That year, we went from Salzburg to Munich. We spent a few hours at Munich and then went to Berlin. And from Berlin, northward to Amsterdam.Our night in Amsterdam was another night out, but after so many journeys and so many crazy backpacking experiences, we'd figured out a few things. We had Eurail passes that we kept gushing about - we could use them.We spent the night on trains. Took a train to Utrecht, then another to Rotterdam, and then one back to Amsterdam. That's how we spent the night. We didn't see tulips or windmills. We did see Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank's house.But honestly, we were exhausted. For a long time, we just sat by a canal and did nothing. We were depressed because we thought we'd lost some money, and we were filled up with all kinds of thoughts and emotions.Fifteen days of glorious backpacking. After Salzburg, I did not write any more; I was too tired. But … [Read more...]
Backpacking through Europe: Still in Salzburg
However comfortable a waiting-room may be, it is not a comfortable place to spend the whole night. With hard steel chairs with immovable handles as beds and backpacks as pillows, the night seemed endless. We waited forever for the sun to rise, growing colder and colder as the night went by. At 5:30 in the morning, we finally decided we had had enough of the waiting-room, and we went for a walk.If we had thought the station was cold, outside was freezing. The small consolation was that everything was beautiful. We passed Mozart's house and admired delightful miniatures in shop windows. We saw bottles of all shapes and sizes displayed in some shop windows, and dolls arranged in others. We walked farther and farther, bringing life back to our freezing legs.And we got back at 9:25 for The Sound of Music tour.That was the most expensive thing we did. (What came a close second was the … [Read more...]
Backpacking through Europe: Salzburg
We hopped onto the 12:34 from Vienna to Salzburg, delighted as usual with our Eurail passes. At Salzburg station, though, we spent the most depressing time of all. I was 17; my sister was 19. We had spent a long time away from home already. We had little money and less experience. We had been making decision after decision for several days, and we were exhausted."No, there are absolutely no hostels available for tonight at Salzburg."Florence was fresh in our minds, and we did not want to repeat the horror of a night outdoors. "Maybe we should go to Munich. Let's leave out Salzburg altogether and just take a train out."We called the Munich hostels whose numbers we had, and they were available, but cost the earth."But what do we do? Should we do it anyway?" "What train should we take? Does it need a reservation?" "Where do we go? What do we do?" Frustration bordering on despair … [Read more...]
Crisp Apple Strudel
When we went to Salzburg, we knew more about The Sound of Music than about Mozart. Now I'm mildly embarrassed about that, but when we went, I was just plain excited.Everyone wants to talk to young Indian backpackers, and conversation with a co-passenger from Vienna to Salzburg was natural. She told us she lived in Vienna and travelled to Salzburg regularly for work, so we asked her our excited questions: how easy is it to buy apple strudel? Is it a speciality of Salzburg/ Austria? What is schnitzel? Do you eat it with noodles?Vastly amused, she answered our questions before asking us why our questions were so pointed.We told her about the famous song from The Sound of Music, a little surprised that she had not heard of it."Yes, yes," she replied. "I've heard of the movie, I think. But not many people in Austria know it. It's the story of many Austrians during the war." She hinted … [Read more...]