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Friday 22 June 2012

St. Moritz to Salzburg

Hello again everyone!

So I'm writing from our hostel in Salzburg, Austria. I'm in the lobby right now (the internet is strongest here) with a Belgian guy and a Japanese guy who I've been talking to, who are both tattoo artists.  A bit random but ok.

So I'm still fuming with Blogger...it fucked up my last post so badly. Hopefully this one will go better!

This hostel is the last of our trip! For everything we're doing in Austria, we're using Salzburg as a base and then travelling around to the surrounding areas. So that's kind of exciting.

I MUST get to bed at a reasonable time tonight...last night I had less than 2 hours sleep and I did not sleep at all during the day. In general I've had pretty poor amounts of sleep, so if I can try and finish this early then I'll be a lot more awake tomorrow.

So I'll get started right now and let's see how this goes!

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So when I left you last, we were in our amazing hostel in St. Moritz.

We set our alarms for 7am, seeing as this was when breakfast started. Also, the trains that we could catch from St. Moritz were every hour, but we wanted to get one as early as possible seeing as the journey as a whole to Salzburg (we had to make two changes) was quite long.

We woke up at 8am.

Oops.

Our first port of call was the canteen for our all-you-can-eat breakfast. We really needed to take advantage of it so that we would spend as little money as possible on food.

I managed to cram in two bowls of cereal, two bowls of yoghurt and 3 slices of toast. In terms of what was available for breakfast, it was nowhere near as comprehensive as what was available for dinner yesterday, but it did the job.

Sam was absolutely stuffed, and actually had to give me some of his food (that's a first). That's how much we wanted to make the most of the included breakfast!

Once we were finished, we checked the bus times for the bus from the hostel to the train station, and then went to our rooms and sorted our stuff out. I had a shower (Sam didn't feel he had enough time to have one too) and then we finished packing.

We were going to get the bus at about 9.05am, giving us plenty of time at the train station for our train at 10.02am. We also wanted to double-check that our InterRail tickets (without any reservations) were valid for the whole of our journey, so this gave us time to do that.

We didn't have enough time to get this bus in the end, so we had to get one at about 9.35am, which was cutting it a bit fine. Typical us, doing it the hard way.

We got to the train station at about 9.50am and headed straight for the ticket office. Fortunately, the lady there told us that our InterRail tickets alone would be enough for the whole journey from St. Moritz to Salzburg, which was a relief. 

Before moving on to the train journey, I'll just explain what we had to do.

Firstly, we had to get a train from St. Moritz to Chur, which, as you will know if you read the last post, was one of the stops on the Glacier Express. From Chur, we had to get a train to Sargans, a small Swiss town near the Austrian border, and then from Sargans there was a train direct to Salzburg.

Here's a map to show you the overall route:

So we actually went through Germany and skirted around Liechtenstein!

So, for our first train to Chur, we weren't actually travelling on the Glacier Express, but we were on a train which had windows that opened very very wide, which was perfect for taking pictures of the landscapes we were passing.

Not only that, but the weather was very good this morning, so we could see more of the peaks of mountains and everything generally appeared a lot nicer. So we took plenty of photos throughout the 2-hour train ride!

Here is a selection of them:


Look how big the windows were! You could easily jump out if you wanted to.



The sgraffito wall decor in one of the settlements. Sgraffito involves scratching on the walls to produce the desired image.






The train!











The train going over the huge Landwasser viaduct.


A very thin and pointy church; typical of the area.



As soon as we got off the train at Chur, we started looking for trains to Sargans.

By some amazing luck (or so we thought...), a train to Sargans was in the platform next to ours and was leaving within 5 minutes. We made sure that it was definitely going to where we wanted to go, and hopped on.

We didn't even need to show our tickets. The journey only took about 10 or 15 minutes.

So it was the same procedure again - look for trains to Salzburg as soon as possible.

However, we couldn't find any.

I'd checked on the internet before we left the hostel everything to do with the journey, and I knew for a fact that trains leave Sargans to go to Salzburg.

So we went to the ticket office and asked when the next train to Salzburg was. He didn't question our destination, which was a good start, and then told us that the next train was at 3.37pm.

Cool, so we were sorted.

Downside: IT WAS FUCKING 12.20PM.

We had over three hours to kill.

SHIT, I could have had another couple of hours sleep. Fuck.

I realised that I could use this time to work on the blog, which I did, while Sam went for a wander into town.

Apparently it was very small and there wasn't much around at all. So a great place to spend 3 hours of your time.

While I kept on working, Sam did some sketching and other things, but eventually it was time to head onto the platform.

As it was a train going to Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna, we expected it to be quite busy and maybe seats would be reserved, meaning we'd have to find unreserved seats.

It was a ghost train.

There were probably only 3 other people in our whole carriage at this point. Even throughout the journey, there were very few people on the train in total.

So the train left and we headed into the Austrian countryside, a 4-hour journey awaiting us.

The scenery was really impressive. Although similar to Switzerland, it seemed that the mountains were more spread out, with farmland in between

We only got a few photos from this journey (reflections on the glass were bad, I was writing my blog and we both wanted to relax as much as possible) but you can still see some pretty cool shit...

An amazing cloud formation around a mountain.




What you can see in the rock face is actually a waterfall.


We passed an area where EVERYTHING was covered in trees; nothing else.


Rocky mountains.


I finished writing the blog post after about two hours, and from then on me and Sam just listened to music the whole way. It was so nice just being able to relax and enjoy the scenery.

At one point in the journey, something VERY embarrassing happened to Sam. I couldn't believe it when he told me.

He'd just been to the toilet on the train, and walked to the bit where there was an automatic glass door to get back into the carriage.

It didn't open when he walked towards it. He waved his hands next to the sensor, jumped up and down, walked forwards and backwards, did a little dance maybe...but the door wouldn't open.

He then tried to pull open the door manually, but it kept pushing against him. What the hell was he doing?

It was only then when he noticed that the door he was attempting to pull from the side had a glass pane in it. Meaning...that THERE WAS NO GLASS DOOR IN FRONT OF HIM.

The door had been open THE WHOLE TIME.

People were staring at him wondering what the fuck this stupid fat person was doing, waving his arms around and moving forwards and backwards at an EMPTY SPACE.

Hooooooooollllllllyyyyyyyyy sssssssshhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiitttttttt

It must have been the most awkward moment EVER when he just walked through the empty space after acting like a mime artist for the past 5 minutes.

I am NEVER going to let him forget this.

I wish I'd seen it - in the end his description of what happened between fits of laughter was the best I could get.

Anyway, the train got into Salzburg just before 8pm.

Sam had memorised the route to the hostel from the train station entrance, so we moved quickly, avoiding the large raindrops.

We got to the hostel and checked in as usual. We're in another 4-bed dorm - this time there are two Australian people with us who are also travelling around Europe, so that's pretty cool.

On the train we had to survive mostly on bread, but we had two packs of flavoured noodles with us, and this hostel has kitchen facilities. We also really needed laundry facilities and this hostel has them too. So conveniently, we mixed this all together, having dinner while our clothes were being washed and doing internet stuff too.

Unfortunately we didn't see much of Salzburg today, but there's plenty of time in the next couple of days to do that, and also the weather wasn't too great anyway. So that's something for you to look forward to in the next post!

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So today certainly hasn't been as exciting as the last few days, but it was necessary for us to get to Austria, and we also saw an awful lot during the train rides, so we've still had a good experience.

Luckily, stuff is MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper here than in Switzerland, so we will actually be able to afford stuff. Our hostel does breakfast for 3 euros each, so we'll probably do that in the morning, but after that we're looking forward to having a good time in Salzburg and actually eating properly too. We can afford to, for once!

I AM FINALLY FINALLY INDISPUTABLY UP TO DATE!!!!!!!

And I don't think Blogger has fucked up this post!

I'll try and fix the last one when I can; it's difficult because it's such a hench post. I'll try my best.

But anyway, I must certainly get to bed now. Thank you for reading and I hope all this travelling through time hasn't been to hard to deal with.

So check back here tomorrow for stuff about Salzburg. Until then!


Jack - 22/6/12 - 03:31 in Salzburg, 02:31 in the UK

7 comments:

  1. Sam, I insist you re-enact the train glass door scenario when you get home! Mum xx

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    1. I will be traveling on a river cruise in May from Amsterdam to Basel. But after that I will be heading to see Salsburg and Vienna for the last few days of my trip. Your blog was helpful to get an idea of the InterRail,and cities from Chur to Salsburg. Liked the pictures. I don't like the swearing/cussing...every other word however...and wonder why it is necessary to use such vocabulary to express ones self. Try doing a blog tomorrow, and write it as you do, but leave out every blooming cuss word that you can think of. It is SO unneccesary, and cheapens the character of your blog.

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    2. While I appreciate your feedback, let me explain why I chose to use so mnay swear words.

      It was for comic value, mainly. I could have just written a typical travel blog showing people what the places were like. But everyone does that! I wanted my blog to be something different - something more entertaining AND more personal. In real life I swear a lot too (I wasn't just putting it on) and so by being myself I was allowing people to connect to the real me and also be able to see the places through my eyes as well as theirs. It was more interactive.

      Only you and one other person have told me that swearing has made my blog worse, and many many people have told me that the swearing (or more specifically being myself and not changing myself in the public image) made my blog much more fun to read.

      And if you are wondering why I swear so much in real life...why not? Swear words are just words. I never use swear words to offend people, only to add emphasis/humour to a situtation. There's a big difference there. A lot of people are brought up to think that swearing is the ultimate sin...but just because society tells us not to swear doesn't mean that we shouldn't if that's what we want to do, providing that we are not offending people.

      I knew when I used the swear words that some people wouldn't like it...but that's what I'm like in real life! Maybe some people in real life don't like me that much because of my swearing (although this is rarely the case because I never use it to offend anyone) but that is their decision.

      I hope that has given you some explanation. But please don't say that swearing 'cheapens the character of my blog'. Say 'I THINK that it cheapens the character of the blog' because you have to recognise that it is your point of view and is not shared by the majority of my readers.

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  2. You've had quite an adventure =]

    Just wondering.. do all trains have to go to chur from St moritz? Ive been trying to find a train that goes straight to Salzburg from St Moritz..

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    1. Hello!

      Yes I'm pretty sure all the trains have to go through Chur. I spent a long time looking for trains going straight to Salzburg from St. Moritz and I had no luck. Changing trains at Chur isn't too bad though, and at least you get to see some more of the beautiful Swiss landscape!

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  3. Hi jack ,thoroughly njoyed reading your blog.its simply fantastic and informative,...m also taking the same route.just wanted to know I if there are early departures n is the swiss pass valid for the whole journey from st.moritz to Salzburg.....pls help

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    1. Hello,

      Firstly, thanks for reading and I'm glad you've enjoyed the blog!

      Secondly, when we travelled this route we had an InterRail pass, which isn't the same as a Swiss Pass. The InterRail pass lets you travel anywhere in Europe, so we didn't have to worry about the ticket being valid. I just had a quick look on some websites and it looks like the Swiss Pass will only let you travel to Sargans for free, and after that you'll have to pay. I'm not 100% sure though. I'd say that the best idea would be to ask at a train station in Switzerland, and then if you do have to pay hopefully they'll let you pay then and there. You might find more online though if you keep hunting. I know that there are a few different types of Swiss Pass and I don't know if one type would allow you to do the whole journey without paying more.

      I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'early departures', but I've just checked online and it seems like the earliest train to leave St Moritz towards Chur is at 7.02am, arriving in Chur at 9.03am. The trains from Chur to Sargans are very frequent and the journey only takes 20 minutes, so you could get one shortly after. Trains from Sargans to Salzburg go every 2 hours, and there's one that leaves at 11.37am which would get you to Salzburg at 4.03pm. I don't know if the exact times might change, though, so it's worth looking it up beforehand when you know exactly when you'll be travelling. You can do it here: http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/choose-your-outbound-journey

      I hope this helps!

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