Austria

I woke up extra early to catch the train going to Hallstatt. I really liked the rooms for the place I was staying at, big and private beds with burgundy curtains and there were just three of us in one room so it wasn't too loud. I ended up accidentally flooding our shared bathroom due to my shower curtain positioning. The water even reached the carpet of the main bedroom. I scurried off to get to the main station, getting on the wrong bus in the process which made me even a bit more panicky but I got there just fine, even had time to buy some McDonald's for breakfast. I was a bit worried as today was supposed to be a rainy day and I had wanted to get some sun for beautiful pictures. The train ride was actually very comfortable, too comfortable in fact as I didn't realize I was sitting at first class. When the ticket checker came to confirm my ticket, I realized I was in the wrong place and was asked to move to forward to the other cars. I passed by a small restaurant bar in one of the cars before making it to the seats for "normal" people. I was still able to get a window seat luckily. Most of the ride was very chill, I used it as an opportunity to get some much needed rest after numerous days of continued traveling. It was a long ride, watching Austria's country side as our train cruised along was something I truly enjoyed. As we approached Hallstatt, the scenery started to morph into something more grand. Mountains loomed huge and combined with these blue lakes made for such a picturesque scenery, There were some houses and pastures with sheep along the way as well. After a couple of more stops, we finally arrived at the other side of the lake. I went down to the docks and grabbed a roundtrip ticket and got on the boat that would take us to Hallstatt's port.

The boat ride was very pleasant, seeing the lakeside town loom closer as we passed each wave gave me a nice idea what I was in for. As soon as I stepped down the boat, this sense of surreal excitement started to creep in. It was such a wonderful place, I remember I was still texting with my mom on my phone then, I was sending her these photos I took from the boat and she was really proud of me. First things first, I had to grab some lunch. I went to the first nearby restaurant to see what they had and was waiting for quite a bit but when I checked the menu, they only had breakfast so I used the bathroom and left to find some food. I decided to also start exploring as well, all the houses here were residential and all of them had these amazing coloring, blooming flowers, and wooden finishes. Just going around the narrow streets and alleys, going to wherever it leads was one of the best ways to explore, just getting lost in this small town. I was able to find some churches, a cemetery and even a waterfall. I took the non-tourist route and ended up going up a lot of stairs but it was quieter with no people. I later backtracked and took the tourist route and saw a lot of shops. I was quite lucky to have come here during Covid as there weren't that much tourists. Usually there would be thousands of Chinese tourists, made apparent by the signs around Hallstatt in Chinese. I circumnavigated the lakeside as well, they made for awesome pictures. There were a lot of swans hanging around the lake which added even more beauty to Hallstatt. I reached the end of the town and decided to have some pizza. It was so big actually, I almost couldn't finish it but it was also very delicious and a bit pricey but such is Europe.

After having lunch, I went outside again back to the grocery store I passed by before and bought hazelnut bread for breakfast the next day. I hanged around here for a bit, just trying to let the time pass as it was raining very hard and the train I was planning on getting on was still a bit later in the day. After taking shelter in the grocery store, I went and sat by a bench under a tree that overlooked the lake, the rain was still drizzling but the tree was a good natural umbrella. I was worried about the rainy and cloudy weather but I realized they added so much drama and mood to my pictures, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I was planning on taking the postcard photo of Hallstatt at a specific time frame in the day when the sun would come out a bit so I just spent a lot of time visiting the various stores in the tourist road and staying inside the church for when it started to get to cold or rain. I then made my way to the hill overlooking the town pass the opposite side of the docks. I staked my position and waited for the opportune time to take photos, taking a lot of them from various angles. After I was satisfied, I went back to my trusty church and waited for the boat to take me to the train station at the other side of the lake. There, I waited with another person in the waiting room and finally got on the train which took us back to Vienna with a nice sunset behind us, as if it were saying good bye. I had to transfer to another train and then our train did get delayed multiple times before we reached Vienna.Read more