katiesfootprints: Austria

By the time I arrived in Vienna I was knackered, arriving in the middle of nowhere on my train and having no idea (again) how to get to my hostel, I saved my brain the stress of actually having to think and just jumped in a cab. Emma was waiting for me at the hostel again and collectively all we could muster was a hug good night – this traveling caper is tiring!

The next morning I was up early and eagerly awaiting Kent's arrival so we could begin our Austrian adventure! First up we headed straight to a biergarten for Schnitzel and beer and a mighty big catch up A miscommunication resulted in a very happy waiter as he was excessively tipped a mere 35% of the bill. Onwards to the Sigmund Freud museum – very underwhelming (turns out everything of importance is in London) and after twenty minutes in there we stepped outside feeling displeased with Vienna for taking all our money off us and not giving much in return! We decided to hunt out the cemetery where Beethoven was finally laid to rest. As we entered the 600ha property with around 3.5million graves we were handed a pamphlet that was a. in German and b. only stated that Beethoven was a composer and that he was here. Great, where? Lets just walk we decided. Nobody we asked knew and we finally saw some gates that we decided might give us a greater insight, as we walked towards them Kent spotted Beethoven – what are the chances? Literally one in three point five million I think. Mission accomplished.

Back to the hostel to catch Emma for happy hour before heading out to dinner - more Schnitzel plus an array of other Austrian delights, yummo. After intensive research on where to go and what to do in Austria (about two hours worth over beer) we picked up our car the next morning and with me behind the wheel on the wrong side of the road, headed west. We decided baked treats were in order and after about an hour of getting used to Autobahn driving deviated towards a village where we began the Krapfen (basically a doughnut) count. We realised we had forgotten to name our little VW Polo and thought it only appropriate to give it a German name – Kinder! We just hoped he wasn't full of surprises. With Jane the GPS set for Lake Worthersee we stopped off to buy hiking shoes and a picnic lunch. Once in Maria Worth we found a spot on the jetty down by the lake to scoff our picnic and then headed off for a few hours on a hike up a hill to take in the panoramic views. Stunning.

We meandered through the mountains as the sun began to set in hopes of finding a bed somewhere in Salzburg. We had found a B&B the night before but hadn't booked as we were just seeing where the mood took us, turns out it took us to where we thought we wanted to be and as we knocked on the door were disappointed to find there was no room at the inn that night. Not to worry though, her sister probably had space next door, excellent. There's something awkwardly odd about knocking on a strangers door and asking if you can stay the night – Lindner was very accommodating though “sure” she said “there's the room, there's the key, see you for breakfast in the morning”! Very trusting, no name exchanging, no payment required up front and no passport details to hand over here – the complete opposite to which I have found to be the norm upon arrival over the past couple of months.

The next morning the highlight of any trip to Austria was here for us – Fucking! Fucking (said Foo-king, but pronunciation doesn't need to be right all the time) is a small village, population 109, about half an hour north of Salzburg. The photos, jokes and general hilarity were worth every minute of the massive detour. We saw a Fucking cat, some Fucking people laughed at the stupid tourists taking Fucking photos and I just about drove into a Fucking tractor. When looking up what there is to do in Fucking there are only two things: one; have your photo taken by the Fucking sign – tick – and two; steal the Fucking sign – cross – too many people were stealing the sign and they have taken extra measures to prevent this happening. What are we going to do with a giant Fucking sign anyway?

On the way back to Salzburg we were rewarded with another great name for a town (by town I mean cluster of houses) – Eggenham – we whipped a U-turn and headed for more photos. Back in Salzburg we were off to Mozart's house followed by a stroll through the Mirrabell Gardens for Sound of Music sightseeing and photos. After seeing the gorgeousness that was the countryside and lakes the day before we decided to head back to them for the afternoon – having a car is brilliant! We made our way to Hallstatt and wandered around the cobbled village paths before having the traditional Austrian lunch of Donner Kebabs down by the lake. I fed the ducks and swans and we searched for more strudel and krapfen only to be disappointed. It was getting to that time where we needed to find a bed again for the night – we had previously found that Linz was completely booked out so had essentially written off going there. We tried a few of the villages around the lake but to no avail. We needed a beer and more schnitzel so stopped off at a restaurant where we admitted defeat and decided to find a parking spot by the lake and sleep in the car.

Suddenly a bright idea occurred to me – if we're going to sleep in the car why don't we just go to Linz anyway, I just found this Irish bar on the WikiSherpa app, have a few drinks and a good night out then sleep in the car there? OK, Kent agreed and so he plugged Domstrasse 5 into Jane and Linz-bound we were. We found a parking building close to the pub that was to be our home for the night, got spruced up and headed out for a couple of pints. Deep in conversation at about 1am both our ears suddenly pricked up at hearing a very familiar sound – the Haka!! Apparently one of the lads behind the bar is partial to a bit of the haka and had flicked it over from the football, this was all working out very well. Obviously our couple of pints had now turned into a rather large night of AB watching and I think we got more than our fair share of stares as we reveled in the game.

Determined to outsmart the parking system we'd set the alarm to wake up stupidly early so we could get out of the parking building without a massive price tag. Fail. Must have switched that one off and woke up mid morning after the most comfortable nights sleep in a car that I've ever had. We needed breakfast and a stroll around Linz before heading to our third and final funny named town on the list – Rottenegg. We love Austria and have become quite the German speakers (that last part might be a lie). It was time for Kent to drop me at the Linz train station and head back to Vienna and as I sit here writing this I realise that maybe using Kinder as a bed doesn't give you the greatest nights rest – I'm feeling a little worse for wear.

It was a great break from trains and buses having the car and it provided us with a lot of laughs. My left hand has hit the door countless times in search of the gear stick, we've had indicators for window wipers and window wipers for indicators, and I don't know if I will ever get used to the Autobahn – I comfortably sit in the slow lane on 130kph (speed limit) only to not just be overtaken but absolutely blitzed by cars (people movers even) at speeds upwards of 160kph. Trying to keep up for even a few seconds is pointless as the next car appears behind you from nowhere – no wonder these countries seem so small!

Beethoven's grave