Rachel’s Interrail Adventures

Gentle start to the day with the 9.23 to Salzburg which arrived in station at 9.23 but then just sat for 30 minutes. Travelled normally until Villach when it stopped in the station for slightly longer than usual.

The boy scouts in my carriage were told something and one said to the other ‘Vite!’ And they got their things. I asked him where he was going and he stopped and tried to tell me, however it was causing him to slow down and I told him to just go! Poor boy!

It was hard to ascertain what was happening but I eventually got that the train wasn’t going any further and then that there was a bus going to Salzburg in 5 minutes. Cue quick run! I was last on that particular bus.

Interesting that no announcements were made nor any attempt to communicate what was happening in any language. There was a lone railway worker on the platform fielding all the enquiries.

Anyhow the bus was fine and the drive was pretty scenic. The guy next to me told me about his crime novel that he was reading on his kindle and I did likewise. (Robert Galbraith: Ink Black Heart for anyone interested.)

Arriving in Salzburg was easy and the YoHo Hostel was a nine minute walk from the station.

After settling in and making my bed up, I ventured into town. First stop – Tourist Information. Just outside there was a brilliant brass trio on stage playing some great jazz. It was part of the Opening Festival for the Salzburg Festival.

There’s a lot of ‘opening festival’ music happening this weekend and a fair amount is free and outdoors. Tourist Information gave me the schedule but in German.

I worked out that there was an alpine horn performance soon nearby and went and watched a bit of that.

It was hard to work out the best plan because while translating I also had to work out venues and where they were. I may have been a little tired too…

So I walked back to the hostel, had some bread and ham for dinner (Spar supermarket), shower, had a lovely catch up call with Carey and fell asleep. Start again in the morning…