (HPR), and me arguing that we only had one day to see beautiful Salzburg and I wasn't going to waste all that sightseeing on a crappy iPhone camera. So in the end she ordered something else from the cafe so she could continue sitting there while I went back for the battery.

My vegetabular breakfast (and battery-less camera).

On the way back from the hostel I managed to run into Craig again, too, which was pretty crazy. After that I met Til at a bridge for a wander through the town to the funicular and up to the castle, and I was very glad I had the good camera with me, as the sample of the many photos I took will attest. We were lucky to have gotten a long list of tips from our friend from exchange Barbara, so we could squeeze as much as possible into our one day (but not enough!)

The castle in the distance overlooking the town.

An art installation (not an actual egg)

Water fountain at the foot of the castle hill.

The incredible view from the castle.

An inventive and dynamic way to display weapons and armour.

Some punitive instruments used for torture/humiliation.

An actual chastity belt. The teeth!!!

Another fountain in the castle square.

Climbing the walls.

Next up we did a beautiful walk from the castle to the Richter Postmodern Art Museum (named along with a park up there for the inventor of the Richter Scale) further along the hill.

Art.

Dancing?

In the museum we were able to take an elevator down through the hill back to the city, which was kind of trippy. Our next stop was to check out some (frankly underwhelming) catacombs in a small graveyard before a walk down the main street and a lunch of pretzels.

Catacombs.

Cool old-style signs.

Riverside picnicking

The weather was fantastic that afternoon, and we noticed a lot of locals picnicking on a verdant grassy slope by the river, so we decided to do a little food and beverage shopping and join them.

Mmmm. Loser rice.

Lock bridge.

C*ckblocking cam

After that it was pretty much time to head home, and that would be about it for our time in Salzburg, because we had to leave the next day for Munich. That night though we hung out a bit in our room talking to Cam and Josh, and the former revealed himself to be a total ass. He was only eighteen and he'd clearly destroyed himself by drinking and smoking and partying too hard too consistently since he'd been away, boasting the worst smoker's cough you've ever heard, but all he did was complain. He didn't like Austria, didn't like Sydney, was over travelling but was going to keep doing it for another six months. And he kept going on and on, trying to let us know how rich he was. Later that night he was hanging out with this British girl in the room and didn't say a word except to get us to reiterate in front of her that we hadn't woken up the night before when he was having a coughing fit (clearly building a case to the girl that they could do whatever they wanted later and we wouldn't wake up and hear it). They went out and didn't get back till twelve, when he was clearly disappointed to find us still awake. When they left again after five minutes I said to Til, 'You watch, they've gone downstairs hoping that we'll be asleep by the time they get back. Bet you they come back at 1am.' So we stayed up, half because we were busy and half out of spite, and at 1am on the dot they came back in and went to sleep disappointed. Sucked in. Should've gotten himself a private room if he was so rich. What a schmuck-bitchler. 

Here's a short video of some footage from Salzburg:

Goodbye norwich

In the middle of our fourth/fifth London trip(s), Til and I made the journey back up to Norwich one last time in order to, in less than twenty-four hours, move out of our accommodation and turn in our keys. All the stuff we'd accumulated and brought with us either had to be shipped home (at great cost), carried on our backs all around Spain, Italy, and Greece for a month until we come home, thrown out, or given away.

The stuff I'm taking with me or have already sent will always remind me of my time on exchange, and will keep being a part of my life, but the things I'm leaving behind, I think, tell their own stories, and deserve a mention, so here's my ode to a random assortment of things left behind:

A bunch of thumb tacs and blu-tac used to hang stuff all over my walls, now squeezed into a snitch-like ball. I left it in the cupboard, hoping the next inhabitant of my room would find it and wonder over it.

One bottle of Pantene Pro-V Smooth & Sleek shampoo & conditioner  2 in 1, which I accidentally bought thinking it was just conditioner.

About thirty mils of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Nineteen black plastic coathangers.

A Simpsons poster Kate gave me, from a past exchange student.

A whole stack of books, which I ended up leaving in a pile at Heathrow. The two pretty ones I left behind 'cause I bought them for class but never read them; and the green ones were only two pounds, so I always meant to leave them behind. Hope they ended up somewhere cooler than lost and found.

The goonsack costumes Til and I wore to Gilly's fortieth.

Two shit towels Til and I bought at a shop on our second day in Norwich with Kelsey and Lisa.

And more. I'm not going to list everything haha. The rest is even less interesting than the above. All the interesting stuff got stuffed into our now swollen and hefty backpacks, or sent home, which took HOURS and cost like, a hundred and fifty pounds!

It really sucked that we had so little time in Norwich and so much to do, because we didn't get to say much of a proper goodbye to anyone. So I hope you'll all consider this your goodbye, my housemates, Til's housemates, the other exchange students I met, and the Creative Writing group! Bye Ollie, Kate, Sammy, Bryony, Sykes, and Barbara; bye Penny, Brydie, Carina, Will, Max, Lee, Felix, Danny, Ben (and Rob and Jess)!; bye Bettina and Joanna and Caroline (even though I'll see you all at home, I'm sure) and Mazie and Wes and Bianca and Megan and Allison and Sarah and Kelia and Dave and Rebecca and Stephanie; bye Kim and Nick, George, Rob, Chris, Liam and Tamara, Avani, Sarah, Guns, and Tom and everyone else I've forgotten. Gonna miss you all. And those of you I didn't get to know so well, wish we had have had more time.

Goodbye Norwich, goodbye University of East Anglia, and goodbye room three, flat one, B block, Norfolk Terrace (NTB0103)!

A gallicised st patrick's day and other culinary events

Just before Tilly and I left for France, we went with our American friend Sam to a party in the flat of one of our fellow UOW exchangees, Bettina, where we met Caroline, a USYD student (who we’d actually met before at Barbara’s games night, but not properly). Exchange is complicated, isn’t it?

Anyway, Sam, Til, Caroline and I all left the party at the same time and ended up standing outside Bettina’s flat so long talking and trying to say goodbye that we just ended up going upstairs to Caroline’s kitchen and talking until about four in the morning, despite the fact that we were supposed to be on an early train the next morning.

Caroline is a French speaker, and has family there, and when she heard we were in Grenoble she asked us to bring back some French mixture of Champagne and cider that she had enjoyed in the region. We then decided to have a French party upon our return where we would try the mixture and sup upon cheese and fruit and crackers and the like.

When we planned to have this meeting on Thursday night, we didn’t realise that Thursday was actually St Patrick’s Day, so we ended up celebrating the Irish day in a very French way.

I wasn’t expecting St Patrick’s Day to be as big a deal here as it was. I guess the festivity increases with proximity to Ireland. The Square at uni literally reeked of beer – you could smell it from miles away. It was really fun. I think society should have more days of celebration, like the Romans. I loved the fact that everyone was wearing green. I loved the thought that everyone who was wearing green had made that little effort when they were getting dressed that morning, in concert. There’s something cool about it.

Before the French celebrations began, we went down to the Blue Bar to watch the UEA Take Me Out that Caroline had signed herself up for. The English LOVE this trashy show, so the turnout was incredible. The bar was packed. We joked that if the same thing was done at UOW about four people would’ve signed themselves up and it would’ve been an awkward DIY affair at the unibar with minimal viewers. This is what UEA’s version looked like:

 The crowd.

This dude's 'skill' - knocking a cup off his friend's head with a football.

Then it was time for ze food. Apparently the drink wasn’t as tasty as it was supposed to be because the only one we could get was ‘brut’ or ‘strong’, which doesn’t taste as good.

Tilly showing us how it’s done with her waitress skillz.

Caroline uncorking her first bottle of Champagne.

Only a week later, we attended a curry night at Kim’s house, where Avani whipped up a curry storm! It was amazing in scale and taste:

The curry was followed by games, including Pictionary and Scrabble. I’d like to brag that I lead ‘my’ team, ‘Luke Lucas and the Couch Potatoes’ to glorious victory!

I then retired while the expert Scrabblers showed off. It was an amazing display of wordmanship, as can be seen below. And yes, parquet can be used as a present tense verb!

Soon after curry night was a Vietnamese night hosted by some of Caroline’s friends, where more incredible food was thrown before us and another good night was had by all.

We tried out some wines on special that were somehow Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc/Semillon and Pinot Noir/Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot all in one? They were SUPER WINES!

Tilly models the super wine.

Finally, the other night Caroline, Barbara, Dave, Megan and Bianca were having a vegetarian pasta night to plan their Morocco trip, and Sam, Til and I decided to crash it and join them (because Sam and Bianca are opposite-gender equivalents of one another and had to meet).

More cuisine than anyone can handle!