New Years Eve in Salzburg December 31st 2025

We celebrated 2 New Years this year. Our Australian New Years at 2pm and Austrian New Years at midnight. Salzburg held a special screening in Alstadt of the Sydney Fireworks and there was quite a turn out to watch it. We had a front row birds eye view and it was so surreal watching the fireworks in Australia our time in Salzburg at 2pm. It was so nice to know the family would be celebrating at that time and watching the fireworks too After the showing of the fireworks there was a display of whip cracking from both male children and male adults dressed traditionally and wielding and cracking whips in unison.

We then met up with Daniel’s friend Yali and his mum Bianca and brother Liam to wander around and spend New Years with. We walked through St Peters Cemetery and had a great vantage spot for the smoke fireworks that were vibrant pinks, blues, greens and yellows. Then there was the shooting of the cannons from the castle walls.

We went for a walk through the Christmas markets and enjoyed some hot chocolates and chai’s but then our lips were blue and we were ready to warm up so headed to Biancas house for dinner. They had never tried pavlova before so I had all the ingredients with me to make this for desert and Bianca was cooking salmon and chicken for our mains.

Dinner was delicious, I loved the way she cooked the salmon in the oven with just butter, garlic, rosemary, thyme and tomatoes. The kids only ate the chicken so more salmon for the adults. Actually Ben and I hadn’t had fresh seafood since leaving Australia so it was really good.

We then all bonded over whipping eggs, and cream and chopping up the fruit for the pavlova. It’s always hit and miss how cooking in someone else’s kitchen would go but the Pav turned out crunchy on the outside and a little bit chewy and fluffy and light on the inside, which is just the way I like it. It was enjoyed by all and they said they will make it again for sure.

We had quite a few games of Pictionary on the whiteboard and then had to leave around 10pm as I was due to start work at 11pm - yes I was working Australia time (9am on New Years Day). I didn’t realise this when I volunteered to work on Australia New Years Day that it would be 11pm-5am Austria time.

Jessy and Ben went to see the fireworks display from the Castle and Daniel stayed at Yali’s for a sleep over so I was ready to toast to myself with my cup of tea at midnight but then the sounds erupted all around me of fireworks going off and when I went to my back door there were at least 6 different displays of fireworks going off. Because fireworks are legal over here everyone was lighting them and they were so pretty and they went for at least 30 minutes so I watched them while helping guests with check ins and fixing plumbing issues at properties lol. By the time my shift finished I was exhausted and fell into bed but overall I had a really amazing New Years x 2.