Heidi is the chick who lives in a chalet kinda house under the alps with her grand uncle and thrives off goats cheese and fresh mountain air. I imagine Heidi has a great time chasing animals, shephard boys and wild flowers, hiking in the alps and swimming in glacial springs. She has blonde plaits and is happy all the time.
I think Heidi must be from here in Bad Gastein!
I secretly found Salzburg to be a bit of a hole (ok, a nice hole, but just smaller than i imagined) and like many other cities, a bit of a tourist trap... no i will not pay you to see the house where Mozart was born. He didn't even like Salzburg and ditched it as soon as he could. I spent a day avoiding the thunder clouds and in one short evening I had covered the whole city including the Old Town (tourist trap) and the industrial area where my hotel was. Picture Hamilton Northern suburbs. Boy racers, a pokie-machine place or two... not much else. I was overjoyed to find a normal shop in the Old Town tho! Quite a nice find after being ripped off 9 euros for 2 small magnets. The shop was a normal jewellery and accersory shop so I got a brown watch and a wooden flower ring. At normal prices, woot!
The next day I had several long hours to kill before my next train so I wandered the length of the river, took some photos, got rained on (so excited about the rain! finally not quite so hot) and had a sceptical look at the nick-nacky stalls along the river that were overrun with zealous foreigners. I found a nice cafe (on the locals side of the river. not the tourist side) to get hot chocolate and strudel and shelter from the chill. Then I gave in and parted with 7 euros to see up in the big castle thing on the holl. I can't remember the name. Somthing like 'Fungsten' but not that..... I don't think it was worth it (I've seen too many castles now and this one was nothing special...) but it WAS worth the time-killing, the view (below) over all of Salzburg, and the crammed cable car ride back down. Slightly violent on the brakes. It was great.
I think Heidi must be from here in Bad Gastein!
I secretly found Salzburg to be a bit of a hole (ok, a nice hole, but just smaller than i imagined) and like many other cities, a bit of a tourist trap... no i will not pay you to see the house where Mozart was born. He didn't even like Salzburg and ditched it as soon as he could. I spent a day avoiding the thunder clouds and in one short evening I had covered the whole city including the Old Town (tourist trap) and the industrial area where my hotel was. Picture Hamilton Northern suburbs. Boy racers, a pokie-machine place or two... not much else. I was overjoyed to find a normal shop in the Old Town tho! Quite a nice find after being ripped off 9 euros for 2 small magnets. The shop was a normal jewellery and accersory shop so I got a brown watch and a wooden flower ring. At normal prices, woot!
The next day I had several long hours to kill before my next train so I wandered the length of the river, took some photos, got rained on (so excited about the rain! finally not quite so hot) and had a sceptical look at the nick-nacky stalls along the river that were overrun with zealous foreigners. I found a nice cafe (on the locals side of the river. not the tourist side) to get hot chocolate and strudel and shelter from the chill. Then I gave in and parted with 7 euros to see up in the big castle thing on the holl. I can't remember the name. Somthing like 'Fungsten' but not that..... I don't think it was worth it (I've seen too many castles now and this one was nothing special...) but it WAS worth the time-killing, the view (below) over all of Salzburg, and the crammed cable car ride back down. Slightly violent on the brakes. It was great.
I got my train to Bad Gastein and arrived in the misty rain in the evening. This is Heidi's town! Apart from the usual 'casino' dodgey little shops that litter Europe. The town is in a valley walled in by alps, an hour and a half from Salzburg. Scattered over the lower hills are hundreds of gingerbread houses and horses. I can't beleive people actually live in houses like this. I almost expect them to be edible and for Father Christmas to come out with a sack of goods.
(the yellow building below is mine. You can see a smidgin of the alps botton left. I cheated and took this later on a sunnier day!)
I got picked up by the lady who runs the hotel, in full Austrian dress, and her daughter. They are completely lovely and I came to the hotel to be shown to my own hotel room with my own bathroom. Basically they don't really need any work done at the moment so I can just stay here as the family's guest. I was completely overwhelmed by that and this whole last day that Ive been here I haven't even known how to respond. I keep offering to help with anything and almost begging but they say no, no, we'll let you know if you need help. I was mortified and honoured to find they cooked dinner just for me last night in the hotel restaurant, complete with side salad and all the works, and lunch today even tho no-one else was having it. I don't know how to react except to keep trying to be helpful and constantly saying thank you this is amazing thank you this is amazing. It's seems like at the moment the most help I can do is to do my own thing and wait to see where this leads.
It's been drizzling this morning but of course it's warm and toasty inside because unlike at home, Europeans beleive in extreme insulation! I hardly sleep at night anymore because I'm always too hot. Whereas they complain it's too cold. Soon I'm going to go explore this little town which I'm told 'might have some' shops. We are literally nestled in the clouds. I don't think I can put photos up because this isn't my computer but I'll take a few...
Ciao
I got picked up by the lady who runs the hotel, in full Austrian dress, and her daughter. They are completely lovely and I came to the hotel to be shown to my own hotel room with my own bathroom. Basically they don't really need any work done at the moment so I can just stay here as the family's guest. I was completely overwhelmed by that and this whole last day that Ive been here I haven't even known how to respond. I keep offering to help with anything and almost begging but they say no, no, we'll let you know if you need help. I was mortified and honoured to find they cooked dinner just for me last night in the hotel restaurant, complete with side salad and all the works, and lunch today even tho no-one else was having it. I don't know how to react except to keep trying to be helpful and constantly saying thank you this is amazing thank you this is amazing. It's seems like at the moment the most help I can do is to do my own thing and wait to see where this leads.
It's been drizzling this morning but of course it's warm and toasty inside because unlike at home, Europeans beleive in extreme insulation! I hardly sleep at night anymore because I'm always too hot. Whereas they complain it's too cold. Soon I'm going to go explore this little town which I'm told 'might have some' shops. We are literally nestled in the clouds. I don't think I can put photos up because this isn't my computer but I'll take a few...
Ciao
