Austria

After almost four months, ten countries, and thousands of kilometers, we’re back home. Just in time for the start of summer break.

Honestly, it didn’t even feel that long. When you’re stuck in the daily grind and working, time just flies by. But when you spend months traveling, learning to sail, meeting people and discovering new countries, and landing somewhere new every few days, it feels way longer. We feel like those sailing courses in Croatia were ages ago. We’ve experienced so much and soaked up so many impressions. I just hope we haven’t already forgotten everything we learned about sailing in the meantime.

Our last stops on the way home are Vienna, Salzburg, and Garmisch. We spend a whole week in Vienna. I don’t have much to say about Vienna, honestly—it’s just a bit too showy for my taste. There are also way too many tourists wandering around in huge groups like zombies. On top of that, we get a sugar overdose in the coffee houses, which really are world-class. Getting snapped at by the staff is basically part of the experience here. We even go to see Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, but it was so exhausting that we had to bail out halfway through.

Salzburg, unfortunately, is completely overrun—crowds everywhere. Starting this year, tourists aren’t allowed to drive into the city center anymore, Park and Ride is now mandatory. The old town of Salzburg is tiny and packed with people squeezing through the narrow streets. But it is impressive: for example, you’ll find the oldest restaurant in Europe here, in business for over 1,200 years.

You’ll also find Café Fürst in Salzburg, which claims to have invented the Mozartkugel. But it quickly becomes clear that almost every pastry shop claims the invention for themselves. Of course, we’re Team Fürst.

In Garmisch, we visit a college friend of Alex who lives here. It’s definitely peak season now—total traffic chaos, overtourism at its best. But the natural beauty is absolutely breathtaking.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.