Sunday, August 31, 2008
Austria Part I/ Österreich Teil Eins
Upon reaching Zurich on 11th August, the 5 of us, 4 girls and 1 guy, set off for 2 weeks of Eastern Europe backpacking straightaway! Our first stop was Innsbruck, Austria. A quiet and small town in west Austria, the streets are really VERY VERY deserted at night. Like once night falls, all the tourists and locals just zoom, gone! Anyways, we met a Austrian girl on train who recommended Hofgarten to us, so we went to have our first proper dinner in Austria over there! The ambience is pretty cool, but we realized the prices are slightly steep as compared to other restaurants in town. Nevertheless....
Here comes my main course! (Sorry I forgot to rotate, so pls tilt your head ;) It is Schweinebraten mit Sauerkraut, or grilled pork with salted cabbage. Really tasted good! The white dumpling in the middle, is a specialty of Tirol, the mountaineous region in Austria. It is made of Semmel (local bread) crumbs and meat. But I don't really fancy it :S
Welcome to my house! Austrian houses are really very pretty, always well decorated with flowers and having their own style.
The next morning we went to.. SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL WORLD! Yeah!
It is actually the Swarovski crystal factory which we couldn't visit, instead we went to its museum and of course, its shop!
This symbolic waterfalls greets you once you enter the place.
If you want me, I want this world LARGEST jewellery stone. Its really HUGE!
Crystal tree, not Xmas tree~
Sleeping on a floor of crystals......
There was also an exhibition on crystals-decorated stuff, like boots, bra, magazine etc, just so amazing. Pls click on the right side link for more pics =)
There was also an exhibition on crystals-decorated stuff, like boots, bra, magazine etc, just so amazing. Pls click on the right side link for more pics =)
And finally, time for shopping! This Swarovski shop is the largest that I have ever seen. Selling the widest range of crystal products that I have ever seen. But don't expect prices here to be cheaper, they are not! But still, we spent close to 2 hours shopping here, I just couldn't make up my mind what to buy!
With our gains ;)
The garden behind the Swarovski crystal world is also very pretty. With mountains in the background, (really, Innsbruck is just surrounded by mountains EVERYWHERE).
And there were so many tiny bees working hard among the flowers.............