Didn’t plan to travel there initially but Jake was telling me to go and visit the ice-caves over there.
The train there was my first boarding the Eurail.
Salzburg is famous for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart, Hitler’s eagle’s nest and being the place where Sound of Music was filmed. I must admit I have never watch the film before in my life.
The hostel I stayed in was fun. I shared a room with an Australian couple, hardcore backpackers who were 3 months into their holiday which began at Thailand. An American girl who was travelling alone and a Finnish woman working as an environmentalist. I shall talk about the environmentalist later on.
The town is great; air is fresh and scenery so beautiful that I can imagine the whole town bursting into singing and dancing anytime of the day. There is no “American invasion” there, no Starbucks, no McDonalds, absolutely no American shops there at all.
The old folks sitting on benches in the park or along the river will smile and say hi upon making eye contact with you and everyone just seem so friendly that I was really impressed? Not just being polite like the typical Japanese but friendly.
I didn’t manage to find any travel guide on Salzburg and thus had to explore randomly, well within the town all there is to see are the town market and the Salzburg castle. All the other places of interest require a trip out of town. Up at the castle the majestic Alps came into view and I was really blown away, that was when I realized that it’s really hard to behave in a nasty manner given those weather conditions and scenery everyday.
One amazing thing to say is that most cafes, hot-dog joints and shops closes at 7pm. Their public toilets close at 5pm and that really created a lot of trouble for me.
So the next day I was to go on the ice-caves tour, supposedly the largest ice-caves in the world. Realized that the American girl Melisa was doing the tour too so we had breakfast and hung out together while waiting for the tour to start.
Well it is technically my first experience at a natural place with sub-zero temperature. What’s marvelous is that they try their best to install minimum stuff there to keep it natural. If the Americans own the place then it will have been turned into a “Fuji ice-palace” long ago. Anyway the best part of the tour was actually the guide himself. Mitch is the most animated guide I ever had. Taught me some stuff which I can really relate to my teaching career. This is one reason why I really enjoy talking to intelligent people.
“People who sit facing the rear live in the past; people who face the front live in the future”
“6 months here, 6 month there, channel and focus your energy properly”
Too bad I did not get a chance to tip him as he got off the return bus early.
That evening was memorable.
First there was a storm alert for the whole of Austria, all were advised to keep their room windows closed and stay indoors after 7pm. I was having my dinner at a café which hires the most well-groomed waiters I have ever seen in my life. Well plucked eyebrows, great hair-cut, fitting shirts and pants. Without a doubt they would be taken as gay in Singapore. What’s even more amazing is there one guy told me the average wage for working as a waiter in Austria is seventeen Euros per hour!
I was sitting inside when I suddenly heard strong winds blowing and heavy downpours. Everyone who was sitting outside came charging in and those poor waiters had to go out to retrieve the signs and flower pots.
Back at the hostel, I managed to watch the film Sound of Music. Yes the hostel plays the movie 24/7. Great show, though a bit too long but I guess all musical films are like that. But that was when I realized the songs “Edelweiss” and “Do-re-mi” are all original songs of the film. I’m very sure if my music teacher had played the movie for us and then taught us those songs I would have love music lesson and took them more seriously. I have always wondered how is it that my music talent seems so non-existent when musical inclination is the same gene as pure math inclination. (Both are abstract, symmetric and harmonious) Guess when natural is not so strong and obvious nurture does play a big part.
That was is about Salzburg.
Now is the bitch about that environmentalist.
Well I think she’s just being pretentious and living in self-denial. Can see that she’s not happy seeing me as I took a plane from Singapore to Europe which is such a long trip and will have released much carbon dioxide. Well she herself took a flight from Finland to Salzburg with the excuse/reason that taking train would take her toooooooo much time. She even added that due to that flight she has to “punish” herself by taking public transport instead of driving to work for the next six months. I wondered why she owns a car when she is an environmentalist. Next she says in order to discourage import/export business (as all those delivery planes and trains release CO2) she takes only local products. Yar right I saw her drinking a 1.5 liter Coke bottle. I seriously don’t think Salzburg has a Coke factory. Plus I do not think Finland has enough local products to feed that Sumo size of hers. And these bloody environmentalists really know how to choose venues for their conferences (Salzburg is a paradise). I challenge them to spend a month in India and see if they would still be in the mood to save the Earth. Try eating the local products there for a month bloody fat pretentious woman.
P.S: The beer there is cheap and good. One pint was enough to let me feel light, two was enough to make me feel high.
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