Forgive the temporary release of the standard editorial “we” in the following post.

My final day as editor of the EuroCheapo Blog is today. I have loved editing (and writing for) this blog, scouring sources obscure and mainstream alike for budget-friendly travel tidbits. For those who have started reading the blog only recently, we have run an in-house endeavor with occasional guest posts since the summer; prior to that, the blog collected the musings and tips of a stable of amazing correspondents across Europe. I can say without a shred of hyperbole that editing their writing was one of the best professional experiences of my life.

I will miss editing the blog, though knowing that it will continue to thrive and excite travel budgeteers of all persuasions makes leavetaking easier. I’ll continue to be a part of the wider EuroCheapo sphere, and hope to be posting occasionally.

Please check out my unaffiliated, newish travel blog, Spendthrift Shoestring.

Photo by heavyweight 78704

Last week we attended a “celebration of travel” party thrown by DK Eyewitness Travel and Rough Guides at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts in the Lower Eastside. Those folks really know how to throw a party. The space itself took our breath away. Once a synagogue, the now hollowed out space used for events retains that ethereal quality of worship, not to mention sky-high vaulted ceilings and ornate stone decor that took our breath away.

The wine flowed freely, the world music played softly in the background, but our favorite part was the delicious world hors d’oeuvres (think fried balls of risotto with bleu cheese, sweet potato fries, and mini-sausages wrapped in prosciutto and you’ve only just begun) passed by equally yummy waiters.

But enough of that. The party was a celebration of 25 years of rough guides, and what a celebration it was. Tables were decorated with giant glossy book covers on stands, and on each table were strewn an array of “Make the most of your time on Earth” cards, designed to look like polaroid pictures, each describing a different “Ultimate Experience.” We took a couple home, and were hopeful to take home a gift bag which was said to contain a Rough Guides world music CD, but we never came across the bags. (To be honest, we would have been just as happy to take home the waiters, but, alas, they eluded us as well.)

As for Rough Guides, we salute their 25 years, and look forward to many more of great guide books.

Mozartkugeln boxes are stacked in pyramid form in countless Salzburg shop windows, bearing the sweet beponytailed face of W.A. himself.

Salzburg confectioner Paul Fürst dreamed up the chocolate-nougat-marzipan balls to sell in his shop back in 1890. He named them Original Salzburger Mozartkugeln after the city’s famous son. Much to Fürst’s dismay, other manufacturers began to cash in on the success of the chocolates. Nowadays visitors can choose from a whole slew of different-sized boxes. Some are even shaped like the little violins.

Intrigued by all this fuss, we ventured into a branch of the shop where it allegedly all began—Konditerei Fürst.

Our verdict? Tasty, but a little too soft in the center. The marzipan component is fundamental to the kugel. If you like marzipan, hop on board; if not, you’ll probably want to pass.

While marketed proudly as Salzburg’s hometown chocolate, it’s not hard to find Mozartkugeln outside of the city, or even beyond Austria’s borders. We spotted them among the clog keychains, pot-leaf visors, and stroopwafel canisters at Amsterdam Schiphol airport! We’ve even spotted them on a shelf crowded with Ukrainian jams in Brighton Beach!

Mozartkugeln, you’ve done your hometown proud.

Photograph by Miranda Siegel

We don’t want to give Salzburg a bad rap, and we especially don’t want to give Salzburg’s incredible bakeries a bad rap, but we couldn’t help cringing after discovering the above-pictured cupcakes in a cafe display case in Mozart’s hometown.

The display case started out cute. Men in top hats formed with cones, soldiers and clowns comprised the majority of the cupcakes’ characters. While our first instinct when glancing at their smiling faces was “awwwww,” it wasn’t long before we felt pits in our stomachs.

We wonder if images like these are seen as overtly racist; it’s unclear whether this type of imagery is considered unhealthy or offensive in Austrian culture.

Still…Salzburg! The last place we want to see signs of potential racial ignorance is in our treasured baked goods.

photograph courtesy of currybet

Our ongoing quest for a “scene” in touristy Salzburg brought us to a music venue in residential Schallmoos, just north of Kapuzinerberg: Rockhouse.

At first we were dorked out by the name: Rockhouse? Is Salzburg ironic enough for a name like this to work? Surely the name was meant literally. Was this going to be charming or embarrassing?

But we were the ones charmed when we arrived at Rockhouse, for we realized it was carved out of none other than ROCK—the rock of the Kapuzinerberg, to be precise. Giant wire-covered rocks adorned the lawn out front, while the entrance gave way to a cavernous space defined by its craggy walls. Kids festooned with punk studs slouched around tables drinking beer. On the mainstage, a local band was covering System of a Down’s “We’re on Drugs” to a crowd squealing “Innsbruck! Innsbruck!” Guess someone was from Innsbruck.

On the other side of the entrance, techno throbbed in a torpedo-shaped bar crowded with an artsier set.

ARGEKultur this was not—and without a restaurant serving Knödel, it never could be—but at least we’d found another spot where the Salzburg scene lives. Rock out.

Editor’s note: Check out Miranda’s previous post on the rock scene in Salzburg.

photograph courtesy of jonnnnn

Most major European tourist destinations want so badly for you to shop at their luxury stores that they even publish little ritzy “how-to” pamphlets, as though you need help figuring out how to use your credit card.

But all good Cheapos know that it’s the fleamarkets, not Louis Vuitton, that deserve our hard-earned euros. Not only are fleamarkets cheap, they’re a great way to connect with a city. Which material possessions inhabitants choose to own (and give away) is also quite revealing.

In an effort to supplement our touristy experience of Salzburg, we made the journey to a fleamarket—or Flohmarkt, in German—in Kleingmeinerhof, a suburb southeast of the city center. It took some planning to get out there. The signs advertising the fleamarket weren’t in English and we weren’t exactly sure where we were going.

But Mensch, was it worth it! The small wooden pavilion housing the Flohmarkt was packed with so much bric-a-brac that not even your devoted fleamarket-crazed editor had the energy to pick through everything. Genuine Lederhosen! Austrian Kinder board games! An ominous photo of grinning woman and baby dated 29.6.1961! Handmade leather sandals! A ratty backpack shaped like an owl!

Topping it all off, a 1960s German pop soundtrack in the background—Heino: is it you?!—and home-baked cream cakes rounded out the experience.

 
photograph courtesy of violinsoldier

You shouldn’t visit Salzburg without paying homage to Mozart, one of the figures responsible for making the city so attractive to tourists in the first place. What better way to pay homage than to stomp around Mozart’s house of birth, or Geburtshaus, the place where the child genius uttered his first gurgle?

But, for the love of God, what is up with the postmodern museum devoted to the man?

Okay, the little violin from Mozart’s childhood sure is cute, but what can explain the stuffed bunny inexplicably surrounded by a clear cube of psychedelic floral wrapping paper? And then there’s that Mozart doll reclining in that bed, as the literature puts it, “suspended between birth and death, youth and old age.” Say what, Geburtshaus?

It’s jarring to place Mozart in a postmodern context; while this may be the point of the museum, it left us feeling freaked out.

On the home front, the entire EuroCheapo office has been delighted by the (relatively) recent arrival of Aroma Cafe, an Israeli coffee chain, in our immediate neighborhood. The cafe’s SoHo shop is the first to open outside Israel.

The strength of Israeli cafe chains is old hat at this point. The coffee is good and strong, the commas in place of periods to designate decimal points on the menu board allow us to pretend that we’re traveling abroad, and the staff is equal parts friendly and sophisticated.

We also like Aroma’s solid “power breakfast,” which fills us happily and completely. Aroma’s pastries are great, too. Never too sweet, they perfectly hit the spot on both sides of noon.

Wallpaper* magazine ran an article last April about Israeli coffee shops eyeing international expansion. Aroma really does validate the hype.

photograph courtesy of Peter Meyers

We’ll admit it, we’re foodies. We love delicacies of all sorts—be they mass-produced or true gourmand-level foodstuffs.  Whether it’s oddball licorice from Sweden, boxes of Finnish chocolates full of mysterious and quasi-toxic liqueurs, or staffer Laura’s butterscotch cookies, you’ll always find us snacking on something at 611 Broadway. 

But even we weren’t prepared for our meal at Café de Turin in Nice this past summer, where we dined on shrimp the size of a baby’s arm. And a smiling, drooling, chubby baby at that. 

Café de Turin is a required stop for any self-respecting seafooder. Crates are stacked on the sidewalk full of the day’s recent catch of oysters, shrimp (sorry, prawns), langoustines, and mussels. The owners are cheerful, the wine is cheap, and the air-conditioning is non-existent, and the atmosphere is perfect. To say we like Café de Turin is to paint a faded picture. We love the place!

photograph courtesy of falldownstumble

Break out your old travel journal and get ready to school a new generation of budget travelers. Eurocheapo’s dreadlock-sporting, rucksack-toting, acoustic guitar-playing sibling EuropeanHostels.com is scheduled for relaunch.

But don’t go calling EuropeanHostels the kid sister of the Over There Interactive family. Editor Tom Meyers cut his teeth on EH 7 years ago while living in Berlin, back when Eurocheapo was just a zygote of an idea. Now, both editorial staffs reside in the same office, fighting for turf in a manner akin to a West Side Story showdown.

Step off my train schedule, fool. 5-6-7-8…Nah, not really.

Expect a vastly improved EuropeanHostels this coming spring: expanded listings, increased functionality, and new features like user reviews and discussion forums.

You’ll come for the comprehensive cheap sleep listings but you’ll end up staying for the shoestring fiesta. Or else.