Alps, Adventures, and Awe: A Chat with Romana Pt. 1
Get ready to pack your bags and hit the road, because we’re diving into some epic travel tales with Romana Hasenöhrl! This week, Romana shares her adventures from Salzburg, Austria, and spills the beans on her globetrotting escapades that began way back in the '80s. We chat about everything from her first wild night in New York City to the stunning beauty of the Alps. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to chase freedom with a backpack and a dream, you’re in for a treat. So grab your headphones and let’s embark on this travel journey together, because it’s time to explore!
Buckle up, folks! We're diving headfirst into a whirlwind of travel tales with the fabulous Romana Hasenöhrl. This episode is like a cozy chat over coffee where we unfold the magic of traveling from the quaint streets of Salzburg to the bustling vibes of New York City. Romana, a true globe-trotter, shares her adventures starting from the moment she caught the travel bug at the tender age of 13. She recounts her cheeky escapades as a backpacking teen in the '80s, navigating a whole new world with just a guidebook and a sprinkle of youthful bravado.
From getting lost in the Big Apple to the breathtaking beauty of the Alps, we explore how Romana’s home base in Austria isn't just a location but a gateway to endless adventures. Picture this: you can hop over the Alps and find yourself in Italy in just two hours. Yep, that’s the dream! We also chat about the changing seasons in Austria—think cozy winters and sun-kissed summers—giving you the perfect excuse to pack your bags and book that ticket.
Romana's laughter is infectious as she shares stories of her travels, sprinkled with a bit of wisdom on how to embrace the unknown. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just dreaming of your next escape, this episode is filled with inspiration, fun anecdotes, and a reminder that life is too short for dull moments! Get ready to feel the travel itch!
Transcript
Pack your bags, let's take a ride. 5 minutes fly and we'll explore the wide with Forrest Kelly, it's travel time. It's The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.
Romana Hasenöhrl:I'm Romana Hasn't, AKA Romanorox. I'm a long term traveler, an astrologer, a writer, written and published 10 books up to now and I'm a very happy person.
Forrest Kelly:How many languages do you speak fluently?
Romana Hasenöhrl:Just two, I mean three of them. German, Austrian and English. Then bits and pieces of Spanish and Italian and a little bit of French.
Forrest Kelly:Your native language is German?
Romana Hasenöhrl:Yeah, I always call it Austrian because it's so different to the German language. So. But we write German. Yeah.
Forrest Kelly:Okay. And then your location, your. Do you have a home base?
Romana Hasenöhrl:Yes, my home base is Salzburg, Austria. This is where the famous Sound of Music movie was done.
Forrest Kelly:Wow. What's the climate and the, the weather like that you're dealing with in Austria when you. I live in the United States here in Southern California.
So we've got deserts, flat territory, and then we've also got very large mountains and things. What are we looking at when we.
Romana Hasenöhrl:When we visit Austria, when you visit Salzburg and Tyrolia, where I have my second home base, I'm a very lucky person. That's in the middle of the the Alps. The Alps, large mountain range in Europe which divide the north from the south.
So if you cross the Alps you are in Italy, which is lovely. So it's just two hours from where I live. And then you are in Italy. And so the climate is. We have medium summers with temperatures.
We do in, in celsius, right between 25, 35 Celsius. I don't know what that in Fahrenheit is.
And we have winters with sometimes loads of snow, sometimes not very much snow, but temperatures down to minus 15. So at the moment spring is just at the front door and we have like 8 degrees, 10 degrees and that's lovely after that winter.
Forrest Kelly:So to jump into your, to your background, I see that from your website that you started kind of at 13, you got the itch or the, the whatever it is to go to travel because you said you're a free person. So that probably exploited your freeness somewhere inside you.
And then at 17 you saved up a big chunk of money to come to the United States and backpack. How did that go? Take us through that journey?
Romana Hasenöhrl: Yeah, I mean that was in:So all we did is I did that trip with a friend of mine, my best friend.
So we finished school and we grabbed our backpacks and we just had a flight from Luxembourg to New York and then a travel round ticket with Northwest Orient. I guess that company doesn't exist anymore. But that was great because that cost you only 400 doll and you could fly from to wherever they had a base.
And we did that a lot in the four weeks. So we just had one night in New York. We got out of the airport, had no clue at all. And luckily an elderly man, he just felt sorry for us.
We were so lost in that large city. He like organized a hotel for us in a nice part of New York and he explained that we should be careful. This is a large city, it might be dangerous.
We were just two chicks from Austria, had no clue at all.
Forrest Kelly:So you didn't do a whole lot of research then. You just.
Romana Hasenöhrl:Yeah, these were the 80s. How could you do research? You have like, you had like a small booklet with travel the US for.
Forrest Kelly:20 bucks day, the photo's guide and here we go. You did more research on buying the plane ticket than you did actually what you were going to do. So you spent a night in New York.
How did that first night go for me?
Romana Hasenöhrl:It was, it was amazing. I've never been in, in a. In a large city before. So Salzburg has about 150,000 people living here, right? That's a small town for us. Yeah. Of course.
We visited the lady on the rock. How do we call it? Lady Liberty, that's how we call her. And all those large buildings.
We were just, I remember we were just walking down the streets like overwhelmed. I loved it. And I visited New York four times because I like it so much.
Forrest Kelly:We've touched down and landed. The episode's done with five quick minutes. Travel and fun.
Romana Hasenöhrl:This is your captain speaking. We have cut you down. That completes this episode.
Forrest Kelly:Join Forrest Kelly for the next big show, The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.
