OCTOBER 2001  -  DECEMBER 2002

Sharing borders with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary; Austria feels very much at the centre of Europe.

My friend Deniz and I spent 4 days in Austria in 2001, mostly in Salzburg. Slazburg is wonderfully sited between the Alps and the lakes of Salzkammergut and the city is famous with Mozart.

The main street in Salzburg is narrow Getreidegasse, always full of tourists and bordered by elegant old houses and big decorative iron signs. In that street, No:9, Mozart’s Geburtshaus, where he was born in 1756 and spent 17 years, is now a museum. To be honest, apart from his personal belongings and a few instruments, there was not much to see for me.

We stayed in Yo Ho International youth hostel on the other side of the river. Always keep your guest cards from the hostel, as these give discounts on lifts, cable cars, etc.

One of the highlights of Salzburg for me was climbing the mountain Dachsteinberg and visiting Eishohle (ice holes) and walking down to German border on the other side of the mountain. We took a local bus to the foot of the mountain where we boarded a cable car which took us halfway up. Then we had to climb about two hours by a zigzag concrete pathway for a good 500 meters to a huge hole at the top of the mountain. It took about an hour walking through the frozen caves, where the temperature sometimes dropped as law as -10 °C. Finally, we stepped out into the hot Austrian sunlight and walked little more up the zigzag path to reach a beautiful chalet/pub at 2000 m. After an hour freezing cold adventure, we were drinking ice cold famous Stiegl beer at 2000 meters under hot sun. What a pleasure!! Then a terrible thought crossed my mind, would we have to walk all the way back again?? Missing the last cable car back to Salzburg was the icing on the cake!! The only way back to Salzburg was to walk down to German border on the other side of the mountain (without a cable car!) and take a local bus from Germany to Salzburg. It took about 4 hours to get back to Salzburg, but it was a great adventure..

Back to Salzburg at night, we had little rest in our hotel and walked out again, and of course found a Turkish restaurant in the city centre, we are everywhere!! After a very tiring day, a delicious Iskender kebab and tea was worthwhile.

The first thing to do in the morning was to get ready and visit the local market for a breakfast. The best local market in Salzburg is the one in front of the Salzburg Cathedral. Not only the market offers fresh local fruits and vegetables, but it also has exotic foods, meat, poultry, fish and seafood, hot breads, cakes, pastries and the best one was the giant blocks of fresh home made cheese. Of course, our breakfast consisted of a big piece of cheese, hot bread, a slice of homemade cake, a cup of tea and  the amazing view of the river.

Any text, picture or information on this website cannot be used, copied or re-produced without my permission!

Copyright © Tamer Yavuzturk 2004, All rights reserved.        Last updated : Today

tyturk@hotmail.com