Vienna, Austria

During my time in Austria, I was determined to have schnitzel. I knew that it would be no better than the schnitzel I make at home, but it has always been comfort food for me and I wanted it. I did not, however, anticipate the volume of schnitzel that I would eat in my two days in town......

I arrived at Vienna train station at lunch time and decided to find a light snack to tide me over until dinner. I stumbled across Trzesniewski, a chain that specializes in tiny open sandwiches priced at €1 each.

I sampled three: paprika, smoked salmon and cream cheese and carrot. The verdict? Meh.

For my next meal, I was determined the have schnitzel and followed a recommendation that was given to me. I would guess that the majority of restaurant’s schnitzels taste identical but I decided to walk for about 45 minutes in the rain armed with a very poor map to find this place. For a sum of €8, I was given two enormous schnitzels and a huge serving of potato salad which was enough food to feed a family. I enjoyed it immensely but it was no different to home cooked.

The next stop on my culinary tour was to Hotel Sacher, the birthplace of the Sacher Torte. Again, I was confident that this would be nothing special but rather a meal that would give bragging rights only. I am happy to report that it was in-fact delicious. The icing was quite thick and sweet and different to the ganache type icings that I have had before on Sacher Torte; In this case, I can say, that the original is certainly the best.

On my final night in Vienna, I went out for dinner with a group of new friends that I had met on a winery tour that day. We were a group of about eight people and dined at the ultimate of tourist traps: Centimeter.

We ordered the sword and the wheelbarrow. The sword was holding up six schnitzels, six pork steaks and six chili peppers. Below the sword were chicken wings, fries and chili con carne. The wheelbarrow was a huge platter of fries, spaetzle with bacon, spaetzle with cheese and pasta salad. The quantum of food was sufficient for about twenty people. It was tasty and affordable but the type of place you visit for the gimmicks and would never eat at if you lived in Vienna.

Salzburg, Austria

The Sound of Music: the most beloved musical movie of all time (outside of Austria) and until my visit to Salzburg, a movie I had only seen once and felt quite indifferent about. Fast forward 48 hours, I've now seen the movie three times and adore it. Try as I might, it was impossible not to get caught up in "Sound of Music Fever" when visiting Salzburg; especially when your hostel plays the movie constantly throughout the day and the top rated activity to do in town is the "Sound of Music bus tour".

Before succumbing to the tour, I spent my first day walking in the rain around town and up to the fortress which afforded grand views of Salzburg below.

The view from the fortress

On my second day, it was time to embrace the movie. I started the day viewing the film at the hostel before departing on an afternoon tour. The guide was wonderfully entertaining and comical with just the right level of kitsch without becoming corny. We visited many of the sights in the movie and he informed us where in the Mirabell Gardens (the start point of our tour) that we could find the remainder ourselves.

Some of the highlights included:

The church where Maria and the Captain were married


The "I am 16, going on 17" gazebo.
I had planned to dance on the seats but after an 89 year
old woman broke her hip a few years ago trying to recreate
the movie scene, the gazebo was locked to visitors.


The back of the Von Trapp house

There were no grand culinary adventures during my time in Salzburg. I decided to take a break from eating out three meals a day and self-catered at the hostel's kitchen. My one delight was to find liptauer cheese spread at the supermarket, something my father makes when he wants to impress company, and I happily lived off a tub of that for most of my meals.