Salzburg Weekend Trip – Day 1

I haven’t been able to keep up with my blog lately. I went to Salzburg last weekend with three other international students. I am still slowly recovering from the trip as it was super tiring for me. There are other things I want to blog about, but I guess you guys will have to wait 😛

Salzburg is famous for the beautiful scenery/garden/architecture. It is Mozart’s birthplace, and also where the movie Sound of Music was filmed.  It was a major city for salt trade (I think…). The literal translation of Salzburg is Salt Castle so I’m pretty sure that I remember it correctly 😛

We stayed there for Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, it was raining on Saturday. We were also a bit early, and the flowers were just about to blossom. I would really love to go back again in late April. It would be so beautiful there.

The flower was about to blossom! I was there early 😦

Same as my other trips, we left Hagenberg super early to get to Linz for train. After we got to Salzburg, we first went to our hostel to drop off our bags. The hostel was very close to the train station. However, we had first passed by a kind of ghetto area. We were a bit worried, but then the hostel turned out to be very nice. The area around the hostel was fine. I would definitely recommend it if any of you needs accommodation in Salzburg (Yoho International Youth Hostel).

We then headed toward the old town, where all the tourist attractions are. It’s too bad that we are just tourists there. I’m sure it would feel really different to live there. We passed by the Mirabellgarten (Mirabell Garden). It was beautiful there! Even though the trees were still asleep, flowers were planted in the garden already. This is the picture I took on Sunday actually. Since it was raining on Saturday, the pictures looked sad. My limited photo editing skill could not resurrect them 😛

Mirabellgarten

After we got to the old town, we went straight to the tourism information center and bought a card called Salzburg card. It’s basically a tourist pass which gives you free admission to many attractions. It was totally worthwhile. As the weather wasn’t looking nice, we decided to visit museums on Saturday. We saw the Salzburg museum in the morning and Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart’s birth house) and Mozart-Wohnhaus (Mozart’s living house) in the afternoon. To be honest, they weren’t too impressive. I think I would prefer to listen to Mozart’s piece in a concert hall rather than checking out where he lived. I did see a lock of Mozart’s hair though. Well, at least, the museum claims that it’s Mozart’s 😛

Lunch was actually a very difficult thing to decide. We were so hungry but still want to find a restaurant within reasonable price range. We ended up with an Irish pub. The pizza there was just amazing! We totally did not expect that in an Irish pub. Another person ordered a drink name snakebite. It is beer mixed with cider and blackcurrant syrup. It is actually illegal in UK 😛 It did not taste too special for me though.

Irish pub!

After our quick break during lunch, we headed to the Salzburger Dom (Salzburg Cathedral). I have been to many cathedrals since I’m here. This one is in the baroque style. It’s beautiful, but not too different from other ones. See, people get immuned to beautiful things quickly 😦 One thing most cathedrals here have in common is the temperature! It seems like the heating never works well, maybe due to the big space within the cathedral, and it’s freezing in the cathedrals I have been to.

Inside of Salzburger Dom

Outside view of Salzburger Dom

Our next attraction is Mozart’s birth house. On our way there, I saw so many cute signs on the old town street!

Signs on the old town street

Signs on the old town street

Even McDonald's gets a great sign!

And… here we are!

Mozart's birth house

We were actually kind of puzzled when we first got there. On the 3rd floor, we saw the ‘Mozarts Geburtshaus’ sign. However, on the first floor, it says SPAR, which is a supermarket! haha, the entrance is actually on the left. I guess, Mozart’s birth house has become a supermarket over the years. As I mentioned, there isn’t really much about this place. After a quick tour, we headed to take a boat tour on the Salzach river. The sun was coming out, and all of a sudden everything looks so much better. I took a walk while my friends were waiting in the line. Awesome to travel with friends 😛

By the Salzach

This is one of the many bridges connecting the old and new towns. This particular one is only for pedestrians. It’s very nice.

Walking bridge

There are so many locks on the rail though. The legend is that if you write your lover’s name and yours on the lock and lock it on the net, then you two will be together forever. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s not true, but it’s just a cute story 🙂

Look at all these locks!

I took many pictures of the old town in the morning, but the weather was just bad. This is probably the best picture I could get. The pictures of the fortress on Sunday was not so good due to backlight 😦 Just use your imagination! It surely looks awesome on a sunny day 🙂

View of Salzburg old town and fortress

After the boat tour, we visited the place Mozart lived before and went to a shopping mall. By the time we got back to the hostel at around 6:30, everyone was so exhausted. We took a very long break and everyone was just whining on their beds.

As professional tourists, we finally got ourselves out of bed and headed out for dinner. The fortress and churches are lit at night! Well, kind of… 😛

Fortress at night

We went for a Chinese buffet. I wasn’t expecting much, and it was ok. It was just funny that we started talking about exploring and experiencing Austria during dinner and everyone just puzzled. We were in a Chinese restaurant in Salzburg talking about discovering Austrian culture 😛

After dinner, it’s time to experience the night life in Salzburg 🙂 One of us searched up some bars in Salzburg, and we decided to check out a SEGA bar. On our way there, we met a group of girls who were having a bachelorette party. They were selling a lot of little stuff to make money for drinking 😛 One of us bought these little bottles of drinks. You are supposed to put the cap on your nose and drink it without holding the bottle. It was pretty funny 😛

Empty bottles 😛

To my surprise, there was no sonic, arcade games, or PS3 in the SEGA bar. I guess SEGA bar doesn’t need to have those stuff? Anyway, it seems like we were the oldest group in the bar XD It was kind of awkward. Later on, we went to the Irish pub we had lunch, and we felt like the youngest. The Irish bar was nice with a live band though 🙂 We headed back to the hostel after the Irish bar as it was already pretty late. We were planning to get up at 7 in the morning. It was the day light saving time for us last weekend so it actually means that we will be getting up at 6! Stay tuned for my day 2 in Salzburg and I’ll take you guys to the fortress!

Here’s part 2 of my trip 🙂

Pöstlingberg Day Trip

For this Saturday, I was planning to visit Salzburg, which is Mozart’s birthplace and where the movie Sound of Music was filmed. It is also famous for the castles and gardens there. However, uh… I slept in 😛 I decided to visit Pöstlingberg, which is on a hill in Linz. I have only seen from the city center, and I have always been curious about it.

Do you see the twin tower high up on the hill? That’s Pöstlingberg! This is a picture I took during my first weekend here. Now, I’m going up the mountain!

Pöstlingberg from Linz city center

This is the Pöstlingbergbahn, i.e. the train that would take me up the hill.

Pöstlingbergbahn

The Pöstlingbergbahn has been running since around 1900! That is 110 years ago! The tram track was updated in 2009. I can now take it in the city center. This is the old tram.

The previous Pöstlingbergbahn

The ride was pretty nice. The hill was pretty steep, and the tram was going slowly. I almost felt that the tram must be sweating and breathing heavily… 😛

I’m there!

Pöstlingberg

Right after I got off the tram, I saw this sculpture.

Sculpture pointing to ... ?

It’s pointing toward somewhere, and I thought it’s pointing to the chapel. I followed it, and this is the next one I saw.

Dwarf pointing to ... ?

I thought this is pretty interesting, and I keep walking. Then I see the chapel 🙂

Pöstlingberg chapel

The view there should be very good if it wasn’t so foggy 😦 I took this picture when I was about to leave. When I first got up there, I couldn’t see much. Definitely still a very nice place in summer for a walk, sun bath, and picnic though 🙂

City of Linz from Pöstlingberg

After I got out of the chapel, I saw this.

Sign to Grottenbahn

Then, I realize where the dwarfs are pointing to! I heard that there is a fairy-tale land thing around here. It seems like I can take the dragon boat (Grottenbahn) !? I followed the signs and another dwarf.

Dwarf pointing to Grottenbahn

I’m there!! This really caught me by surprise. Do you feel that I’m really on an adventure? Well, maybe I just didn’t do enough research on the tourist attractions 😛

Grottenbahn Entrance

close up

The fairy tale land is awesome! They have a dragon boat (dragon express) that you could take. It is basically a little train, and it travels in a cave, sort of like ghost house ride stuff. Inside the cave, there are many small sculptures that tell many stories, like dwarfs taking care of an ill rabbit, fighting giant beetles, collecting mushrooms, etc. I only realized it after I read the brochure though 😛

At the lining up area waiting for the ride, the decorations are already setting up the stories. Of course, I knew this afterwards 😛

Dwarf taking care of the ill rabbit 😦

The ride was amazing. We toured through the cave three times. The first time, only the left side of the cave was lighted up, and only the right side on the second time. On the last time, these colourful lights shine through the entire cave!

Our dragon express ride!

Look at all the cute dwarfs and the stories 🙂

They are picking mushrooms!! They are so cute, I mean the mushrooms, my favorite veggie 🙂

Close up on picking mushrooms ❤

Dwarf riding snail!!

Philosophizing... like me!

They are making bread! Yummy!

After the train ride, we passed by a few larger sculptures.

The rabbit is well 🙂

Then, this is what I saw!

The city

It felt like I was inside a market!

The city

Following the small allies between houses, the fairy tales are hidden there! I believe that most of them, if not all, are from the Grimm’s fairy tales.

Ah! This is Hansel and Gretel!

Little red riding hood 🙂

Town Musicians of Bremen

Puss in boots!!

Even though I don’t know some of the tales, it was just a fascinating experience! Right before the exit, I see this dwarf, and he was holding a sign probably saying good-bye and come again 😛 As you can see, my skill isn’t good enough to capture the sign as well XD But! Look how asian this dwarf is! He’s having the Ya! gesture 😀 I should have done the same, but I don’t think my skill would be good enough for that XD

Saying goodbye to the fairy tale land

After visiting the fairy tale land, I decided to take a look at the Linz Zoo which I would pass by on my way back to the city center. The zoo is pretty small, and it is not really comparable to the Toronto Zoo. Nevertheless, I had fun there!

He is standing! Looking so smart 🙂

I saw this bird standing on the turtle, and I was wondering if those turtles are real. Both the birds and the turtles get signs and explanations. I was waiting for the turtles to move, but I guess they are turtles after all… so I gave up XD

Bird on turtle

Then, I saw these monkeys grooming and cleaning for each other.

Monkeys grooming/cleaning for each other

I have to first name them to tell you the story. They would be A, B, C, and D from right to left. All of a sudden, B turned around, and D immediately turned his back. Then, this is what I saw. It was so funny! I could totally imagine their conversation.

B: Ah! My butt also itches! Check my butttttttt!
D: ARGH! You are so gross!
A and C:  Hmm… Let’s see…

Monkeys cleaning for each other - part 2

Cute drawings in the zoo ❤

This one was funny too. I have always thought, they are just called red pandas. It is translated to “Lesser panda”! Poor them >< I would be so sad to be called lesser something 😦

Lesser Panda :*(

I thought this is llama, and I said to myself “I don’t know that they come in brown too!” XD It’s actually an alpaca.

Alpaca

This one actually first fell off on the ground and then sit up nicely. I thought it wanted to lie on the ground. Then, I realized that it just slipped. 😛

Alpaca sitting down, after falling off 😛

One of my favorite animals is the donkey! They are so adorable! There is a cute donkey in the pet zoo on the Central Island in Toronto. You guys can feed that donkey if you go 🙂 That donkey has huge eyes! Super cute!

Donkeys!! They are so adorable!

A dog wanting to play with them!

Kids love to pat and play with them too! and... me three! ❤

I also saw Mariendom in the zoo. You can see that it really is a foggy day. Or maybe the steel factories in Linz were producing a lot of smoke yesterday.

Mariendom from Linz Zoo

I was very exhausted after visiting the zoo. However, I still wanted to check out the car culture exhibition in the Lentos Art Museum. Remember the cars I posted on the day when I forgot my camera? That’s what I wanted to see. Here is the flying car again, in higher resolution!

The flying car in higher resolution 😛

After a quick lunch and 10 minutes of sitting on a couch just struggling between the I cannot walk anymore thought and I want to see the cars thought, I finally got up and went to the museum.

I read the brochure briefly a week ago, and I was under the impression that it would be about the evolution of cars and the importance of them in our society. My idea was sort of correct, but I forgot that it is an art museum not a science center! The latter one is the type of museum I go a lot more. The exhibition was actually about cars as sculptures. I couldn’t really understand it, but it was cool 😛

One interesting thing was that I could borrow a tablet and a headphone from the museum and listen to the explanation of artworks! Or visitors could use their smartphones. I don’t have one so I borrowed one from the counter. It first took them about 25 min to set it up. However, they don’t have the English version so I ended up reading off a booklet. I guess papers work pretty well in this case 😛 It was fun to observe how they use the tablets though. It was a fun 25 min for me 😛

The weather outside was so nice yesterday. The high was 20 degree Celsius! I walked around the museum and strolled along the river a little bit while waiting for bus. The museum was so beautiful under the sun.

Car culture exhibition at Lentos Art Museum

Beautiful weather!

There were so many people by the river yesterday. The Danube river was just amazing.

Danube River in the afternoon

That was a very tiring but fulfilling day! Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. I am still so fascinated by the fairy tale land!

Chinese Grocery & Snacks

I was on a conversation with a friend from Canada. He said that I was brave to come to a foreign country that speaks a language I have no clue of. I thought it’s a pretty funny point. The truth is that I was just slow and naive XD After I got here, one day, I just suddenly realized that deciding to go to a foreign country alone and not speaking the language is a huge decision!! It was a bit late when I realized it. However, I think I’m adapting to the environment pretty well, and I’m having a lot of fun here 😀 It really is an adventure that I would recommend to all of you who are reading 🙂

haha, moving onto the real topic, having a taste of home in a foreign country is just great. Getting Chinese grocery and snacks is probably the 2nd most exciting event in my life now, as traveling around is definitely the most fun thing here! Well, my research here is amazing too, but I’ll put it at the third place for now 😛

I bought some Chinese grocery online this week, and this particular store would deliver vegetables too. Well, the selection is very limited. Let me remind you all again, it’s not T&T 😛 However, LOOK what I got!!

Enoki!金針菇!

That was the first time I have enoki in two months! I used to buy it every single week! I felt so emotional when I was eating it XD

And! Something even better! This week, my mom mailed me some snacks from Taiwan! Whooohooo~ It seems pretty funny to get so excited over these snacks, but I cannot help it! I felt so reserved to eat them though ><

Snacks from home!

Hope you all discover the adventurous little boy/girl inside you again!

Linz History City Tour

As the new term has just began in March, the international student office organized a Linz city tour this Saturday. We got a tour guide so I have finally got to understand more about the history and culture of Linz. For the previous times I was in Linz, it was more like “Hey look! Here’s an awesome looking building. It’s cool, but who knows what it is….”

Another great thing is that the tour guide knows where the entrances are when we get to an attraction or a famous building! Buildings usually have labeling plates, but some of them may have become an apartment for rent to common people. We don’t really know where is the entrance door. Or the entrance hallway may be very dark and we aren’t sure it’s the right entrance. I finally know what I was looking at with the tour guide’s explanation 🙂

We started our tour in the old city hall.

Linz old city hall, look at the floor!

Adolf Hitler lived in Linz for 9 years during his teenage life, and I heard that Linz was his favorite city. He was living on the second floor of the same building. Before WWII started, Hitler already took over Austria and the steel factories in Linz were producing steel for arms/tanks for him. Even though Hitler had a great plan in building up Linz, only three architectural works he envisioned were realized, including two buildings and one bridge across the Danube river.

Hitler's buildings

Hitler's bridge - Nibelungenbrücke

After a short walk along the Danube river, we visited the Schloss Museum again. When I went last time, I already saw the amazing combination of old and new building styles. This time, the tour guide explained why. At around 1800, a guard was smoking in the castle (the Schloss Museum now), and he fell asleep. Since the castle was made out of wood, the fire soon burned down the south wing and also caused a huge city fire. However, the south wing was not rebuilt till three years ago. That was quite responsive, just 200 years 😛

Old and new - glass building and stone walls

Many famous people have stayed/visited/born in Linz or close to Linz, e.g. Mozart, Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, and Johannes Kepler. There are probably more, depending on the criteria for being famous 😛 Mozart composed Symphony No. 36 within 4 days in Linz. You know, that is quite amazing as that includes time for copying the scores (without a photocopier) and for practicing! We got to see the building he was staying in. It is now rented to common people. While we were listening to the tour guide in the courtyard with the symphony playing in the background, all of a sudden, an old man with those white tanks appeared, said hi to the tour guide, and then went back to his unit. I was so confused, as I thought the place would be preserved for tourists. Someone then asked, aren’t the inhabitants annoyed by the background music? The tour guide said everyone who was annoyed moved out already, people who are left are used to it already 😛

This is where Johannes Kepler used to teach in Linz. This courtyard thing is very common here, but I don’t think I have seen it in Canada.

Where Kepler used to teach

On our way to the Mariendom, we passed by a street with ‘welcome’ in many different languages on the tiles. This is in Chinese! There was one that looks like greek since it contains many math symbols 😛 I should have taken a picture of it.

Welcome!

This time I have my camera! Does it look impressive now? It’s super cold in here, and the heating doesn’t work very well. I guess one reason would be the tall ceilings. It’s the largest cathedral in Austria! It’s not the tallest but probably the second tallest. It’s tower is 134.8m tall, while the tallest is the St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna (I have been there too!!).

Mariendom again!

Mariendom from Schloss Museum

That was the end of our city tour. It was definitely very interesting and satisfying for me. I wanted to visit the Pöstlingberg. It’s on a hill and I’ll be able to see the entire Linz from there. However, I didn’t go as I wanted to buy some Chinese grocery before it closes. Well, after I visited the Chinese grocery store, I think I should have gone to Pöstlingberg. The Chinese grocery store was ok, but I still couldn’t find a lot of the things I wanted 😦 Oh well… My ability of making Western ingredients taste Asian would be elevated to a whole new level when I get back 🙂

As Eastern is approaching, I found this rabbit shaped bread in a bakery! I asked the clerks at the bakery what it is. They tried very hard explaining it to me … in German… I ended up buying it just because it’s cute, and it tasted great! I would definitely buy another one. It’s crispy outside and chewy inside with a little bit of sweet taste. Have anyone of you tried a type of street food in 八里 (Bali) called 雙胞胎 (Twins??)? This rabbit bread just tastes like that! But it doesn’t seem to be deep-fried. I was surprised when I tried it, and it remind me of all the childhood memory going to Bali.

Rabbit shaped bread! Yummy!

Last picture for the post! Could you guess what kind of restaurant this is?

McDonald's

This is McDonald’s! The interior is all wood and it looks so classy, like a coffee shop or some sort! Some of them have fireplaces too. Most McDonald’s I have seen in Canada were decorated with those crazy yellow and red plastic >< I like the ones here a lot more. Some of the McDonald’s would have McCafe that is in a separate area and has all kinds of dessert in the glass fridge, like a cake shop. I guess the McDonald’s is more awesome here 😛

Homemade pancake

This Thursday, I had a taste of a homemade Austrian style pancake. Well, I have to admit that I don’t know if it’s a true Austrian style pancake, BUT it does taste different from the Canadian ones. The Canadian ones are usually thick and fluffy. The one I had this week was thin and chewy, and it usually goes with apple sauce or jam rather than … maple syrup 😛

In terms of how I got to try it, there’s actually a funny story. I was making stir-fry noodles (炒麵) on Thursday, and my floormates were making pancakes. After I was done, I just get some noodles and put the pan aside. When I got back to wash my dishes, this is what I saw…

Half of the pancake actually...

Well.. What I saw was a smiley face + a ㄑ shaped thing on the right. The picture was taken after I ate half of the face and the ㄑ 😛 They carved out the eyes and mouth, and placed carrots found in my noodles in those holes. It was so funny when I first saw it. While I was chewing the ㄑ, I asked them what it was. It was actually the arm of the smiley face XD

Do you guys remember that I posted this picture a while back?

Beef stock powder

Do you see the beef??

This is the stuff that I thought is a can of beef stock power, but did not really taste like it. On Friday, I saw my pancake-floormates again, and they had this same can! I was so excited, and I asked them what it actually is. They told me that it’s beef soup powder! Just add a few spoons of it to hot water, then you get beef soup! Of course, not the Chinese style beef soup. They were making a pancake soup which is sliced stripes of pancakes with beef soup. It’s pretty tasty. Anyway, I was disappointed knowing that it is not beef stock 😦 But  now I read the label again, It clearly says soup (suppen)!! I guess my German is improving, eh! At least there’s one happy thing about this story 😛

Exploring Linz … Again!

Time really flies! It has been a month and half since I got here. I feel like at home now 🙂 For undergrads here, the new semester just started this week and there are some new international students! We went to Linz together on Saturday. I have to first apologize for the quality of the pictures though. I forgot to bring my camera. I wasn’t expecting to visit museums, either. I took these pictures with my phone.

It was the day for the Saturday flea market! You could find all sorta stuff here. They are interesting, but you know… flea market isn’t that fashionable or high-tech.

Saturday flea market! From headphones, tv sets, clothing, old post cards, books to cookware!

We have a map and a tour book from the tourist information center, but we were just wandering around. Then, we found this very nice cathedral. It’s called Mariendom (St. Mary’s Cathedral).

The tower at Mariendom

Well, limited by my photography skill and the camera on my phone, I then took a picture of a post card to show what it’s supposed to look like with professional photography! Btw, you can see my new shoes for just 15 euro. I got a big discount probably because it’s size 9.5 and they have a hard time selling it 😛

post card

Compared to a lot of other fancy and highly (almost extravagant) decorated/crafted cathedrals, Mariendom is definitely a lot more low-key. I like it a lot! It doesn’t have the excessively crafted pillar and colourful mural. Instead, it has beautiful stained glasses.

There were a lot more stained glasses in the cathedral

more stained glass

close up

After visiting the cathedral, we took a walk along the Danube river. It was sunny and relaxing!

Looking at ARS Electronica on the other side of the Danube river

There was a sculpture park along the river. As expected, it was full of art pieces that we couldn’t recognize. One of us decided to climb onto one sculpture and took picture. Right after he posed, the siren started to sound, and he got down pretty fast.We were debating if it was a coincidence or he should start running, and then the siren stopped within 10 seconds. So… if you do visit the sculpture park, you are being watched 😛

Supposed to be an elephant... It's more evident from the other side.

We passed by the Lentos Art Museum on our way back to the city center. There is an exhibition on cars right now, and we saw some interesting stuff.

A flying car !?

A suspended beetle

A jailed car !?

After lunch, some good rest, and a long discussion, we decided to visit the Schlossmuseum ( also called castle museum). It was up on the hill, and the view was great there.

A nice view of the city from the Schloss museum

Another angle

Photography was not allowed in the museum so there’s no picture 😦 It was a very nice museum though, and had a lot more exhibition than I expected. There were exhibitions on paintings, amours, music instruments, nature, technology, Catholic related things, coins, and more! The most memorable one I saw was the nature one. There was aquarium and a lot of animal and plant models, including mushrooms ❤

That was basically the end of our visit in Linz. It was a super tiring day, and my legs are still sour >< Right now, I am excited about visiting other cities in Austria. The next one would probably be Salzburg and Hallstatt! They seem to be highly recommended by other tourism blogs.

I have been blogging mostly about my travel adventures. On weekdays, I have been  pretty productive in research and going home no later than 7pm! I have a lot more free time compared to when I was in Waterloo, and it feels pretty luxurious to be going home and not working 😛 As I will be leaving at the end of June, I feel that my time here is precious. I try to plan for my weekends and make good use of my free time. I feel that I’m in a very different mindset right now, and it seems to be a good change! I’m getting to sort of understand what does it mean to live as this is your last day. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading the post:)