Post #5- Salzburg

On Saturday morning I made my way over to Salzburg, Austria (about a 3 hour train ride from Vienna) to meet up with Ali again. Salzburg has all of the charm of an old European city but none of the intimidation. It was very easy to explore on foot, which we did that afternoon (despite the rain) after having a very Austrian lunch of schnitzel and dumplings.

After finding the exact place where Mozart was born, we hiked up to the enormous fortress that sits atop the plateau in the middle of town and took in the stunning view, but not before getting a bit lost along the way and accidentally trespassing onto private property, possibly more than once.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at a grocery store for some bread, cheese, salami and a few apples, which was lunch and dinner for the next 2 days *sigh*.

Our hostel was SO great! Every night at 7 they show The Sound of Music (which took place in Salzburg) in one of the common areas, which we watched two nights in a row. There was also a bar there, since it's much easier to make friends after a cheap happy hour pint of the local brew, Stiegl. We met two extremely fun girls from California, Caitlin and Emma, who have been studying abroad and traveling around for months, and the next day the 4 of us took a day trip to a nearby alpine town called St Wolfgang. It was very cute and bavarian-looking, but we didn't spend a lot of time in the town because our main purpose was to find hiking trails. We spent about 5 hours trekking up and through the mountains, enjoying the views, frolicking in meadows, and singing songs from The Sound of Music because it seemed appropriate. Such a great day, and we were lucky because the weather was gorgeous.

Ali had to leave the next morning for Turin to start her Italian Job (haha). I was sad to see her go but it was so great having her with me for my first week away, and we had a lot of fun exploring Austria together. We have some potential plans to meet up a few more times too, which would be fantastic. I wasn't planning on going to Italy, mostly because I want to be able to have a lot of time there and see everything, but now that I have a friend living there for the summer, I don't think I can resist seeing at least some of it. Also if she gets some time off, she might come meet me in Croatia or Greece (or both!). I originally booked 6 days in Bratislava next week, the capital of Slovakia, but I hear that it's fairly small and 2 days is more than enough to see it all, so it looks like I have 4 days freed up in my schedule and literally a world of possibilities.

On Monday I explored more of Salzburg on my own and took tons more pictures. As I mentioned last post, a guy (around my age, maybe a few years older) approached me as I was crossing a bridge in the middle of town and asked me what part of Canada I was from, since he'd seen the Canada flag badge on my backpack. His name is Aaron, he's from Vancouver, and is also travelling on his own. We chatted for a few minutes and gave me a few tips.

A purolator package containing my computer power cord was waiting for me when I got back to the hostel at around 4, woohoo, thanks Mom and Dad! I spent a fair bit of time uploading pictures, writing emails, and realizing how much I missed regular internet access on something other than an ipod touch. I wandered into the bar later on and hung out with Ian, the bartender from California, who we'd met a few nights before. He'd been travelling around Europe and happened to land a job at the hostel in Salzburg to fund future travels. We hung out for a bit the next night too and watched a few episodes of Game of Thrones together. 

On Tuesday, I decided to bike to Germany. I had read about the German town of Berchtesgaden not too far from Salzburg, and there were buses that went out that way pretty frequently (half an hour or 45 min trip). But since I have nothing but time, I borrowed a bike from the hostel, packed a lunch, and took a leap of faith with my navigation skills.

  It was a gorgeous day and the ride took me a little over 2 hours.

The town is small and quiet but really cute, although it's actually known for having important ties to Hitler. His 'Eagle's Nest' is nearby, which was apparently used as his retreat. I wandered around the cobblestone streets snapping pictures like the annoying tourist that I am, then stopped at a bakery that had this on the outside:

...so naturally I had to go in and get a pretzel. It was delicious.

On Tuesday night the hostel bar was busy and I met a group of funny German guys who were on some sort of university trip. I wasn't really clear on what they were doing in Salzburg, but they were all studying civil engineering and taught me how to say cheers in German (Prost!) and a few other words that I already forget.

Today is Wednesday and I'm writing this on my train to Prague. Yesterday I got some exciting news from my friend Matt- he's going to be in Prague next week too! It's funny because he lives in England, I live in Canada, we haven't seen each other in about 4 or 5 years (we met in England when I was competing with the army cadet national rifle team) and we're meeting up in the Czech Republic of all places. Technically I would have been in a Czech town called Brno by the time he arrives, but since I have the luxury of being able to switch up my plans at the click of a button, I'd say an extra few days in Prague is worth the excellent company!

And Canadian flag badge gets another point-- the girl across from me on the train that I'm on right now saw it and it turns out she goes to the University of Ottawa. That's 4 people now! It's definitely coming in handy.