Salzburg Day Two // Salzach River Cruise & Mozart's Residence

After my first night in Salzburg, I was woken up at 7am by my phone making buzzing every ten seconds. I reached out to see what was going on and discovered it had completely frozen on the start screen. Panic stations! My first full day in a foreign city on my own and I was completely phoneless. It's amazing the things you learn when you're forced to stop relying on technology!

Salzburg Day Two, or
HOW I SURVIVED ABROAD WITHOUT A PHONE Thankfully I'd brought my laptop with me so I looked up the nearest Apple store. Salzburg is a small city so I was surprised and relieved to discover they had one in the Europark shopping centre on the outskirts. Technically it's not an Apple store. It's called McShark (no idea why but I love it!) but they exclusively sell Apple products and have a help desk to fix problems with them. To my relief, the guys in there were really helpful and suggested restoring the phone to factory settings. Unfortunately that would mean losing absolutely everything because I'm an idiot who doesn't back stuff up but it was either that or get a new phone altogether so it didn't make any difference. I was told to leave my phone with them for an hour so I went to a cafe and looked around the shops while I waited. Until you lose your phone, you don't realise how few clocks there are around. I wandered around and around trying to find one but no luck, so I decided to ask someone for the time... but of course I don't know how to ask that in German and didn't have my phone to look it up. Eventually I had a stroke of genius and got a receipt from the cashpoint. I know, I know. My ingenuity knows no bounds!
When I returned, they were still installing the software for my model so suggested I leave it another couple of hours. By now it was almost lunchtime so, rather than hang around Europark, I figured I'd take the bus back into the city. As I said, Europark is on the city outskirts but, as Salzburg is such a compact city, it only takes 15 minutes by bus. My Salzburg Card gave me free travel on the buses and, although I would have much preferred it if my phone hadn't conked out on me, it did give me the opportunity to really get to grips with the bus system. I never had to wait more than ten minutes for a bus to arrive and it was easy to work out where I was and how to get from A to B using the maps at each bus stop. Yep, that's another thing you take for granted with your phone- the ability to pull up a map whenever you need. I also loved seeing parts of the city that I wouldn't otherwise have visited, and was really excited to pass the Salzburg office of Rich's workplace (I'm gently but persistently trying to convince him to get a transfer).
My bus stopped near the Haus der Natur, or Natural History Museum, so I used my Salzburg Card to pop in. It was at this point I realised my mistake in first using it as soon as I arrived. Since it was valid for 72 hours from first use, I should have just explored the city the first day and then activated it first thing on my second day (well, if my phone hadn't died) to make full use of it. Lesson learned for next time!
HAUS DER NATUR
The Haus der Natur is situated at the bottom of the Mönchsberg mountain with huge signage so you can't miss it! On the first floor are the dinosaur and the aquarium displays. Each floor is quite small but there are four of them and your ticket also includes access to the attached science museum. As well as all the usual stuffed animals and display cases of rocks, there was an awesome interactive space room. I loved standing on the specially modified scales to find out what my weight would be on each planet. There were also two rooms dedicated to sexual health and reproduction, with exhibits related to different methods of contraception, protection and the sex industry. I thought that was absolutely fantastic, especially since there were families with young children openly discussing what they were looking at. Apart from the interactive exhibit that asked you to vote on the most attractive lingerie-clad woman (eesh!), it was eye-opening to see such a healthy attitude to sex and definitely something we need over here. As I needed to get back to my phone, I didn't have time to check out the science museum as well so it's something for me to try next time.
To my great relief, when I returned to McShark, my phone was fully restored. Yes, I'd lost everything on there but at least I only had one day of photos on my camera roll! I sat in McDonald's for a while using the wifi to reinstall my apps but when after 90 minutes, WhatsApp was only half done, I decided I couldn't waste any more of my holiday on this stupid phone so travelled back to the city. Memo to self: Take an extra phone next time, just in case!
The first thing I did when I returned was visit my favourite place to eat in Salzburg, Burgerista. It's funny because Salzburg is a city of such refined, sophisticated dining but I will always go straight for the burger joint! It may not be the fanciest place in town but I swear these are the best burgers in the world! I was very proud of myself because I managed to muddle through a conversation entirely in German. I asked for no tomatoes but wasn't entirely sure if I'd said it correctly. While I was waiting for my burger, I started to wonder if I'd accidentally asked for extra tomatoes. Pretty sure it was the proudest moment of my life when I sat down with my burger, took the bun off and discovered it was gloriously tomato-free! 
SALZACH CRUISE
Burgerista is located at the edge of the river, and right near the boarding point for the Salzach river cruise. I had a vague notion that my Salzburg Card would allow me to experience a cruise so asked at the ticket booth. It did and, as I was alone, I was able to sneak onto the boat that was boarding that very second. There was a sign up indicating that the cruises were booked up for the next couple of hours but they just had one seat left on the one about to leave. Handy! The downside of this was that I was the last person to board and didn't get the best seat but as you're allowed to stand up and walk to the front to take photos during the cruise, it didn't really matter. 
The weather was glorious so it was the perfect day for a trip along the river. Although there was a pre-recorded track giving information in both German and English, the two members of staff contributed with their own anecdotes and fun titbits. After sailing up the river for half an hour, we turned the boat around and returned. Since the river is so shallow and because people fish on the rocks right on the shoreline, the boat needs to travel slowly and we didn't go far. Once we leave the main city area, there's also not a lot to see along the river. Despite that, there's nothing more idyllic than bobbing along this beautiful river surrounded by mountains and I absolutely loved it. It's definitely something I would recommend to anybody visiting.
MOZART WOHNHAUS
After disembarking, I had about an hour until most of the museums would close and, since Mozart's residence was just over the bridge, I headed over. There are two Mozart museums in Salzburg, one either side of the river- Wohnaus, or residence, and Gerburtshaus, or birth house. When I entered, I was asked my language and given an audio guide which is included with entry. The audio guide had a lot of information on the exhibits and included a short piece of Mozart's music at the end of each segment which was a nice touch. It was a very hot day and as the house is obviously very old (well, most of it. Like the cathedral, it was damaged in an air raid but was restored beautifully), the heat had the potential to be stifling. Thankfully there were several fans dotted around and lots of places to sit down and cool down. 
Amongst the exhibits are the likes of Mozart's childhood violin and instrument, which was fascinating. The museum is small (you know, being an actual house and all...) so it doesn't take long to see everything. I can imagine it would get quite crowded during the day but as I went in the evening, there were only a few other visitors with me. 
When I left the museum, it was around closing time for most attractions, so I took a slow stroll back up to the hotel through the Mirabell Gardens, stopping off at a cafe for a drink on my route. Despite the shaky start, it was a wonderful day and I was amazed by how much I managed to squeeze into one afternoon! Just think what I could have achieved if I had had the foresight to take an extra phone, eh?
I was very kindly provided with a Salzburg Card but all opinions are my own
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