Remembering Salzburg

And to think that I was in Salzburg last week!!!

I reckon we chose the best congress to go; My interest is regional anaesthesia and Salzburg, Austria was definitely the place to be at. Mind you, we attended the congress on its full 3 days in contrast with people's perception that the congress was just an excuse to visit Europe( which was in a way) but we did not forgo the academic reason to be there. It was a mind opening experience as we got to meet the who's who in regional anaesthesia.The knowledge sharing session was simply awesome as these are the real experts.In Malaysia, we don't have anybody who is comparable yet; the nearest would be my Sifu, Ling!! Hahaha

with the living legends or RA!!

who's the cadaver?

modern state of the art congress centre
Salzburg is a beautiful town with its surrounding scenery simply breathtaking. It's the birth place of Mozart and was made famous by the movie the Sound of Music! The rich tradition of culture was obvious and highlighted to visiting tourist. We were lucky that during the opening ceremony, we were entertained by the city orchestra and soprano who delighted us with Mozart's and Hyden's piece.( save duit..hahaha)
Being typical Malaysians, we really used the one day Salzburg card!! hahaha With euro 24 spent, we went for the expensive trips to cover our cost namely Mt Unternsberg, river cruise and to the top of Salzbur fortress! We did visit the museums but as the majority of us were not that ken on history of arts, it was just for "cukup syarat"..eg Mozart's home, Mozart's museum, Salzburg museum etc)

Unternsberg cable car station top

river cruise

on top of Hohensalzburg

We did not miss the modern part of the city as well witha visit to Europark, world's best shopping complex !! ( budak2 bandar betul) and why not to its IKEA as well? hahaha we had iftar there for rememberance :)
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We were due to go to Eidelweiss, Grossglachner via the scenery route which is legendary. Unfortunately, it was cancelled as the road was closd due to bad weather. We were dissapointed initially but Shahnaz came with a bright idea that we go to Munich!! After surfing , I found that it was just nearby with a 2 hour train! So 2 countries at once!! Why not?

We were surprised when we only had to pay euro 30 for 3 of us to and fro to Munich. Apparently it was a special day-return pass for 5s! We boarded the double decker train and obviously sat on the top deck.. hahahaha I really love the superfast euro trains..:)
Munich is a modern city and not really a tourist attraction. I guess maybe i would not have the opportunity to visit this town more famous for football then anything else ( of course, there was the Munich 72 incident of terrorism as well..). Shahnaz was keen for Munich because of BMW welt, a centre for BMW lovers! There was the museum and showroom which showed the best of BMW!! If we had more time, we culd have visited its plant hahaha hmm.. my future car perhaps?

in front of the huge BMW complex

home of Bayern Munchen.. we should have gone at night to see the colourful display..

Marienplatz, Munich

Munchen by night..
We had iftar at a kebab shop near the train station called Taknakmakan( or something like that..hahaha) The interesting about that shop was it sold not just Halal Turkish delight but chinese as well.Apparently, the owner was half german with his wife from China, chinese-muslim. They were very friendly and I do recommend that place if you happen to be there. :)

I really enjoyed this experience and was thankful having to great colleagues who were great travel partners. It was full of fun and laughter with serious touches when needed. We maximized our time there and I wuld not have thought, after leaving UK 10 years ago to have this opportunity again to explore. The trip made me felt 20 again:
i) the "Usain Bolt" sprint in Schipol, Amsterdam to avoid missing the plane; damn BIG airport!!
ii) my luggage which did not arrive in Vienna in time that became my trump card to explore Vienna before taking the scenic 3 hour train to Salzburg
iii) the 30min hike to Mt Hochtron from Unternsberg and witness the beautiful scenic Austrian Alps
iv) backpacker style walk in Munich catching time to visit selected attractions..
Wow.. Alhamdulillah and that just the list on top of my head which is just the tip of the iceberg! Ramadhan in Europe was also rejuvenating and challenging! I thank god for this opportunit which was a good time out before I endure my coming months towards my finals.. :)