In 2011 I spent ~5 months “studying” in Salzburg. I did a program for American students and lived with the only other Californian in the program, Maddie. Maggie and Maddie (+ Charlie) had a lot of fun.
Coming back 12 years later and bringing H was nostalgic. I ate my favorite doner, took him to the best cheese sausage stand, and stopped for a drink at the bar I spent many a night in. We also hiked above the city and around the fortress and visited Augustiner Bräu. (When my parents visited me in 2011 I also took them to Augustiner. It’s an ancient monastery where the monks brewed their own beer. Today it’s a huge beer garden. When I took my parents a very drunk Austrian man was so impressed by my dad’s handlebar mustache that he yodeled for my dad. Quite a bit. And he was kicked out because of it. To this day my dad still feels responsible for getting the guy removed.)
From Salzburg we went to Hallstatt. The beautiful lakeside town, before heading to our first overnight hut in Europe!
We were very excited about this hut experience. The ones in New Zealand are more rustic, and while still in beautiful locations the Europeans have crafted a more glam experience. At the Austrian Hut we got a three course meal, hot showers, breakfast, and two beds in a bunk room. The bunk room was filled with about 10 kids, high school and below, and the parents slept in a separate room. There was something powerful yet annoying about this!
For two people the cost was about 100 Euros. Which doesn’t include beer at 3.50 a bottle. (So pretty affordable if we weren’t also factoring in the daily rental of our van…)
The next day we went up to Hoher Dachstein in the gondola and hiked through the snow to another hut where we ate our packed sandwiches and bought hot chocolates before hiking down. (I sound so wholesome here. Please note that beer wasn’t purchased this time because it was freezing and I needed something sugary to hike back down those mountains in the snow.)
