Discover Eastern Europe [ Part 2 : Austria - Hallstatt & Salzburg ]
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
اسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Okay, Austria is not part of Eastern Europe but it was in our itinerary last time. Hence, the title. But I assure you, Austria is like a mini Switzerland.
- Capital : Vienna (Wien as the local calls it)
- Currency : Euros
Tips :
If you are travelling from Prague, we recommend taking Student Agency bus service. They are based in Prague and their service covers Slovakia, Austria, Belgium, England, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden & Switzerland. Quite handful isn't it? The facilities inside the bus is amazing. Seats are comfortable, free Wi-fi and complimentary (unlimited) hot drinks & snacks. Our trip to Austria costs us around GBP23 for TWO person. (It's affordable too)
We recommend you to travel maybe in the afternoon from Prague and stay one night in Vienna. The journey only took 4 hours which what happened to us upon arrival was very unexpected. We booked the red eye bus & ended up stranded in a closed bus station, with tremendous heavy rain, and wind at 4.30 am.
On top of that, there were no internet connection and we had to wander around for 2 hours on foot before we found a local train station to reach Wien.
Day 1 :
We had our day 1 sorted at the train station. Our highlight in Austria is to visit Hallstatt which took around 3 hours journey by high-speed train or 6 hours by local regional train.
We thought it is worth it to buy Eurail Austria Pass in Vienna. But the girl at the operating counter advised us to buy a high-speed 2-day train pass instead. It is much cheaper since we are only staying in Austria for one night.
Tip :
Unless you have already bought Eurail Pass, we advise you to buy train tickets at the counters. Just lay out your journey (in our case, it's a return journey in 2 days, hence the 2-days pass) and they will sort it out for you.
Our journey was : Wien > Hallstatt (Transfers at Stainach-Irdning - Hallstatt - Attnang-Pucheim) > Salzburg > Wien
When train tickets had been sorted, we immediately catch the next train to Hallstatt. The problem is, there are no direct train to Hallstatt. You have to take connecting trains. But trains in Austria are a bit unreliable. They are often delayed. We missed our next connecting train from Wien at Stainach-Irdning. We were late by 10 minutes but the connecting train had already left. And we end up waiting for the next train for 2 hours. Train frequency in Austria is a bummer especially if you had to transfer in the middle of nowhere.
The view all the way from Wien to Stainach-Irdning.
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| Empty railway station in the middle of nowhere. |
You'll reach Hallstatt in about 45 minutes from Stainach-Irdning. From the station, you had to take a boat service to the village. Fees are about 2Euros per person. You could actually take a bus to Hallstatt. But boats are more dramatic. Hehe. 15 minutes later, voila! Hallstatt.
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| A small village surrounded by the fjord. |
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| Finally, Hallstatt. |
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| Another side of the fjord. |
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| Enjoying this rare view. |
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| The famous Hallstatt postcard photos. |
After some sightseeing and late lunch in Hallstatt, we took the next train to Attnang-Pucheim for the next connecting train. We reached Salzburg quite late in the evening. By the time we had the strength to explore the city, it was already dusk.
Basically if you spend 1 whole day in Salzburg, you could conquer it. We didn't and we had to leave extra early the next day as well. Hence, we didn't have much photos in Salzburg.
We took a high-speed train to Wien (Vienna) , went to their Hard Rock Shop and met a Malaysian aunty who has been living in Austria for FORTY YEARS. Yeap. She married an Austrian back in 1970s and got a permanent resident permit. Cool huh?
By 5pm on the same day, we head to Wien bus station which located quite far from the city centre. You could reach there by underground tubes or local buses. Then, we board on Croatia Bus and head to Zagreb, Croatia.
JazakAllahu khayr.
Basically if you spend 1 whole day in Salzburg, you could conquer it. We didn't and we had to leave extra early the next day as well. Hence, we didn't have much photos in Salzburg.
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| Salzburg at dusk. |
We took a high-speed train to Wien (Vienna) , went to their Hard Rock Shop and met a Malaysian aunty who has been living in Austria for FORTY YEARS. Yeap. She married an Austrian back in 1970s and got a permanent resident permit. Cool huh?
By 5pm on the same day, we head to Wien bus station which located quite far from the city centre. You could reach there by underground tubes or local buses. Then, we board on Croatia Bus and head to Zagreb, Croatia.
JazakAllahu khayr.
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