Austria and Poland - Fish with Wings

03 Sep Austria and Poland

Posted at 16:37h in Blog, Personal by Mallory 0 Comments

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Austria

As I headed down the mountain from Opererhutte in Austria, I planned my route for the day. I was trying to get to Amstetten, also in Austria, to visit my friend Martina for the night. Since I was in the middle of the mountains, and hadn’t had internet for the last several days to plan, I had no idea how best to get there. I decided to hitchhike to Salzburg, then either hitch the rest of the way or get a train.

The day started off beautifully, with cool air and a hot sun, and I hiked down the mountain in a light spirit, picking wild blueberries along the way. At the base I began my walk out of the park, and the blueberries changed to wild strawberries as I passed waterfalls, boulders, and cliffs. I walked quite a long ways before I got a short ride from an electrician, then another short ride from a climber visiting the area. After that I walked through the insanely crowded town of Mayrhofen. It seemed as if all the tourists flocked there, and no one had moved past the town to the mountains beyond. Good. I watched paragliders float above me as the sun beat down.

I finally got a ride from a woman who felt it was her good deed for the day to take me a bit farther than she was intending to go, and she dropped me off at an entrance to the highway. After a long wait, someone finally pulled over and said that I might not be in the best spot for a ride to Salzburg. He discussed with his 7 year old son, who had just had a birthday and now invited me to his next one (he said he would save me some chocolate cake!), and they decided to also be very kind and take me to a different roundabout. Unfortunately my luck then ran out. I couldn’t get a ride onto the highway, so in my usual impatience I began walking the back road hoping for shorter, but more frequent rides. I walked a lot of the way, and managed to pick up two rides to Wörgl, where there was a train station. I gave in and bought a ticket. It was expensive, but at the rate I was going I would never make it to Amstetten. Worst day of hitchhiking I have had yet!

I arrived at the station in Amstetten at 8pm, and Martina ran up to give me a bear hug. We were both so excited, and hadn’t really spoken since I was in Malaysia and I mailed her some tea. We caught up at her apartment over a beer, then went out for dinner where she had me try some Austrian food. I stayed the night and she woke me before leaving for work to say goodbye. I spent the morning relaxing at her home and left just before noon with a new cardboard sign for Vienna. I walked about two miles to an entrance to the autobahn and held up my sign. I waited 15 or 20 minutes before someone pulled over for me. He was going half way to the city for a meeting, and had seen me walking down the road earlier. He said he picked me up because he thought it was so funny, me walking with this huge bag picking fruit from the trees beside the road. We got along so well, that he invited me to lunch and said he could take me further after his meeting because he was going to meet his son. I happily accepted his offer, since I couldn’t meet my friend Christoph until 4:30 anyways. He then called his son, and it turns out he was going to Vienna in the evening to meet some friends and he offered me a ride the rest of the way!

I relaxed at their home, having a cup of coffee and chatting with the family until Lucas, ‘the son’, was ready to go. He dropped me off at the metro train station and I rode the tram to Christoph’s apartment. We had met in Laos several months before, so we caught up and went out for typical Austrian wiener schnitzel and beer. The next day I was free while he was at work, but instead of exploring the city I decided to go to the market and make pho. Why? Because I could.

When Christoph was off work he went with me on a walking tour of downtown Vienna. We spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at the different buildings and ate a couple scoops of ice-cream, then gorged on pho and mango salad, watched climbing videos and crashed. It was awesome. Unfortunately, he had to work the next day as well and at noon I headed to the bus station to catch my Flixbus to Krakow.

Poland

The bus was an hour late, but when I arrived Kasia was waiting for me at the station. We took a tram to the apartment where she has been staying to drop off my bag, then headed to the Jewish district to meet her friends. There we had the local Krakow zapiekanki, a baguette with smoked sheeps cheese and other toppings. Then we stopped into one of the many craft beer bars and had…dun duh-duh-duuuunnnn! Craft Beer!! Apparently it is huge in Krakow! They have all kinds of beers made all over Poland. It’s almost like they got too excited about craft beer and smushed all the types together to make these strange combinations, like a sour wheat IPA. I had a decent oatmeal stout, but there was also a good watermelon ale and a chestnut lager that was fantastic. We sat at the bar and chatted, and I got to know some of Kat’s friends who were also in town visiting.

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city. We first had breakfast at Emalia’s, where I tried kat’s shakshuka, a Jewish breakfast dish with tomato and egg. Then we walked back across the river to Wawel Castle. On the way we passed an amazing doughnut place. It was just a window in a wall, called Paczkarnia. Their donuts were fresh, still warm, and they had amazing flavors. My favorite, and a local specialty, was rose jam. I’m in love! We walked around the castle grounds and explored the Basilica, then walked back down below the walls to the statue of ‘the dragon’ to meet her friend. I have to say, the figure of the dragon was not very fearsome, but apparently some days it spits fire. So maybe that’s cool.

We walked together to the main square and window shopped. We found The Leaky Cauldron, a Harry Potter themed cafe, and paused to listen to the trumpet player in the St Mary’s Basilica, who plays at the top of every hour. We stopped at a place called Relaks for another craft beer, then walked to a hole in the wall called Przystanek Pierogarnia to try some dumplings called pierogi . There another girl met us who was visiting from France and we went back to the main square and to Cupcake Corner where I fell into a stupor from all the good food we had been eating all day. Some more visitors from France joined us and we went to a bar called Pijalnia where you can get cheap shots of the local flavored vodka. We had a couple of drinks, then went for more food at a food truck plaza, located at the statue of Judah in the Jewish district. We had a crazy delicious loaded baked potato, then headed to a hole-in-the-wall bar with a cool vibe called Eszeweria to finish off the night.

The next day we went to the city’s Ethnographic Museum, which is free on sundays. Mel met us there, and we explored Polish history. It was really interesting, but only partially written in English. The traditional buildings were especially beautiful, and they used to paint every bit of the inside with ribbons and flowers. We had some more traditional Polish foods, like shredded potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, and a beet soup with kefir. Then we finished it off with some ice-cream from GoodLood. We had another beer at Relaks, then headed to a couchsurfing event I had heard about. I had done some searching on the website looking for a place to stay for one or two more nights in Krakow, and I hoped to meet my potential host at this event. It was a lot of fun, and there were some really interesting people there. I ended up not needing a place to stay, but still chatted with Kevin, the ‘potential’ host, and we got along quite well.

Tramps in Slovakia

Kevin was heading to Košice, Slovakia the next morning, and invited me to come along. I had an unusual situation at the moment – I was looking for Workaway programs in Romania and Bulgaria for the next few weeks. I had just that evening been accepted to a farm in Romania that I felt really good about. The others I was unsure of, so by the time Kat and I got back to the apartment I messaged Kevin and said, yes! I’d love to go to Slovakia! It’s on the way to where I’m going!

Kat and I had an incredible breakfast at Bal, a cafe near the apartment. An enormous egg and smoked trout sandwich and a jar of panna cotta and I was in another good food stupor. We rushed to the tram station where I was to meet Kevin and said our goodbyes. I really loved Krakow, and there is a lot I didn’t see (or eat!) there, including a lot of interesting history. I do want to go back someday. Kevin and I took the tram south of the city, then switched to a bus to get to a point recommended by hitchwiki. We had some ‘competition’, a German couple heading to Czech, but we were heading in different directions so it ended up working out in the end.

We were picked up in less than ten minutes by a Polish mother with her infant. She spoke wonderful English, and was really interesting to talk to. She said she used to hitchhike alot and was happy to pass on the help. It was a neat experience to all come together and help when the baby got fussy, and she eventually let us out near the Slovakian border. We paused for a rest, and Kevin pulls out some bananas from his bag. Then he pulls out some eggs, some tomatoes, a bag of mozzarella, a couple of jelly sandwiches, and a head of lettuce…this guy comes prepared! When he was finished eating we waited for a while until we got a ride from a van that took us across the border. Then we were picked up by some climbers who invited us to join them for a bit! I wish I had said yes, but I was shy and Kevin doesn’t climb, so I felt a bit awkward. So it goes. We got another couple of short rides, the last of which dropped us off in a very small town. We were worried because there wasn’t a great pull off area, but eventually were picked up by a car heading the rest of the way to Kušice.

Kevin was couchsurfing in town, and his host welcomed me in as well. Ryo is from Japan and working in Slovakia for the year. He took us on a tour of the downtown square at night and we stopped for a bite to eat at a touristy, but also cheap and delicious restaurant. We shared two kinds of potato pasta, then walked back to his apartment for a drink and bed. I left in the morning and walked to my next hitchhiking spot. On to Romania!