Photos of my Austria trip. Read the post below for my travel diary!

I've been wanting to blog about my trip to Salzburg, Vienna and Bratislava since I came back on Tuesday evening...but I've been so busy trying to get resettled into normal life, like school, household chores, grocery shopping, cooking for myself etc. Oh, and I had a problem with my Vodafone contract which gave me a major headache and got me really worked up. But they finally shut off the line yesterday, so I feel a whole lot more relieved. I've told quite a lot of people lah, but for those who don't know: I received a bill from Vodafone, although I'd already cancelled my contract which ran out on 7th November 2005. I called customer service to ask about it. The lady said "You did cancel it, but you withdrew your cancellation." AS IF man! In Sept, I was told to call them back. The lady then asked me why I wanted to cancel the contract. I said because it was too expensive and I wasn't in Germany the whole year round, so it wasn't really worth it. How can anyone interpret that as "I would like to withdraw the cancellation of my contract"??? The customer service lady said she'd cut off the line the next day afternoon and I'd get a writting confirmation in 3-4 days. But on the morning after the next day, the line still worked. So I went to the Vodafone shop and this lady helped me to call customer service. She told me that it could take up to 2 weeks to process and that the customer service lady the other day told me the wrong thing. Oh well...at least I didn't need to panic immediately anymore. And when I checked my phone yesterday afternoon, the line wasn't working anymore. Yay!

Ok, back to what I wanted to say. I spent Christmas stuffing myself and watching DVDs...I was getting cabin fever anyway...so I was so super glad to leave for Salzburg on 27th December.

Day 1: 27th December 2005 - Salzburg
I met Xizhen and Lee Ting in Nürnberg. We walked through the streets for a while, because we had about an hour before the train left. I bought 3 Nici postcards with monkeys on them...and Vanille Kipferl because I hadn't had them this year at all. It all felt familiar...and yet, I haven't been to Nürnberg since Dec 2003. After Dresden, Nürnberg is the Germany city I've spent the most time in. Anyway, we bought a Bayern ticket (for up to 5 people) and some guy asked if he could travel with us. This cut down our travelling costs a bit :D.

In Munich, we changed trains and took one to Salzburg. We walked all the way to our hostel...it wasn't very near, but we managed somehow, armed with a map and our instincts. The hostel was in a great location. Kudos to Xizhen for finding it! It was part of a church, St. Sebastian. Salzburg is pretty small, so we managed to walked through the Old Town and all without having to take any transport. After dumping our stuff, we went to look for stuff to eat. After walking round and round, we ended up at Spaghettis and Co (well, Spaghetti is already plural...dunno why they added an "s")...yeah, I know you are all thinking of fish & co. Anyway, it wasn't too bad...after that, we went back and decided what we wanted to visit the next day.

Day 2: 28th December 2005 - Salzburg
When we woke up, it was snowing!! We walked across the river to the Residenz...which only opened at 10am, so we decided to go to Festung Hohensalzburg first, which was up on a hill not more than 50-100 m away (ok, I am bad at estimating distances, but it was really near!) Oh yeah, if you go to Salzburg and you like museums, do buy the Salzburg Card. It is so worth it! We could visit probably all the museums in Salzburg for one flat rate...and the price includes free rides on the public transport too! Anyway, we went up to the Festung in this "Seilbahn" thing...it was so super fast man! We didn't really get to admire the scenery much. We got audio guides for free and walked around the Festung. We got a great view at the top...well, it would've been better if it wasn't snowing, cos it kinda marred our vision. The thing we remember most clearly was this Archbishop-Prince whose coat-of-arms was a turnip...apparently because his uncle threw a turnip at him when he got out of line when he was younger. So the turnip was to remind him to behave himself or something. Well, there are other explanations, but I'll just tell you the most interesting one. There were quite a lot of rooms to see in the Festung. Ironically, the one I remember best was one room that I absolutely didn't like at all! It was a room with armour hanging from the ceiling and all of the armour was black and in "action" poses, all facing one wall. It was quite ugly and bizarre...but yeah, that's what stuck in my head. There were some rooms of a certain regiment...forgot its name.

After that, we went to the Residenz. I'm afraid I've forgotten what the Prunkräume were like. I think I remember something about Mozart playing there when he was very young or something. But I can't remember what the rooms look like. On the second floor, there was an whole jumble of art exhibitions. The main one was about Winter Landscapes...but suddenly, the topic changed and two or 3 rooms later, it changed again!...like "French Painters" or "Flemish Painters". I think there was a Rembrandt in there. But I could be wrong...it was one of an old lady they assume to be his mother. I remember Lee Ting buying a poster there...only 1 Euro! Then we went to Mozarts Geburtshaus (birth place) and got sorely disappointed. I think the guy too took much artistic license in decoration the place...there wasn't much to see anyway and some things were actually obsecured by the doors! We felt so sorry for the people who paid the full admission price man! After that, everything was closed. Yes, Austria basically shuts down at 6 or 6.30pm. We took the bus randomly...and thankfully ended up in a loop service, so we didn't end up stranded or anything. But we finally got to see where the real Salzburgers live...the Old Town was basically made up of shops and museums, so I was wondering where the real Salzburg inhabitants live. We had dinner at a kebap place near our hostel. Oh, I remember that we went back to our hostel first...and were snacking in front of the TV, planning to come back and watch "Deutschland Sucht den Superstar" at 8.15pm...but we were in the kebap house for very long...and when we came back, a nun was watching some serious-looking show in the TV room, so we retreated to our rooms and talked about what Xizhen calls "philosophical issues"...haha! I would've liked to go to the Ice Caves or the salt mines, but the former was closed for the winter and the latter wasn't exactly cheap either. We decided to stay in Salzburg instead.

Day 3: 29th December - Salzburg/Vienna
We wanted to go to Hellbrunn, one of the places where "The Sound of Music" was filmed. By the way, you'll see Mozart or The Sound of Music related stuff wherever you turn in Salzburg. Mozartkugeln, anyone? But we just missed the bus, and we'd have to wait 20 min, so we decided to head to Mozarts Wohnhaus (living quarters) first, since it was just across the road. This museum was a whole lot better than the Geburtshaus. They even had a Mozart expert there who was ready to answer our questions. We asked him what Mozart died of, or how he died. The guy said there were something like 95 theories. He said some claim his wife poisoned him. Others said he had syphillis. Ah well...interesting! We also found out that he married the younger sister of the woman he worshipped. How odd...and they didn't exactly look the same. There was information about his father and his sister too...it was great!

Anyway, we finally left for Hellbrunn. When we got to the bus stop, we found a huge field of unadulterated snow lying behind some houses. We played and played in the snow for a long time. We had a snowball fight, made snow angels and tried to make a snowman. We had absolutely NO idea how to make a snowman, so it ended up kinda stumpy. It's called Prof Dumpy, by the way. Lee Ting lent it her specs and gloves and I "donated" my scarf.

After all that playing and photo-taking...we decided to go look for Schloss Hellbrunn (which was what we'd come to see in the first place) but we found out that it was closed! Sigh. So we just followed a tour group of middle-aged people (who walked a lot faster than us!) to the glass pavillion where the Sound of Music was filmed. It was a prop donated to Hellbrunn by the makers of the movie. We played flying fox in the playground! It was so fun! Then we were all feeling hungry, so we went back to town to eat. The restaurant that we chose was really not bad. I had some potato gulasch and the girls had Berner Würstl...which were really good! We decided to skip Mirabell Palace and went to some lift which would take us to an art museum. We walked around outside to see the view...and took some photos. Everything was covered in snow! Then we went to take a look at the photo exhibition. Unfortunately, I also only remember the very bizarre ones. They can't really be described without encroaching on anyone's modesty though.

We decided to grab our luggage and head to a cafe for cake and coffee. The cake wasn't too nice. :( There was this weird guy who used his finger to stir his drink...eew! Lee Ting said he was staring at me when we left. Oh well...what to expect of a weirdo who stirs his drink with his finger?

We wrote postcards on the train...and we learnt that it was "DAS Weihnachten", not "die" or "der", as we had formerly believed. Haha. We met Azman in Vienna...his train had gotten there about 3 min before ours. We went to our respective hostels and met around 8.45 or 9pm to look for a place to eat. We ended up at a pasta/pizza place again. The tortellini was so super salty. It didn't occur to me to demand a replacement though...dunno why.

Day 4: 30th December 2005 - Vienna
We decided to go to Hofburg today. I'd wanted to see the library, but we ended up splitting up, though we were technically all visiting the Kunsthistorische Museum. The museum was split in 2 buildings though. Xizhen and I went to the Ephesus Museum and Musical Instruments and Armoury Collections, while Azman and Lee Ting went to the one with paintings. The admission was like 7 Euro a piece! It's not worthwhile buying the Vienna Card if you are a student with an ISIC...but if you are a normal adult, then it is quite worth it.

Anyway, I really liked the Ephesus Collection. Now I'm tempted to visit the Pergammon Museum in Berlin. I bought a book which gives a short explanation to Greek and Roman gods/figures. I think it wasn't too ex, compared to some of my school texts..only 12,50 Euro. As usual, we only remember the weird stuff. We heard that the Amazons hacked off one breast so that they could fight better. Erm...ok-AY.

After that, we went for lunch..at this nice cafe in the centre of Vienna. I had the best potato salad I've ever tasted! I had Wiener Schnitzel. I like it a lot! Then we went to the Kaiserappartements and the Sissi Museum. First though, was the silverware. There were so many freaking tourists that they'd run out of audio guides. :(. We walked through so many rooms of silverware that we all got dizzy. It was fun to be able to identify Meißner Porzellan though. I don't know how I could, but maybe the trip to the Porzellan Manufaktur in Meißen helped. Next was the Sissi part. Lee Ting really didn't like it, because she thought it didn't offer a balanced view of Sissi. I thought it wasn't great, but I'm not disappointed or anything. The myth of Sissi is indeed strange. If Salzburg has Mozart, Vienna has Sissi. And a lot of others too, but Sissi seems to feature very prominently. Her poor husband, the Emperor Franz Joseph seemed to love her a lot...no...WORSHIP is the right word...but she didn't seem to return his affection.

I don't remember doing much after that...we wanted to watch an opera but the tickets were sold out. So I think we just went for dinner at this kebap place. I didn't wanna have kebap, so I had some vegetable Auflauf with bread and cheese. Then we went to look for Augustin, this restaurant that lots of guests had been raving about...but we walked the whole street and couldn't find it...we forgot to check the exact house number...so we gave up and went back...turns out the street was a lot longer that we thought.

Day 5: 31st December 2005 - Vienna
We went to the Hundertwasser House...it was quite out of the way, but there were a lot of tourists there anyway. There was a museum of fakes...I wish we had time to go in, but we didn't...we took some photos of the Hundertwasser house, and I bought a tank top. The lady was so slack...we could've walked away with stuff and she wouldn't have noticed man!

We headed off to the UN City after that, but first, we got out by the wrong exit...sigh...had to walk such a big round! Then we found out that it was CLOSED...only open from Mo-Fr. Lesson: always read the brochures carefully! We decided to go to the Esperanto Museum instead and Azman met us there. It was a very small museum...but very informative. We went to the Globe Museum too, but it was kinda boring for me. The funniest part when Azman and the girls were playing something like Pacman! We went to Subway for lunch...then went to Billa to buy food. I really can't remember what we did after that. I think we went to the Naschmarkt and saw this small restaurant selling xiao long bao, but we'd already eaten. :( We took photos outside a church...I can't for the life of me remember what it's called. Then, I think we took the U-Bahn all the way until the end...and then rode back. But I remember that we went back to our hostel and we always tried to look for Augustin again...but it was CLOSED :( So we walked around trying to find a restaurant that was open...but didn't have. Only kebap joints and expensive restaurants were open that night. We ended up in an American burger joint eating Batman Burgers. I kid you not. The good thing was that we had free internet!

Then we went to see the Silvesterpfad. It was chaotic...idiots throwing firecrackers at each other or randomly at the crowd. It was like a warzone...it made me feel oh so aggressive...like I wanted to go beat them up or something. We counted down near the Rathaus. Admittedly, the fireworks were beautiful...but noisy. We went to Hofburg after that, and it was really nice, because it wasn't so crowded...and the firecrackers looked great against the grand palace. After that, we went back and fell asleep...cos very tired. Oh yeah, my mummy called me but couldn't talk long, cos it would be so expensive! None of us had any real resolutions for 2006, but I guess that's okay :D

Day 6: 1st January 2006 - Vienna
This morning we went to Schönbrunn Castle. It was big and beautiful...but too many Italian tourist groups. We had to SQUEEEEEEEEZZZEEE through them...but at least there were audio guides this time. We all liked Schönbrunn. Found out that Maria Theresia had 16 children, 11 of which were girls. And all girls except one were married off for political reasons. Apparently Austria's philosophy at that time was "Why go to war if you can marry?" We also found out that Marie Antoinette was actually one of Maria Theresia's daughters...for the uninitiated, Marie Antoinette was Louis XVI's wife...both of them were beheaded during the French Revolution. I love HISTORY! The entrance fee was 10,20 Euro per person, but it was worth it. Then we got hungry...so we ate at this restaurant...I had Wienerschnitzel again...with Pommes this time. It was raining/snowing so horribly! We decided to go watch "Match Point" then. We didn't know exactly where the cinema was, so we ended up walking super super super super FAR!! But we found it and got there in time for the movie..Azman was like "It'd better be a good movie man!" And it was. It was one of those you simply have to keep discussing when it's over! It was worth the relatively steep 7 Euro ticket price for students. Then we went to a supermarket and bought stuff to cook dinner. We had soup, pasta and ice cream...yummy!!

Day 7: 2nd January 2006 - Vienna/Bratislava
We decided to take a day trip to Bratislava today. Lee Ting and Xizhen went to the Freud Museum first, then to the UN City...Azman and I were supposed to meet and go to Bratislava first...and we'd all meet up later in Bratislava. We were already on the U-Bahn when Azman asked, "Did you bring your passport?" And I was like "OH NO!!" So we went back to get my passport. Then while we were walking towards the train station , Azman said, "What if the UN City is closed...then they might take the same train to Bratislava". I said "Lee Ting really wants to see the UN City, so you better hope it's open man!" Then we finally got to Südbahnhof and sat in the train to Bratislava. Just then, I saw Xizhen...I thought: "Can't be such a coincidence right?" But it was them! Yay! Turns out the UN City was closed. Sigh. But good for us too lah...it is better to stick together. Then Azman asked them the same question he asked me: "Did you bring your passports?" But it was too late to go back to get them anyway. The train had moved off already. But the border guards were quite lenient...so no problem. On the train, Lee Ting headed off to the toilet and Xizhen shouted something at her. I can't remember what. Then Azman said, "Xizhen, Xizhen...you think if you shout, she will believe you is it?" Haha...Lebensweisheit courtesy of Azman.

Bratislava was quite a contrast to Vienna, even though they're the capital city of their respective countries. We only changed 50 Euro and it turned out to be enough for all 4 of us. We walked all the way to the city centre! We had lunch in this small cafe-restaurant. The waitress couldn't speak much English or German...portions were smaller than in Vienna, but the food was good! It was raining and raining! :( We climbed up the Burg...and turns out that the castle was closed anyway...because all museums are closed on Mondays in Bratislava. Oh well. We used the toilet up there and bought some postcards from the shop. Getting up there was quite an adventure...cos the path was SOOOOO slippery! My gloves got all wet from touching the ice! Next time I'll buy waterproof gloves man!

When we got back down, we didn't really know what to do. It was starting to get dark. We went into this place that seemed a lot of Tekka Market in Singapore. Fresh food downstairs and textiles upstairs. We went into a bookshop, which was really interesting. Lee Ting bought an Art Watch and I would've bought a Czech-English dictionary, except I already have a Czech-German dictionary. :(

After that, we went to the supermarket and bought a lot of food! But then we didn't feel like going anywhere else...but we wanted to spend off all our money, so we went to Cafe Vienna and ate a lot! I had a coke light, a potato salad and an ice cream sundae...all super worth it! The ice cream was one of the best regular ice cream flavours I've tasted...and so cheap! The rest had cake...and Xizhen had ice cream too! It was so worth it! Then we still had money to spend, so we went back to the supermarket and bought eggs and instant noodles for dinner.

I was so glad to be back in Vienna man...the horrible weather in Bratislava was driving me insane! We packed and did our accounts. This trip has cost me close to 500 Euro. Man...I am quite an extravagant spender! But the trip was worth it. I loved the company...maybe we'll go to somewhere like Greece together next year-end. :) I hope so anyway. And I liked that we learnt so much through the museums that we visited. Man...I am already looking forward to the next trip...

But first, I have to survive Jan and Feb...and the DaF Zwischenprüfung in March. What am I still doing here?? Should be revising now!! Will post photos in a separate post later.

Happy New Year everyone!