January has always been one of my favourite months, mainly because it was all about mountains and skiing. I still like it the same, but unfortunately winter fun has been replaced by school ones. This year, too, I had to exchange skiing for browsing, but I still managed to enjoy the mountains at least a little during the weekend trip to Salzburg.

Between writing the diploma, finishing the exams and everything else, an offer from a classmate who is in Salzburg on Erasmus was literally a release from the boring reality. And since all of us in the group (just like almost every student) are lovers of low-cost travel, all we had to do was get a car, sleeping bags and we set off. Four hours of travel and suddenly we were in another world. There were mountains everywhere, sometimes there was a lake and a straight highway, in a nutshell, the promised land. After being greeted by Roman, who was waiting for us in Salzburg, we had a moment to marvel at the Austrian student dormitories and immediately set off on our first scouting mission to Gaisberg, a hill above Salzburg overlooking the city. There was no time to waste precious minutes, so we set our next destination – Fuschlsee and Wolfgangsee. Roman, who had already gotten used to the beauty of the Austrian nature during the semester, was not too impressed, but our mouths fell open with every lake, view or hill.

As good student-travellers, we evaluated that it would be ideal to save on dinner and not go to a restaurant. The saved money can then be invested in an evening exploration of Salzburg, i.e. in beer. The more fragile part of our team cooked a cauldron of pasta with tomato sauce, which the girls perfected during their student years. Even Roman's Italian roommate dedicated it to us, so that really means something! Then we had a walk through Salzburg in the evening, and at the end of it, our guide took us to a monastery, which scared us a little. Fortunately, it turned out that there is a pub on the premises of the monastery, where other Erasmians were waiting for us. We took a few tumblers, practiced our English and together with the British part of our group drank the just signed Brexit.

The next day, the famous Hallstatt awaited us. We expected a lot and the expectation was fulfilled. A small village by a beautiful lake between high mountains, where I believe the largest concentration of Asian tourists in the world. If you ever drive around, don't miss Hallstatt, because the pretty streets, cute houses or just staring at the lake will just get you. Rainy Sunday, the last day, was marked by discovering historic Salzburg and finding out what all can be named after Mozart in one city. Of course, Salzburg isn't all beer and Mozart, there's plenty to do. We managed to walk through the historic centre, the cathedral, climb the castle, catacombs and walk the footpaths around Salzburg. If you had more time than we did and didn't know where to go, Tomáš's article will definitely help you.

The three days away from the reality of Brno were great, and if I can give you one friendly piece of advice, I will say: "Visit your friends on Erasmus!"