Hallstatt - The story of 4 night trains

Hallstatt, located the bank of a lake in Austrian Alps, has a stunning natural setting. It is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Austria, I have heard a rumor that the village is so beautiful that it has been copied exactly as an ugly version in Guangdong, China.

It seems like Chinese people can copy everything from smartphone, KFC, clothes to a village. I could not believe but it is the truth. 

In addition to the above mentioned reasons, I decided to visit Hallstatt for its uniqueness – hiding in aged old forest, which has the typical alpine climate/ temperate climate that I have longed to visit. 

Besides, through a Vietnamese TV show called Victory over Fascism: The heroic years 2016, I knew the village and put it in my travel bucket list.

On the way from Vienna to Hallstatt normally people would stop at Salzburg, but as staying Salzburg is quite expensive (28eu per night), I decided to skip Salzburg and took four night changes train to Hallstatt from Vienna.

The train is approaching final stop: Hallstatt (youtube link)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0trY0pzp37U

It was a cold night in Austria (minus 5 degrees Celsius) , I now think that only crazy men would make that kind of trip - overnight, cold, lonely and unslept. Funny enough I met two other crazy men from Azerbaijan, they were good company on m weird journey.

The view of Hallstatt from my boat. I took the first boat ride to Hallstatt and left in the last ride of the day.

Hallstatt in early morning, soon when the sun comes up, the village would be illuminated, gorgeous as a princess in cold forest.

In Hallstatt there are many nice sites suitable for day trip.

Below is the perfect location from which you can capture the panaromic view of Hallstatt,I had to wait for a while to get some satisfactory landscape shots. The locatinon was full of “photographers”  who were carrying various types of cameras.

In Hallstatt I had met another friend, Nghia, we knew each other through an wildlife volunteer program when we was still in Vietnam . He has traveled all the way from Ireland to visit Austria. 

We climbed to the top of Salt Mountain in Hallstatt, (deep in the mountain there is a large salt mine,I have read that it was the oldest salt mine  in the world; salt was mined here over 4000 years ago) The mountain is nearly 2800 meters high and the peak is snow-covered all year round.

Until late we started to get off the mountain. I managed to shoot the sunset in Hallstatt before hurrying to leave the village in the last boat ride.

Sunset in Hallstatt, in order to take this picture, we have to climb over the fence of a private house just to get down to the small docks by the lake. From this location, I have taken this photo. :D Quite nice! 

Luckily we we didn’t get caught!  The trip to the petit village was precious, perhaps not only because of breathtaking landscape, but also of my attempt to catch 4 night trains, which has made the experience in Hallstatt unforgettable. 

If I have a chance to visit Austria again, I will definitely go for Hallstatt.

Maybe it will be in autumn ;) I wonder if then I will catch 4 night trains again.

My answer is :

Obviously, yes!

Photo gallery