This blog post is very overdue, but I’m posting it now
anyway in an attempt to keep things vaguely chronological. So, going back over
a month to the second weekend of December (7th-9th), when my family came to visit me in Salzburg.
Their timing turned out to be perfect as it had snowed on
Thursday, so they arrived to a very wintery and snowy Salzburg on the Friday
morning. Salzburg is surprisingly hard to get to, and although they didn’t quite
have the monster journey that Steve had, they still had to get up at 4am and do
a stopover in Vienna before arriving in Salzburg around 11am. I went to meet
them from the airport, we made our way to the hotel, got settled and then
headed out for lunch.
Lunch is an experience I will never quite forget. I took my
family to a street with lots of little cafes on, and my mother plumped for a café
called ‘The Heart of Joy’. As soon as we
entered, a strange feeling of calm and serenity washed over us, and we realised
that this wasn’t exactly your standard café. From the various leaflets around
and the video playing on a loop on the back wall, we pieced together that it
was some kind of Buddhist café, and after reading the menu realised that it was
also organic, vegetarian and vegan. By this point, however, we’d sat down at a
table and hung our coats up, so were going to have to see it through. I went
for an organic goat’s cheese salad, which was very nice so no complaints there.
My parents went for a vegan ham sandwich, and I’m not sure sure how well that
went down with the family of meat eaters if I’m honest… My brother was also most
outraged that you had to pay for the tap water, as it was ‘harmonised’ with
something or another. Nevertheless we passed a pleasant hour or so there, and
when we left I felt as relaxed as if I’d just woken up from a good nap. We didn’t,
however, let mum pick a restaurant for the rest of the weekend.
We then headed over to the Altstadt and I took my family up
the Mönschberg, leading to the fortress. Although I haven’t thought twice of
the walk when doing it before, my dad’s face getting redder and redder, and his
breathing turning into panting seemed to suggest otherwise… Sorry Dad! At least
I gave you the true Austrian experience, hikes and all! It took about an hour to get over to the
fortress, including photo stops and breaks to admire the view over snowy
Salzburg. As my family were keen to look around the Christmas markets before it
got too dark, we didn’t actually go inside the fortress, but instead headed
back down the other side of the hill and straight into the Christmas
markets. After a decent nosey, we went
for a tactical coffee break to warm ourselves up (it was -5 outside…). We then braved the cold again to finish
looking around the Christmas markets, went to the Sternbräu (a restaurant come
brewery) for a drink, and had dinner in an Italian restaurant.
Later that evening we headed over to the Augustinerbräu and
met some of my friends there. I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again – this is
by far my favourite place to spend an evening in Salzburg. The atmosphere is
always buzzing, and the way you get to fill your own tankard is just so cool! This time my dad and I got to see them changing the kegs. They look so heavy, I was very impressed one man could do that by himself! My family enjoyed the evening as well, and it was great that they got to meet some of my
friends. We stayed for a good few hours but left as my mother was nearing her 4th
beer (and, of course, because they’d had such an early start…) On the way back
I introduced my dad to the ‘Käsekrainer’ – an Austrian speciality, which is
essentially a cheese-filled sausage, and that went down well as well.
We woke up the next day ready for breakfast in the hotel,
went wandering around the town and had lunch in a really tiny, but very nice,
Italian café. We browsed a little more, and mother repeatedly ran off for ‘toilet
stops’, (ie. to buy things we’d all seen and pointed out in the shops as Christmas
presents without us noticing), while her
rucksack got suspiciously bigger and bigger… That afternoon I took them to my
house and to meet my host family. They thought the view over the lake, which is
literally like something straight out of a film (The Sound of Music… what
else?), was wunderschön! We then went with the host family to a Bauernmarkt,
which is basically a famer’s Christmas market, and so very similar to a normal
Christmas market, but with more fresh and local produce. There was a big fire
in the middle of the market and so once we were finished looking around, we all
huddled around that and ate some Heisse Maronis (hot chestnuts).
The family then dropped us off at the Stieglbräuwelt (a
massive brewery nearby), and we just about had time for a drink before the
KRAMPUSLAUF began! For an explanation of what a Krampuslauf is please see my
last post, as it’s far too long to explain here again! The looks on my family’s
faces were absolutely priceless. The best moment was when my brother, on the
eve of his 18th birthday, hid behind my mum and pushed her towards
the Krampus instead of him. Incredible. We couldn’t stay long as we had dinner
reservations, but I think 10 minutes was more than enough for my family. We ate
in a traditional Austrian restaurant, and one of the only smoke-free
restaurants in the city. We went for
cocktails and cake afterwards (a strange combination but somehow it worked!),
and then back to the hotel.
On Sunday, it was my brothers birthday so he did a bit of
present opening before we headed out. We went to my host family for brunch,
which was lovely. It was even followed by a surprise birthday cake for Liam,
and a Denglish rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. We then went to the Schloss
Hellbrunn, to see the Christmas markets there. Again, they weren’t much
different to your usual Christmas market, but walking around the grounds of the
castle was very pretty, and they also had a small petting zoo type area (with
very cute rabbits!). We had time for a quick cup of tea back at the house,
before it was time to drop them back at the airport. It was a great weekend,
and I loved being able to show my family around Salzburg. It also made me very
excited to be home with them for Christmas, and so I let my Christmas countdown
begin!
