Salzburg was beautifuuuuuullll. I think I was a little overexcited when I stepped out of the airport hahahaha. I'll be honest and admit that it was my first time seeing and touching snow (now I can strike that off my bucket list). I got bored of the snow after the second day because we were freezing our butts off in the cold... Jade and I discovered a way to swipe left to get to the camera app without taking our darn gloves off - with our noses! Which also turned bright red in this winter btw. Jade arrived half a day after I did so I had time to wander the snow-covered streets of our apartment and take a long, hot shower before she arrived noisily at the door hahahaha. 

We were hosted by a pair of newly-weds who, during dinner, would play a mix of jazz and EDM while Jade and I danced to it secretly upstairs. We also decided to buy the 3-day pass that covers most of the attractions in the city centre of Salzburg and I think it was well worth it. Our host was also rather adamant we strike Hallstatt off our list because "it's a place for tourists!" and he pulled open Google Earth (he had a huge monitor in his study) and told us we should go to St Wolfgang im Salzkammergut instead. Jade and I also had a few yolo moments while we were together but we didn't have any regrets!! Thoroughly enjoyed every good and bad decision we made hehehe.

Super desperate to get out of the cold so we'd hide in any restaurant and start eating even though we weren't hungry

View from St. Peter's Abbey, a catholic church from the 7th century that coupled up as a museum as well

No pictures allowed and they had "spotters" watching us in every nook and cranny

Salzburg is also Mozart's birthplace (that's a statue of the man behind) and of course, a lot of places are named after him

Schatz Konditorei -- a very popular bakery in the city centre

We spent a day in Hohensalzburg Castle, literally a castle on a hill and is one of Europe's largest medieval castles

Our 3-day pass also allowed us to take the Untersberg cable-car up the snow-capped mountain and we were super lucky to be the last ones to be allowed up that evening because the sky turns dark after 5pm (we were accompanied by a Korean mother-daughter pair too) 

The view from the top was absolutely incredible!!!!! I was awash with emotions just standing atop and scanning through Mother Nature's creations

It was a pity we only spent 15 minutes up there but very thankful nonetheless to have even come up at all

On the way back to the city centre we decided to get off the tram when we saw a huge ground of snow because - snow fights, snow angels and snowmen-making!!!!!!!

Mozartkugel (also known as Mozart balls) are small dark chocolate rounds with marzipan, pistachio and nougat (tbh not really a fan of marzipan)

Visited the Museum der Moderne because we could with our pass and was super excited when they had a panoramic platform (I'm big on such things hahahaha) 

Took a bus out to St. Wolfgang im Salzkammurgut and DID! NOT! REGRET! OUR! DECISION! LOOK! AT! THIS! VIEW!

Jade's face whenever I ask her to take more pictures for me hehehehe luvs

Also chanced upon a Doyle warehouse and the sailmakers in there brought us on a tour around (and Jade shamelessly asked for some stickers lol @ this marketing woman)

Gorgeous

The lake was frozen so people brought their skates out!! 

We didn't have skates but we have boots so why not??

Ah I could sit and look at this postcard view all day

We took the Rail Europe to Vienna after spending 3 days in Salzburg

A notice at the ground floor of our apartment hahahahaha

Spent only one full day and a night in Vienna so we didn't really explore as much (also after Salzburg it was difficult for an Austrian megacity to catch my eye)

Vienna State Opera

Museumsquartier -- Vienna's largest arts complex that houses several museums

Highlight of Vienna was definitely meeting Maggie!!!!! We used to bake brownies and make jell-o together during our sleepovers when we were still kids in Delhi and it has been 7 years since we last met ahhhhhh meeting her was like being transported back to when we were 14-year-olds except we talked about how much we've grown and all the changes in our lives :')))))))

And that concludes the 4-5 days spent in Austria with Jade. I wouldn't be too quick to judge Vienna because I don't think we spent enough time there to truly make out what the city is like but Salzburg was propelled to my favourites list for sure!! It was cold, and ok maybe I decided I don't really like the snow as much as I'd expected myself to, but the views were magnificent and it was a good place to take day trips to other towns around. Would also want to thank Jade for being an amazing travel buddy, without whom I would not have fed myself with homemade pasta and ready-made broccoli soup (we added our own broccoli also ok). Thank you for the impromptu bus rides, the getting-lost-at-night-because-we-missed-our-stop, the dancing to our hosts' music while they were having a very late dinner, the ear plugs because yknow me, the annoying call-me-jie-jie moments and everything else in between. Cannot believe that was six months ago wow where did all the time go??? I miss you very much hurry home so we can reminisce Lisbon together!!!