Discovering Austria Through the Eyes of an Erasmus Exchange Student

ErasmusmobilityScholarshipUniversity life

Get a glimpse of Márton Adolf's adventures, a Geography MSc student, who decided to take the opportunities Erasmus grants you!

The following pictures have all been taken by our talented student on his journey. Take a look!

"This picture was taken on my second trip to Salzburg. The two of us went with a Lithuanian friend. Well, let's just say that he was better than me... We weren't even about halfway here, and then came the hard part of the tour. We had to climb the rock wall above me. How did we do all this? Well luckily there are very well-maintained trails, so there were steps and a wire rope carved into the rock, so we could go up. To the right of us, it was about 600 metres down, but you could see the whole town. If you are interested in hiking and the beauty of hiking trails, I would recommend Austria. But you must take into account that if your body is used to the Zengő at the most, you will have to stop a couple of times on the way up. The mountain behind me is the Untersberg, which is almost 1900 metres high and can be seen from almost everywhere in Salzburg."

"This picture was taken at the Munich Oktoberfest. We managed to get to Munich on the last day, but it was totally worth it. It's like a giant "bucsu" (if you're from a village I think you know what I'm talking about) (and the rest of you can best imagine it as a giant village fair) with lots of swings and people. But what's even worse are the "houses" like this that can hold thousands of people. Bavarian music is playing, and girls in traditional Bavarian costume bring pretzels, hocks, and litres of beer. With tens. Now, a pint of that alone carries a lot of weight, let alone a pint full of beer. And the ladies take an average of ten of these. It's worth bringing plenty of cash, because that's the only way to pay. And 13 euros for a beer anyway. But they have good beers, and all the big brewers are represented. There's Paulaner, Spaten, Löwenbrau, to name but a few. When you hear the last two names, you don't necessarily think at home that these are very good beers, but they are the original drinks, not the licensed, 'after-market' kind."

"This picture was also taken on my second tour of Salzburg. From about the same place where the first picture was taken. As I wrote before, you can see the whole city from here, and if it hadn't been so foggy, that would have been true. The left side of the picture is pretty much filled with the city, and on the right side of the picture, Gaisberg, which is to the people of Salzburg what Tettye is to the people of Pécs, only about 800-900 meters higher."

"This picture was taken near Werfen. This was also a very serious hike. We started early to be in Werfen by 8am. We started from the train station in a terrible fog, and we didn't really think we would see anything further up in such fog. Then we got up to around 800-1000 metres and this is what we saw. Here we are looking at the peaks of Hochgschirr, Riffelkopf, and Hölltalkogel (from left to right). These are all well above 2000 metres. I must also say that this was probably our most dangerous hike. Mainly due to the fog, everything was very slippery, and we often only walked on small pebbles on the mountainside. But it was totally worth it, because at the end of our trip we reached the longest ice cave in the world."

"This picture was taken from the largest ice cave in the world (Eisreisenwelt), which is a hiking trail and cable car ride up and a huge tourist attraction. Tour guides usually take three groups per hour, with a fairly large number of people. Every fifth person is given a small old miner's lantern, and the others light what they can. This is necessary because there is no lighting inside the cave. Our guide, on the other hand, had a coiled magnesium filament that gave off a tremendous amount of light (I never thought a magnesium strip would glow like that). However, the road is very well built and there are (if I remember correctly) 1000 steps leading up. This was not a problem for us, because we had already climbed nearly 1000 metres, but for the other more comfortable hikers who came by cable car, and didn't even have boots on many times, it was a real problem. As I am a geographer, this place was Canaan for me. I could go on and on about the cave, but if you are more seriously interested, feel free to contact me with this, or better yet... Go and see for yourself."

"This picture was taken in Linz. I went with Ece, the girl with the backpack on the right. It was a day trip and about an hour by train from Salzburg. It is Austria's 3rd largest city after Vienna and Graz. A bustling historic city. The tram you see in the picture took us up to the Pöstlingberg, which is the top of the city, and it's a very nice view if you didn't go in foggy weather like we did. There is a museum in Linz called the Ars Electronica Center, which is such a museum of modern science, and I recommend it to everyone. Oh and of course the harbour is worth a visit."

"This picture was taken at the beautiful Attersee, about 30 km from Salzburg. I left Salzburg with Teresa, but unfortunately, she turned back on the way. The most difficult part of the trip was the first third, as we were going uphill all the time. After that there was a very big downhill, which finally led to the valley where the Mondsee and then the Attersee are located. The valley and the whole area is incredibly beautiful. Lots of little villages in the middle of huge mountains. Of course, for me it was also interesting because of the way it was formed. You don't see anything like this at home, not even in pictures, and it's hard to believe that such huge forces were at work here (and still are). Finally, after an "easy" 4-hour ride, I reached my destination, the Attersee, which you can see in the picture. I had cycled a total of 60 kilometres that day, but it was well worth it to cycle so much for such scenery. By the way, there is a well-maintained cycle path here too. By the way, these lakes turn into a huge resort area in summer, and I suspect quite a few Salzburgers have holiday homes here."

"You may be familiar with this sight from travel guides. Here we were in Hallstatt, part of the World Heritage Site. I also went here with Teresa. If I remember correctly, we left Salzburg by bus around 8 o'clock and changed at Bad Ischl. I will stop here for a few words, as Bad Ischl is a famous spa town, as its name suggests. Its salt water was known throughout the Monarchy. It was the favourite holiday destination of Franz Joseph, for example. But it was also the home of the famous Hungarian composer Ferenc Lehár. Unfortunately, we were only here for an hour, but I'm sure Bad Ischl would be worth a day in itself. Not far from there (half an hour~) is Hallstatt. It's in a valley between huge mountains on the shores of the Hallstattersee. The village has a huge mining history. Salt was mined here for centuries. This is what made this area so rich. Hallstatt is basically a small town, but it's also a great place for hiking. Like the one where the picture was taken. This place is about a half hour walk from the bus stop. I think the views speak for themselves."

"This picture was taken around 2500 metres on the Kitzsteinhorn in Kaprun. This is one of Austria's favourite ski resorts with lots of foreigners. I didn't have much opportunity to ski at home, even though I learned to ski in kindergarten, and no one around me was really into winter sports. Luckily, it was here that I met Roky and Pedro (Roky is Lithuanian, and his real name is Rokas, and Pedro is Czech and his real name is Petr. The reason is that Roky found it difficult to remember our names at first, so he gave everyone similar or not so similar nicknames. For example, I am Marculus) So, about a month ago we decided to go skiing. Okay, but how? New equipment is 1000+ euro and I don't have that kind of money. Okay, let's rent one. 40 euro a day + you must bring it and return it. That's no good either. I thought it would be worth a try to see how much second hand is. (Here in Austria everyone uses an app called Willhaben, a huge second-hand web shop) I was surprised at the prices. I managed to get a ski in good condition for 20 euro, boots for 40 euro and a helmet for another 20 euro, I use my hiking poles as a stick. That totalled 80 euros and I now have my own ski equipment. I don't know how durable it will be, but if it lasts me this season, I'm happy. (I don't want to give it away, but for now it doesn't look like they'll be going out of business anytime soon). Oh, and I also surprised myself with a pair of ski goggles for my birthday. Apparently, skiing is an expensive sport. Here in Kaprun, the day ticket is 60 euros, which is a lot, especially for a university student. But I was determined to be here once, and I would go to the ends of the world with these people."

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experiences and pictures!