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It’s finally here, the first entry of Rachel Going Places since starting study abroad! The past three weeks in Munich have been a whirlwind, to say the least, and I already felt myself itching to get out of the city. I was inspired by a friend who had visited Salzburg the weekend before and who was discussing wanting to visit Innsbruck in the future but I decided to make the journey on my own. This would be my very first solo trip and I’m so glad I had this experience now, with many lessons learned, before embarking on bigger trips down the line.
My travel plan came together very quickly but at the last minute, i.e., I first had the idea Wednesday night, researched after classes on Thursday, and was on a train to Austria by 5:00 am Friday morning. The only two things I was tracking to do in Salzburg were to take a Sound of Music tour and a tour of the salt mines. Well guess what two things I didn’t end up doing. I found a Salzburg Card for only 28€ which gave admission into most museums and attractions in Salzburg, plus access to all the public transport if I needed it so I decided to do that and spend my day exploring the city instead.
Solo Travel Lesson Number One came almost immediately. You see, I had thought I had booked the correct train ticket to take me from Munich to Salzburg. I have the Deutschland Ticket which covers me for any and all trains throughout Germany, including this one to Salzburg because it was opperated by the DeutschBahn train service and is located right on the boarder. I thought all I had to do was make the 5€ seat reservation (you still have to make a seat reservation because they can’t just have everyone with a Deutschland Ticket showing up, right?!). Well when it came time for the ticket lady to check my ticket, I showed her my ticket and I showed her my seat reservation and she said it wasn’t the right one. It’s a 60€ fine if you don’t have a ticket, so I frantically tried to find my email confirmation. because I still thought I had the right ticket, but I ended up sending the email to a non-existant email folder and couldn’t find it again. The ticket lady asked me if I needed a second to look for it and I said yes so she went away and I spent the rest of the ride panicking. When the train arrived in Salzburg, I skedaddled off the train as fast as I could and avoided the fine!
Anyways! After that whole fiasco the rest of my trip went swimmingly. I walked out of the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (main central train station) and was immediately stunned by the view of the beautiful Alps peaking out above the city’s pastel buildings. I first stopped by my hostel to drop off my travel backpack and then headed out to get breakfast nearby at Ratio Coffee. It was a cute, colorful cafe and I had an amazing lemon blueberry loaf which surprisingly kept me full for a while. I then made my way to Mozart’s Residence house. This was included in my Salzburg Card and to be honest, I don’t think it would have been worth it to visit if you don’t have the card. It was cool to be in the place where he lived but it’s mostly a collection of empty rooms. I then made my way across the river into the Old Town where my next visit was to Mozart’s Birthplace. I liked this house a lot better than his residence, but I also don’t think the price of admission would have been worth it without the Salzburg Card.
My next stop was to trek up a big hill to Fortress Hohensalzburg which overlooks the city below. It was a bit of a hike but the views were spectacular and the weather was perfect. Plus I didn’t have anywhere to be so I took my time. The fortress is insanely cool. It’s almost 1000 years old and the Salzburg Card not only covers basic admission, but the add ons as well. I was able to go up the highest tower to see a full 360 view of the city and Alps. It was incredible. On my way back down, I stopped about halfway to visit the local convent there. I’m not sure if this is the convent Maria stays at in The Sound of Music, but there’s a beautiful Gothic church there dedicated to St. Erentrudis. It was around this time I started getting hungry and looked for a place for lunch.
Well instead of lunch, I was served Solo Travel Lesson Number Two instead. By 1:00 in the afternoon, my phone was already drained to 10%. At the time, I wasn’t worried because I had brought a portable battery charger with me, but when I went to use it, I discovered I had brought the wrong cord to connect the two! So that led me on a trek back to where I started in the morning to buy the correct cord. At least on future trips I’ll remember to check now and it could have been a lot worse.
With my phone now being fed, I went out to look for food for myself. I decided on the Austrian street food native to Salzburg, the Bosna. It’s a red bratwurst with curry sauce, mustard, and onions. Maybe it was because I was starving but it was sooo good. I sat in the Old Town Square and people watched for a bit before continuing on. I stumbled upon this church with a sign outside that said they did a reading of Christ’s Passion every day at 3:00 pm. Well I looked down at my watch and it just so happened to be 3:01. I will always look for ways to interact with the local culture and I thought this would be a great way to do so, so I went inside.
Afterwards, I was at that awkward point of having too much time to visit only one more museum, but not enough to make it to two. I was trying to decide between visiting the Dom Quartier or Mirabell Palace. Ultimately, I decided on Mirabell Palace as the Dom Quartier only offered a discount and was not fully covered under the Salzburg card.
In hindsight, I should have chosen the Dom Quartier. While Mirabell Palace was beautiful and had gorgeous sprawling gardens just begining to bloom in the early spring, I spent 30 minutes trying to find the entrance to the palace only to find out it is now used as government office buildings to the city of Salzburg. So I wish I had visited Dom Quartier instead.
Most museums were closed now but I didn’t want to go to dinner just yet so I went and sat on a bench down by the river. I spent about 20 minutes just sitting and staring with a view of the fortress as the sun set. It was very relaxing but then I got hungry so I went to a restaurant I had passed earlier in the day which caught my eye. I noticed it because of the spinach dumplings they offered on their menu, while I thus ordered and thoroughly enjoyed. After I had finished, I went back to my hostel for the night.
Every night at 8:00 pm, the YoHo Hostel in Salzburg plays “The Sound of Music,” a classic old movie set right there in Salzburg. I thought it was a really nice touch, especially for a hostel which typically only offer the bare necessities. I got set up in my room and then headed down to the lounge, stopping to grab a free bread roll from a basket in the lobby as a snack. I was interrupted, however, by a nice Austrian gentleman named Charlie. In broken English, he explained how he was a traveling chef and had been sent home with too much leftover food for one person. So he offered me the choice between a full fish meal or a full steak dinner. For free. To be honest, I was really excited about the bread roll, but I didn’t want to be rude. He heated it up for me and sent me on my way to enjoy and continue watching the movie. Maybe this could have been Solo Travel Lesson Number Three, because accepting food from a strange, foreign man late at night in a hostel is generally not a good idea, but nothing bad happened so maybe this will be a lesson for another time. A pretty great first hostel experience if you ask me.
After the movie finished, I went to wash my dishes and ended up chatting with three girls who had also been watching. We made quite the perfect group of native English speakers with a representative from England, Australia, and two from America all participating. I had hoped that the other American would be from Canada to compete the collection, but I was satisfied upon learning that this other American’s name was also Rachel. What are the odds! We chatted for a little before all heading to bed, but ended up running into each other again since we were all staying on the same floor. Another great hostel interaction and certainly a memorable one for my first experience.
I headed to bed, exhausted, but throughly satisfied with my day. I woke up the next morning bright and early, though not quite as early as the morning before, to catch my next train to Innsbruck. My family and I made a stop in Innsbruck for a day during our trip in 2022 so I wasn’t as stressed with packing in as many activities as I did with Salzburg.
I had been counting on the fact that Innsbruck would have lockers in their Hauptbahnhof to store my stuffed travel bag like I had seen in Salzburg. Unfortunately, all the lockers were either full or broken so I had to carry my backpack around the whole day. Solo Travel Lesson Number Four: you do not need to bring two pairs of shoes on a trip that lasts less than 48 hours. This is a lesson I will probably have to relearn though, because what can I say? I’m just a girl!
I didn’t have a concrete plan, or any plan really for how to spend my time in Innsbruck. I figured I’d start by walking to the main town square, Maria Therese Platz, and go from there. So I did just that. I walked around a little before finding a good place for lunch. An early lunch by European standards, but I’m cheap and skipped breakfast. It was sooo good, I got a big lunch to hopefully last me all day because again, I’m cheap. I enjoyed pork cutlets with carrots, onions, and gravy, sauerkraut, and a pretzel dumpling. Es schmeckt sehr gut! Then I headed across the alley to the Innsbruck Residenz, house of the rulers of Innsbruck for 500 years. It was a good museum, unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures so I apologize for the lack of content from this visit. After, I headed to the nearby Hofgarten, a place I remembered from my previous trip here. I was exhausted, so I laid myself down in the green grass and took a nap for about 40 minutes.
I had nothing to do in Innsbruck except kill time, so I wandered around a little more, seeing everything in the Old Town and even crossing the bridge to see the Colorful Homes. I looped back to the Old Town and went up the City Tower to see the town from a different angle. This climb is not for the weak, especially if you are carrying a fully stuffed travel backpack. But I made it to the summit, only to be furtherly abused by the strong winds which threatened to toss both me and my backpack off the tower we had worked so hard to climb. The view from the tower did offer some incredible sights, though, as the Alps enveloped the vibrant buildings of the city below.
After a sufficient amount of time, I made my way back down the tower, a much easier journey than the one which preluded it. Below there is a cafe which my family dined at in 2022, and where I had the best meal of that whole trip (bacon with dumplings mmm). Today, I enjoyed a slice of käsekuchen (cheesecake) and an espresso and watched the people walking by. I then finished my trip with Mass in English at the Hofkirche right there before heading back to the Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof.
This was an absolutely perfect first solo trip during my time studying abroad. It was so nice to get out of the city and so easy to just hop over to the next city. I can’t wait for the bigger and better adventures to come!
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