Preferring for the rest of our trip outside of Salzburg and Vienna to be a spontaneous one, we merely made a booking for a car for the next three days. No accommodation, no particular itinerary. We ventured through a few towns along the Romantic Road.
Departing from Salzburg, we headed onto the A5 towards the rest of the Salzburg region, going towards Mondsee where the wedding scene in Sound of Music took place. Unfortunately, we were unable to enter as there was an ongoing wedding. So we stopped for some Currywurst and Eggnog at the Christmas market right outside of the church. Thereafter, we then drove past the peaceful picturesque Wolfsgangsee after sunset without getting to see much due to the low visibility.
Intending to head towards Hallstatt in search for a night’s stay, we missed the exit and ended up going to another town called Gosau instead. There, we resorted to a quick online search via accommodation websites for nearby availability, as visibility was so low it and we could only see tiny lights from distant low-rise and sprawled out buildings, and the road in front of us. Everything was dark, and looking for road names was impossible as every road was labelled ‘Gosau’ in the town. Using GPS, we eventually found a place called Pension Elfi and knocked on the door to enquire for availability. Thankfully, there was availability and we got one of their family apartments for just 90euros per night for the 5 of us. So, after resting for a bit, we headed back onto the dark roads in search for dinner on a Sunday night. We found another local hotel, Kirchenwirt Gosau, serving local delicacies, spent approximately the same amount as our first night, taking away a few beers in milk cartons. We awoke to a breathtaking surprise, was we realised that our unprecedented decision has brought us to an option with wonderful scenery by the Gosau mountain region. We headed out to the nearby supermarket to grab a number of groceries for some homemade breakfast in our apartment before checkout.
Thereafter, we headed to the nearby Gosau ski rental in search of some beginner friendly mountain activities up the Dachstein Salzkammergut. We rented snowshoes for approximately 8euros each, and heeded the owner’s suggestion on giving our snowshoes a try up along the slope next to the ski track. It was Legs day. We took approximately 2 hours to hike up the perilously steep snowy slope, taking numerous breaks. We were wondering why the numerous skiers coming downslope kept staring at us. Only after we arrived at the top, we realised that there was the skii lift option. Nevertheless, it saved us a few euros going up the skii lift, and we got a free ride downhill. There were better itineraries for those that could have invested more time/days in these activities.
Student Backpacker 