Kia ora! Hello!

The biggest realisation on this trip was the difference in opening hours to stores and restaurants compared to Aotearoa. With it being Winter it was getting dark at 4pm which would automatically trigger us to want dinner, yet locating somewhere to eat was extremely difficult, which is where I hate to admit but the default was to go to the famous Golden Arches (McDonalds) for ease.

We thought we had only 2 days here, which was plenty of time for us to go up to the Festung (Fortress) Hohensalzburg, Schloss Mirabell (Mirabell Palace), Mozarts Geburtshaus (Birthplace), Christmas Markets and wonder all the small side streets. Upon arriving at our hostel it was a bit of a rude shock when we got handed linen and had to make our own beds - this was a first encounter of many, and very quickly grew to appreciate when the beds were already made as after a day or night of traveling all you want to do is lie down immediately. It was quiet in this hostel so we shared a room between only 3 of us, to which it turned out the other person not only was also from Aotearoa, but from Wellington! What are the chances?! This called for a night out! The next morning with a pretty rough hangover we packed our bags and before we made it out the door realised we made a mistake. We actually had one more night before we were meant to be leaving! Seeing as we had seen most of Salzburg we soon found ourselves on a train to Munich for a day trip, which was a great decision. We wondered around the Christmas Markets, had dinner at a restaurant, watched an orchestra play Christmas carols and jumped back on the train to Austria.

Salzburg is a beautiful wee town and highly recommend. If you are better planned and have a few days there are plenty of day trips you can make from here which are all reasonably cheap to bus/train to.

Haere rā! Goodbye!