Austria_2014

Welcome to snowy Austria! Masha and Dasha flew earlier and were

waiting for me in Vienna. I had a little excitement on the way to the train station Hauptbahnhof. We got lost and finally met each other.

    

One night we spent in a little cold Viennese apartment. As it turned out, they have a very weak central

heating 

system, even in winter. In the morning we waited for the train. We bought tickets for the tour to Vienna-Salzburg-Graz-Vienna, we sat and watched the Austrian winter in a comfortable train.

Time was flying and we were entering on the birthplace of famous Mozart. Meet Salzburg!

Leisure on the train was my sudden birth of interest in the history of this country. I remember a

famous joke of the 1814-1815: “Alexander from Russia loves everybody. Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia thinks about everybody.  Friedrich of

Denmark speaks for everybody. Maximilian of Bavaria drinks for everybody. Friedrich

of Württemberg feeds everybody. Emperor Franz pays for everybody .” 

We could not find our new couchsurfer for a long time . We often took him for others person, so after half an hour we finally met him, and the couchsurfer Rafael took us to the admirable snowy mountains...

At first we could not understand where we were going, while we could not see the new peaks of the Alpes. 

White and snow peaks of mountains and Vienna under the clouds looked like decorations on the scene.

It was difficult to believe in surrounding beauty.

While listening to reggae music, we had arrived to Raphael`s  to two-stored house.

The kitchen bar had a cosy atmosphere it was supported by warm and nice fireplace. 

            

 

Masha, my friend turned nineteen, we celebrated her birthday in Austrian town. In the evening we were joined by another guy: Alan (British, who worked as a teacher at school). Some time later Rafael invited us to a Snowboarder-party. There were tents and a campfire provided with music.

There were many people of all ages. One guy with microphone congratulated Masha and gave her a snowboard hat.

Breakfast usually started with strong brewed coffee. When all the boys woke up, we went snowboarding. 

                                

We went to an Alpe hill we were sitting on the board for snowboarding because we couldn't snowboard. 

At first I was a little disappointed that mountains were small at that place where we went. But then I relized how long I had to clime and carry the board. After the third time we were really tired to clime the hill again.

 We were climbing and going down the hills, we were 2 small teams of 3 people. We sat on the boards and organized a mini competition - who would further of the mountain. Girls or boys? The two groups we were flying with speed directly towards a forest. While we were flying ahead we saw a water stream around spruce trees. The speed was still high to appear in that water stream! But at the last moment we decided to stop at two steps from the stream, saving our dry clothes.

Of course, we won guys.

We were in snow after snowboarding. We reached the house and warmed up with hot tea. 

The city of Salzburg is especially beautiful, when you look at it from the height of the Fortress.

The city is divided by Salsa river in two parts: right and left - the old and the new parts. 

                     

 

We crossed the river and were on the square of Mozart statue. We were cold so we went into Indian store for an hour to get warm. There were lots of such stores around the city. 

            

     This is Mozart House where he lived.

                      

 

Rafael brought a lot of masks and drums while travelling. We played the

guitar 

together, we made improvisations and looked at the pictures from his 

trip to 

South America. 

In the evening Rafael's friends came to his place and spent time in pleasant atmosphere of communication and games. Guys told me about his great scholarship. I didn't want to leave. It was the last day in Salzburg. 

    In the morning we were happy to get the jem left by Rafael.

   His brother drove us to bus station. At first we were glad we arrived in time for the train. We came, and only had time to take pictures, then we realized that this train was not the train we were waiting for! We barely had time to jump out. 

 We bought local delicious things - Mozart liqueurs and chocolate. It's worth a try.

                         

Successfully after changing trains, we were waiting for the trip to the new Austria city - Graz.