Salzburg

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I took a night train from Rijeka to Salzburg. Having seen what I came to see in Rijeka, I headed to the train station a little bit early, hoping my train would already be there. It was, but doors between cars were locked, so my original plan of exploring a little didn't work. Instead I settled into my cabin, nice and relaxed. One woman was already there when I entered, but I think she got on in Rijeka, too. This time I specifically booked the very top bunk, though I needn't have bothered, because the room allotted to top bunkers on this train seemed equal to that of middle bunkers, who seemed to have a little more than on my first night train of the trip. It might just be a matter of my own perception, but I don't think so.

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We got on our way and the conductor came by to collect our tickets. We got to the border and officials came by to check passports, etc. Then the conductor came by again to collect our passports. I'm still not sure why. In Ljubljana the process started all over, only I didn't have a passport to show anymore. The border official didn't seem bothered anyway.

A little before 4:00 am I packed my things together, put my shoes on and went out into the aisle. The conductor saw me and came by with my ticket and passport. I don't even remember that well now, but I think our train got into Salzburg a bit later than our scheduled 4:09 am arrival. Even as I stepped off, I didn't really have a plan of action. My first thought was to do some photographic exploration, but I didn't really find anything to photograph (admittedly, I didn't look too hard). I was exhausted, so I decided to try my luck at the hostel I had actually booked for the next night.

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On my way there, I passed a few drunk, perhaps high, Austrian young adults. One stopped me and asked me if I needed weed. I said no, and he asked me why I was lying. I told him I didn't need any, but he refused to let me pass. I didn't feel like playing this game for long, so I was happy when the door of a nearby house opened (the group had been knocking and calling for several minutes) and everyone went inside. On to the hostel. It was open, and I checked in. Sleep came fitfully, but that was true pretty much every night. In the morning I relished a hot shower and went downstairs for breakfast. This wasn't free, but it was very affordable.

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On my way downtown, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of traffic, but I figured rush hour was over. A few minutes later I realized why traffic was really so light. I had to get cash at an ATM, and as is too often the case, the denomination it gave me was impractically high. It being a weekday, I figured I'd just go inside and ask the bank if they'd break it for me. Closed. Why was it closed? It was at this point that I remembered the date, which trumped the the day of the week. It was 6 January, Three Kings. Catholic Salzburg had off.

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Luckily, the tourist attractions were still open. The first one that attracted my attention was the Toy Museum, which I very much enjoyed. What had gotten my attention was the cut-out of Struwwelpeter (I refer you to Wikipedia). I started in the exhibit of old musical instruments, but most of the museum was dedicated to toys: trains, cars, dolls, doll houses, toy castles, etc. Then there was the special exhibit on Struwwelpeter.

I suppose I should explain just a little. Struwwelpeter is a character in a book of cautionary/scare-the-crap-out-of-you children's stories. While they've been poplular since their first appearance, they're seen as rather inappropriate and potentially traumatizing today. One part of the exhibition was a looped set of clips from live-action dramatizations of all of the stories. I watched every second of it. Talk about being scared straight.

I wondered around outside a bit more, but it wasn't wandering-around weather. It was cold, damp and cloudy. Needing another warm-up break, I popped into a café for an Apfelstrudel and a cup of coffee.

Having warmed up, I braved the cold once more and climbed up the Hohensalzburg, which overlooks the city of Salzburg, to the fortress there. The fortress is large and includes a museum. Despite the weather, I enjoyed a nice view from the top. The museum was interesting and not entirely what I expected. They had old fort furniture, but they also had a large collection of objects (weapons, uniforms, etc.) from and information about WWI, particularly about battles in Tirol.

To make it easy on myself, I stayed in the fortress for dinner and ate at the restaurant there. Food was good. A group at a table near me was speaking Spanish, so I listened in on their conversation once in a while. They had their dog along, and while the dog mostly obeyed, it did once try to go into the kitchen.

I retired to the hostel in the early evening. My body had rebelled against the cold, so I went to the hostel bar (at least I knew they'd be open) and ended up having a nice conversation with an Australian traveler. The Aussies are everywhere, and they're always traveling for months or even years at a time! We both retired at a respectable time, which was fine with me. I had a new city to discover the next day.