Snapshots: Slazburg, Vienna, and Prague

Here are some snapshots to give you a taste of the rest of my travels over winter break.

For the second leg of our trip we went from Salzburg to Vienna Austria to waltz in the New Year. I had to get to Vienna to try the elusive sacre torte, and hand crafted apple strudel.

We missed out first train from Munich to Salzburg due to my indecisiveness in picking out a postcard, but eventually we made it to the land of Mozart and The Sound of Music. Despite never having seen the Sound of Music I enjoyed our sing-along bus tour through the snow blanketed country side where the movie was filmed.

Mozart Bridge

Town of St. Gilgen

Sound of Music Gazebo: "I am Sixteen going on seventeen"

Sound of Music: church from the wedding scene in the town of Mondsee

Mirabell Gardens

The Bus

Castle atop of Salzburg

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye- off to Vienna by train

Authentic Italian restaurant with only a verbal menu with 3 options. There was no room in the dining room, so the chefs who were also the waiters and hostesses created a space for us to eat in the kitchen- dream come true!

Zaunerkipferl- croissant with nuts and cinnamon, toasted and served with butter and jelly

Viennse square noodles

Cream of red cabbage soup with breadcrumb dumplings

Apfelstrudel mit Vanilla Sauce

St.Stephens Cathedral

Buchtel- Melt in your mouth dough with plum marmalade

Sacre Torte at Demel Café

Pulling dough to make strudel

New Years dresses

Cant believe it! In love with the apartment we stayed at photo.

Vienna’s café’s definitely lived up to the hype; beautifully adorned ceilings, large chandeliers and a grand piano with live music. I felt like royalty stepping back in time. We even experienced the notorious arrogance of the café waiters first hand. When splitting the check 7 ways, coins were inevitably involved. Our neglectful and inattentive waiter refused our money, saying, “This is for the birds. You can take this to McDonald’s.” After arguing with him that money is money, he threw the coins back at us and we left.

Other sightseeing in Vienna included the office where Freud came up with his theories, walking the Ringstarsse (loop of parliament, the library, opera house and museums.) We window shopped at the cute boutiques on Nuebergasse street, saw the white stallions in the world famous Spanish riding school and lastly toured the Schonbrunn Palace.

Parliment

Building on the Ringstarsse

National Library

Some other highlights of Vienna included an interrogation by the police and almost getting arrested for writing our names on a building wall that had been lined with paper for drawing.

Just minutes before our bus left from Vienna to Prague on New Years Day one of my worst European fears came true. I was locked in a bathroom in a deserted subway station. After working myself up to tears, and profusely hyperventilating I heaved my body into the door repeatedly until I was able to unlatch the hook. With only minutes to spare before the bus departed for Prague I sprinted back to the bus station just in time...pheww!

PRAGUE

Prague also know as the “Paris of the East,” definitely exceeded my expectations.

The first night that we arrived we randomly stumbled into a quaint restaurant on a side street called Lokal. I indulged in a large, frothy beer (brewed at Lokal of course,) bread dumplings, sweet steamed cabbage, hand crafted rye bread, and mashed potatoes with friend onions. The large portions we received were created with such simple ingredients, yet packed with flavor. The sweet cabbage literally melted in my mouth. I mixed all the food together and was dunking the dumplings into various sauces to soak up all the flavors. I also sampled banana, and black cherry beer.

After dinner we went for a walk to digest when we caught a glimpse of a gleaming Christmas tree in the distance. We all liked arms like in The Wizard of Oz and skipped towards the Christmas market. After our disappointment that the markets were closed in Germany, we couldn’t contain ourselves. There were stalls filled with workers drilling potatoes to fry, grilling meats, churning nuts in sugar, flipping crepes and rolling out Trdelnik (a sweet pastry native of Hungry.)

Trdelnik twirling over charcoal flames

Kebobs

Drilling potatoes

Stalls

Christmas Lights

Trdelnik filled with Nutella and rolled in nuts and sugar

Over the next few days we went on a walking tour to learn the vast history of the Czeck Republic, and the great city of Prague. We viewed the astronomical clock, walked the Charles Bridge, hiked up to the Prague castle, wrote on the Lennon Wall, toured the Jewish quarter, and saw “The Barber of Sevilla” at the National Opera house.

Astronomical Clock

Jewish Cemetary

Writing in my journal

Charles Bridge

Prague Castle

Rooftops

Lennon Wall

Dancing House

The opera house

Very confusing currency

Overall, our journey went pretty smoothly, mainly due to all the advice I was given by my trusted friend, the world traveler Rick Steves (I like to pretend I know him personally, since I spend so much time reading his books and watching his series.)  I am really fortunate to have had the incredible opportunity to travel through 3 countries with good company and create lifelong memories.

I was thankful to get back to Sevilla, for a good night (snore free) of sleep in my own bed.  We made it back just in time to witness the cabagata (parade) for the Reyes Magos on Three Kings Day, where I was repeatedly pegged in the head with hard candies being thrown from the floats passing by, and practically trampled down by packs of horses.