Salzburg, Austria

Upon arriving in Salzburg, Jaimie and I had no solid place to stay.  We had a couchsurfer arranged, and even had his address and phone number, but after not hearing back from him for confirmation in a while, we decided it was probably best not to just show up at his house.  Luckily, just in front of the train station was everybody's favorite, McDonald's, so we popped in to steal some of their free wifi.  We quickly found a great hostel and hopped on the bus to see if they would accept us at least for the night.  The hostel was very nice, more like a hotel, with a free continental breakfast and a great location, so we decided to stay all 3 nights (and we STILL haven't heard from the couchsurfer)!  We had to trek through the pouring rain to get there, but the sights we saw were so great that we said screw the rain, dropped off our bags, and went out to sight-see.  Lucky for us, the rain had stopped and the sun was even shining, however freezing it was.  We passed many churches, squares, tiny streets, beautiful statues and waterfalls, and expensive stores.  What a wealthy town!  We came across a quaint little restaurant and decided to hop in for dinner.  We ended up splitting a pork roast in a white wine sauce with a dumpling and sauerkraut, and it was more than enough for the both of us.  However, no one is ever too full when it comes to dessert, and the apple strudel was calling our names, definitely a great choice!  After dinner, we wandered a bit more until we found ourselves escaping the cold into a cozy Irish pub for a couple of half-price happy hour beers.  We came back to the hostel after realizing that there is literally no night life in Salzburg, so we sat in the common room to use the internet and happened to meet 2 guys from Toronto!  Jaimie was quite excited, as that is her home town, so we spent a while talking to them about their backpacking plans and ours, turns out they may meet us in Mykonos, Greece!  As we were all quite tired, we called it a night early, only to experience the worst night sleep ever.  A combination of bad hostel roommates and loud talkers outside the window made for a restless night.  So, we were up and out early the next day to catch the free breakfast and get on with the sightseeing!

Gotta love the train pics!

Rainy German countryside

We were caught off guard by the torrential downpour upon arriving in Salzburg, so we had to change from our sandals to sneakers, with skinny jeans!  Not attractive...

Making the most of it and showing off the snazzy kicks :)

Ready to goooo!

The rain cleared just as we left the hostel to explore, and this cute little cafe was the first sight we saw!

Edelwiess!

Repping Mozart...they are quite proud!

Salz=salt, Burg=fortress...Salzburg=salt fortress, as seen above.

quaint little restaurant where we stopped for a delicious dinner

we split the pork in a white wine sauce with a dumpling and sauerkraut...so delicious!

Sunset over the river on our walk home

Decided to pop into an Irish pub for one last drink :)

Turns out the breakfast wasn't as good as it sounds, but we forced ourselves to eat it because we knew Salzburg would be an expensive visit.  We started our day by hiking up the giant mountain right in the middle of the city.  Salzburg is quite famous for this castle, as it quite literally is the reason for their name (Salz=salt, Burg=fortress).  It was a long but beautiful hike up and around the top of the mountain, with views overlooking every angle of Salzburg.  When we finally descended around lunch time, we decided to split a pretzel and a beer that had taunted us earlier that morning, too bad it wasn't as good as it looked!  We roamed down the "main street" and saw Mozart's birthplace, which is now a Mozart Museum--damn are they proud of him!  Then we decided to relax in the sun of an outdoor cafe and enjoy a nice cold beer while people watching the oh so fashionable Austrians.  From there we headed to the river and strolled through the Mirabelle Gardens, taking in the same sights as the "Do Re Mi" scene in the Sound of Music!  After this we headed back to the hostel to relax a bit, but not before stopping for a little ice cream treat!  After a bit of relaxing, emailing, etc, we bundled up and went back out for dinner.  However, because it was a Sunday, the city was essentially shut down, so we found ourselves back in yet another Irish Pub for some good ole hearty pub grub and beer.  I have a feeling we will be hanging out in many the Irish Pub on this trip, as it is a guarantee to find English speakers there!  After much urging from the (much older) pub staff to stay and "party" with them, we decided to pass and called it a night.  When we got back to the hostel, the Sound of Music was playing in the lobby, so I just HAD to watch it to prepare me for my long-awaited Sound of Music Tour the following day!

The longgg hike up to the salt fortress!

But the view was well worth it!

Salzburg countryside

City of Salzburg

Churches everywhere

Mozart's birthplace!

Stopped for a quickie refreshment

Mirabelle Gardens

OMG Pretzels and beer!

Beautiful city by day and night

Monday we decided to forgo breakfast and sleep in because our room was finally empty.  When we did venture out, it was to buy some postcards, put them in the mail, and do a little people-watching before returning back to the hostel for the tour.  Unfortunately, Jaimie wasn't as gung-ho for the Sound of Music as I was, so she decided to  stay home and do some wandering of her own while I went on the tour.  They picked me up at the hostel and off we went!  Our tour took us by all the popular sights in the movie, as well as some additional ones.  First up was the original Von Trapp house, which was forbidden to be shown in the movie.  We weren't allowed down the street to see it, so it was just a quick glimpse as we drove by on the highway--letdown!  We then drove out to a palace that houses the famous gazebo where the "I am 16 going on 17" scene took place.  Near the palace was also the tree-lined street where Maria first exits the bus with her luggage and guitar, and where the kids are all hanging out of trees when the Captain returns home with the Baroness.  Because I was the only solo person on the tour, and apparently I "looked like Maria" that day, our tour guide had me give the example of skipping down the lane with a guitar and luggage, singing "I have confidence".  Quite humiliating, I must admit, but at least everyone else followed suit for the photo-op, so I felt a little better about myself.  From here we drove by the house that they used as the backside to the Von Trapp house in the movie, which is actually a different house than the front side!  The back side is where they push the car through the gate and the Nazis catch them, while the front side is what looks out onto the lake.  Clearly I was quite excited to see the front side, which was our next stop!  Beautiful villa, beautiful lake, ridiculous story.  Apparently after the movie was filmed there, the house was sold to Harvard University to use for their exchange program.  So they say, if you study Economics at Harvard, it is required that you spend one semester abroad, living in this house, studying at the University of Salzburg, learning German Economics, who would thought?!  Needless to say, the Austrians are quite upset about this, but mainly just because they say the Americans are stealing are their beautiful women and taking them back to the US!  We then passed the Nonneberg Abbey, which is the actual abbey where Maria was in real life, and in the movie.  Our last tour-related stop was a drive out to the beautiful lakes and mountains region of Salzburg to see the Mondsee Cathedral, where Maria and the Captains wedding was filmed!  However, on our way we were able to pass by the Red Bull Headquarters (did you know it's an Austrian Company, not American?) and we made a pitstop at a Toboggan Ride!  I thought we were just going to look, but it turns out half the people on our tour hopped in line to do it, so I followed suit without a second thought.  It wasn't until I was being dragged up a hill on a  janky piece of metal, backwards, in a skirt, that I realized maybe I shouldn't have gotten myself into this.  At that very moment, an 80 year old Granny from our tour went sailing past me on her toboggan, arms flailing, cheers echoing, and I realized it was time to man up.  Fun, but not as thrilling as I expected, as mine was a little broken and didn't go very fast.  However, I can now say I rode a toboggan!  We passed 3 lakes on our way out to the Cathedral and they were all absolutely breath-taking.  I could vacation there any day.  On our way back, the tour guide conducted a Sound of Music sing-along in the car, for which I was awarded the prize of 5 postcards for knowing ALL the lyrics!  Woooo!  Unfortunately I got them after I had sent out a bunch of postcards, so if anyone wants one, send me your address!!  After returning back to the city, I strolled through the Mirabelle Gardens one last time to take another look at the scenes from the movie before heading back to meet Jaim at the hostel.  A quick change and we were back out looking for a place for dinner.  We lucked out finding a gem of a restaurant with a nice outdoor terrace, where I tried spaetzle for the first time--yummy, but oh so cheesy!

"I have confidence in sunshine!" so embarassing.

I was supposed to be making out with my "lover" here, according to our tour guide...clearly I didn't fall for that one!

Movie Von Trapp house/now Harvard Econ house

Toboggan ride!  So scary!

Absolutely incredible views in the lakes/mountains region!

Courtesy of my new Hong Kong photographer friend!

Yes, quite corny indeed

Montsee town

Cathedral of Montsee...look familiar?  Where Maria and the Captain were married in the film!

Mirabelle Gardens again!

"Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti!"

Better picture of Salzburg Fortress

Our final dinner of speatzle and salad!

That finally brings us to today, where we woke bright and early to have some breakfast, pack, and get to the train station for an 11am train to Budapest.  Unfortunately, the train was full, so we were pushed back to the 1pm train and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours killing time on McDonald's free wifi again--winning!  We have just an hour left on this train ride before arriving in Budapest, finally!!  We are staying in a hostel tonight, and then hopefully couchsurfing the other 2 nights!  Catch ya next time when we're heading to Split--17hour train--death!