City Love Companions

If beer courses through your veins and you consider yodelling an actual music genre then Innsbruck is the place for you. The capital city of Tyrol (in German: Tirol) is surrounded by mountains. Makes you think “holy shit, I would not want to be here when an avalanche hits”. Tourists usually land in Innsbruck and get driven straight to a ski resort. The city is often overlooked as a destination on its own. I understand that it’s hard to beat the natural wonders of the Alps. Everyone skis here, just ask some of the older people. Turns out even the grannies venture out into the mountains three times a week. They say there are 900 villages around Innsbruck, many of them swallowed up by resorts. Naturally, it was host to the Winter Olympics. Even twice. You can even have a meal at a resta...

Turns out that Salz in Salzburg actually does stand for salt. Apparently, this tiny city in the mountains was a “White Gold” giant! That’s what they called salt back in the day. All the Pablos Saltobars that mined in the mountains had to move their product. Rock salt is an actual rock and it’s very heavy. How much can you carry over mountain ranges? They eventually realized that the river provides a more efficient means of transportation. Barges with blocks of salt had to travel through Salzburg, where they had to pay a toll. That’s where the city got its name from, also the bulk of its income. There is no shortage of mines near Salzburg, most of them open for exploration. There is evidence of Hallein Salt Mine being operational for over 7000 years. “Coarsely ground salt with y...

I remember reading how money and progress constantly started east first. At the beginning we had the ancient Asian civilizations and their science producing medicines that are still significant and widely recognized to this day. The same famous status was acquired by their art of war. The wave moved to Babylon, Egypt, Mediterranean empires, Europe and “took a ship” to the Americas, According to the theory it currently has made a stop at Silicon Valley. I suppose there’s a grain of truth in every mountain of bullshit. Take a look at Vienna; the wave of progress obviously stayed here for some time and gave birth to some forward-thinking individuals. Mozart, Schönberg, Haydn, Mahler, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms, Freud; just to mention a few. And let’s not forget Gustav Klimt. I’m act...