It was a mixture of planned & impromptu trip actually. I had this thought in mind since last summer break, while re-watching Maryam's vlogs for so many times, I've lost count. :p The plan to travel with everyone, like we used to do during first & second year. Since then, everyone has one's own plan for holidays.
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| The lake. |
Just to share with you (again), our exam system is different than in Malaysia. The final exams are orally and there will be few spaces only for every exam dates (in which we need to fight for the dates). I personally call it "SIS war". Student A may book a date on Day 1, while Student B may have an exam on Day 3. So, basically most of us will not have exams on the same day, that's one of the reason you always see me travelling solo. Some may finish their exam earlier and they make use of the free time earlier. Some may finish exam later and only then he/she starts travelling.
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| Why road trip? Haha, the same answer. Last minute plan, travelling by car is much more cheaper. One way journey from Prague takes around 5 hours, since we started from Hradec Kralove, it will be around 7 hours. It's better compared to train / bus. Some may even take 11 hours! |
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Impromptu. We managed to secure a car just few hours before the trip. Lol. It was hard to find a 7-seaters car in Hradec Kralove. We even planned to rent 2 separate cars - but, the cost will be higher especially the petrol/diesel/parking/vignette
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It was my first time dealing with this company, actually recommended by one of my favourite senior, she even ask me to request for this specific car. And wow, we got it. The car uses diesel (much more cheaper I can say).
I wish I knew this company years before. So we could go road trip to Istanbul, Turkey and cities in Italy together, I mean the 7 of us. T_T
Kalau-kalau ni mainan syaitan, syuh syuh.
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Tadaaa, our rented car - Ssangyoung. Actually we rented this car from a company in Prague. Luckily, it is an automatic car, so, we can have many drivers! Some of us are not familiar with manual cars.
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We started our journey around 5.30am and reach Hallstatt about noon. Hallstatt is actually a small town (with many tourists) and the parking areas are not so many. We can check the availability of the parking along the road, there will be signboards with numbers of empty parking. P1, P2, P3. Oh, we need to pay for the parking as well.
The first attraction is to enjoy the view from the top of Hallstatt. There are salt mine, salt shop and skywalk. You can get up there either by this funicular OR you can hike up.
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| The funicular. |
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| Prices for funicular. It depends if you want a return ticket or one way ticket or combined ticket with entrance to salt mine. If you are a student, please make sure to bring along your student ID, the lady really check our ID. T_T |
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| View from the funicular. |
The skywalk is also known as the viewing platform - UNESCO World Heritage View. To get to the platform, you can either use stairs or simply take the lift. :)
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| View 1 |
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| View 2 |
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| The platform. |
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| Addeenians. |
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| I think I know the building before, but I forget about this. T_T |
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| There is also a salt mine on top of the hill (I am not sure if this is a mountain or a hill). The salt mine is still functioning and the income from salt production was given to the kings and emperors in Vienna for centuries. Not sure about it now. |
Salt was an important preservative. Well, nowadays we still use salt in our daily food. One thing for sure, salt is still mined in Hallstatt till now. In the picture above you can read 'Archaeology in Hallstatt', it is interesting to say that all organic objects within the mine have survived, due to preservative effects of salt.
Salt Shop
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| You can buy Hallstatt's salt here, in this shop. |
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| They make variety of salt products with other ingredients. Like salt + pepper, salt + cinnamon, salt + chili peppers etc. |
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| Salt with tomato + mozarella, salt with garlic. |
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| They sell other common souvenirs - books, keychain, fridge magnet etc. |
Done with the hill. We took the funicular to return to the base and then, we walked to Centrum (the lake basically).
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| The houses here reminded me of Bled. They look similar :) |
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| If you drive from Prague, you will reach Hallstatt once you pass this tunnel. |
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| I don't know what happen to my pictures lately. T_T |
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| Walking along the old town of Hallstatt. Trust me, many Asians as well, including us. |
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| I think I can stay in this kind of place for years. |
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| Waterfall. |
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| Strolling around the town of Hallstatt. |
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| The center, maybe? |
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| Almost night in Hallstatt. |
The sunset was around 4.30. Approaching night time, we decided to leave Hallstatt for our hotel. The hotel is about 90km away, in Rohrmoos-Untertal. We managed to get an apartment for € 72 for 6 persons. We thought we can add another person with not so much extra charge. Because this is a vacation, we hope everyone will get a good sleep with comforters for each of us. Unfortunately, this hotel didn't want to provide extra sheets and even charge us extra € 20. T_T Not to forget, € 1.50 for city tax per person.
Nasiblaa apartment dia selesa. Except, no free wifi. LOL
It's okay, disconnect to connect, right?
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| The view from the hotel. It was raining the whole day and even foggy like this. |
Some of us volunteered to prepare for breakfast and food to eat along the journey back home. There you go, egg sandwiches and fried mee.
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| I love this kind of trip where I don't have to spend lots of money in restaurants / kebab shops. |
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| Dan paling penting, makanan disediakan dengan penuh kasih sayang. HEHE |
Costs for the journey
- Car + insurance = € 259
- Vignette = CZK 275
- Parking (4hours +) = € 8
- Diesel = € 71 + CZK 1 020
- Tol (highway with so many tunnels) = € 5
- Funicular = € 14
- Food = € 27
- Hotel = € 103
Total cost per person (7 persons)
= € 70 + CZK 185
** around RM 360
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| Till next road trip with them, insyAllah. |
p/s - If you are going to Hallstatt, try to put
Dachstein in your itinerary :) I haven't been there, but seriously it looks interesting!
