An Austrian Ausflug

It's been over a month since my last post here, and I can't express at all how full the days gone by have been with new experiences, emotions, events, and people. My exchange here has been offering my so much, I'm stuffed to the brim and overflowing with gratefulness. 

Events have come to pass in such a way that I have turned a page and am currently living with another host family. I'm writing a post detailing the move and change of scenery, but want to say in advance that although I miss my old host family and friends dearly, I'm still in good contact and have a great relationship with all of them!:)

Austriaa!

However, this post is here for a different purpose.

In the first week of the two-week Osternferien [literally translating to Easter Vacation, also meaning Spring Break] my host family and I headed down south to the town of Reit im Winkl in Bavaria! Tons of pictures of Bavaria are yet to come, but I'm narrowing this post down further yet. 

Having been right on the border, we ended up crossing into Austrian territory quite often, and then took an entire day as well for a field trip down to Salzburg!

The Salt Fortress

The city is gorgeous. I don't think I'll ever get tired of European architecture, whether it's church towers, or Bavarian houses, or fortresses or intricate sculpture detail on buildings. The love put into the town design gives it both breath and pulse, always leaving more to discover--- traits that Salzburg's well preserved baroque architecture exemplified.
The Salz Burg itself towers over the city, and many buildings are built into the mountain, all fanning out towards the Salzach river. Over that river stretches a 'love-bridge' adorned with locks, like those of that built over the Rhein.

Most found:)

 We started off our day by indulging a hobby of my host family-- Geocaching. This outdoors hobby involves plugging coordinates into a GPS and using that to find a hidden container [Basically, real life I-Spy]. That day, I finally caved and joined in, logging my first cache ever here in Salzburg.

We then involved ourselves with a bit of the city's culture: namely, Mozart. The 18th century composer was both born and resided in the city, in the Geburtshaus and Wohnhaus, translating simply to House of Birth and House of Residence.
After walking through the two houses, we took a break in the Cafe Mozart, where I indulged in one of the classiest tea setups I've come across to date [and trust me, Germany has gotten me absolutely hooked on tea]. While there, we then had to try the traditional Salzburger Knockerl. [Salzburger whaaa?]

“Süß wie die Liebe und zart wie ein Kuss”-Fred Raymond

A sweet soufflé served as a dessert, the Knockerl is a Salzburger specialty. It's basically a mountain of whipped egg whites and sugar and magical powder, plopped into and shaped over a jam base. It's the heaped with powdered sugar and served right out of the oven. Can't say I've ever tasted anything with that particular consistency before- something like a liquid meringue- or with that particular taste- something like the egg portion of tamago nigiri sushi- but it was actually, surprisingly quite good.

Yummmm:)

We rounded off our daily dose of Mozart with a trip to Reber, a famous Mozart-Kugeln company. The candy, made in the 1800s and named after the musician, consists of a pistachio-marzipan center surrounded by chocolate nougat, then another layer of marzipan, and then chocolate once more.
There are a few companies that produce these industrially, with each [of course] claiming to sell the real Mozart bon-bons.
I don't care personally, as long as I get my sugar fix:)

Wien, nicht wein!

Next on our list was stopping by Hotel Sacher, where we crossed another Austrian treat off of our checklist. The Sacher Torte, a certain kind of chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam in the middle, was created by Franz Sacher and is now considered a Viennese specialty. I'm not all for mixing any kind of fruit jam and chocolate, so the unique taste didn't do much for me, but it's quite savoury and delicious for those who like that combination. I found the packaging to be almost more impressive than the cake though, as it was made it more than clear that the torte was, in fact, direct from Hotel Sacher itself. 
[Ach, when will the hype over designer brands die out?]

Not Brezeln-- Brezen!

 Less glamorous but equally delicious were of course the pretzels everywhere. Normal pretzels, giant pretzels, and pretzels bigger than my entire torso were up for grabs in both bakeries and stalls linings the streets of the downtown.
[There was also a pretzel van, and I don't care what anyone says about strangers- I'd hop on in, no questions asked(: ]

Ah, Europe <3

What surprised me, but shouldn't have, was that although Austria is a German-speaking country, Salzburg is quite the international city.  I got a french tour through Wolfgang's Geburtshaus, talked with an Australian college student visiting family in Austria, ran into a photojournalist from Hong Kong doing a tour of Europe for his magazine back home, and heard more languages spoken that day than in the past few months put together. I do miss city life, as opposed to that of a small village, and Salzburg gave me a taste of that once more.

 

However, over the course of the week, our time in Austria wasn't limited to that day. We ended up crossing the border on more hikes than not, navigating the beautiful alpine region. One specific hike led us to this unbelievably gorgeous landscape, one that will stay with me for a long time to come.

The trail took us along the Großache river (79 km), which originates in the  Kitzbühel Alps in Austria, then flows through the Chiemgau Alps in Bavaria.  The river pierces the Alps at a narrow gorge, the Entenloch (Duck Hole), which is where we spent the afternoon.

A suspension bridge built there was once the start of a smuggler’s path that led from the church at the Entenloch to Schleching, Bavaria, thus traversing the border of the two countries. As we stood there, the mountains criss-crossing in front of us, I had no words. The water was that turquoise and clear, the air was that fresh, the walls of the gorge that steep and chiseled, everything still peppered with patches of snow.

There was a church located at the Entenloch as well, the Wallfahrtskirche Maria Klobenstein (Pilgrimage Church of Maria Klobenstein). It consists of two connected chapels, as well as a third smaller one from which holy water from a well dug in 1858 still flows to date. The Klobenstein (Kloben Rock), a cleaved boulder that one can walk through, is there as well. It’s said to possess special abilities, such as enhancing the fertility of girls who walk through, and making unfaithful husbands grow horns- a cute bit of history to go with the scenery.

[I did walk through the boulder.... but I'm not keen on the whole enhanced fertility thing.Being the next Kate Plus Eight? Not on my bucket list...] 

What I also found charming on our hikes were the little Austrian flag trail markers painted on trees as soon as you crossed the border.

Austrian pride!

In all, the little forays into Austrian territory that I experienced were full of little culture surprises and eye-opening views. As I work on a similar post about Bavaria and the culture shock I experienced there, I'll let the pictures here speak for themselves, and round this off with one last shot of Austria.
Drumroll, please.
...

Austrian Ampelmänner!:)

A little tubby, a little deformed, not as cute as their Berlin counterparts [and my obsession], but not without their own charm.

Goodbye then Austria, I hope we meet again:)