Mozart and Sound of Music

I don't remember where I last left off but I will start with a significant not fun event! The night train! Now the train station in Zurich was not one I'd like to visit again at 10:30 at night. Apparently that is where the kids that like to rebel against their parents hang out. However, Switzerland is such a laid back country and it seems like the kids don't have many legal rules as far as drinking, etc. so what do they have to rebel about!!! :) Anyway, we stopped into a store to spend our last few francs and I put something cold back in a non-cold section (I know can you believe it? I should know better but I was tired!) and one of the workers started yelling at me in German. So I not on purpose had the ignorant traveler look on my face and said "English" (for some reason when you are trying to let another person know that you don't speak their language I am unable put a full sentence together). She threw her hand like 2 inches from my face and said something I am assuming was "oh forget it." Those are the stories that really make you feel stupid and wish you had learned another language so I could have at least apologized. Anyway, the actual night train was not that bad, we put on our trusty neck pillows (don't make fun of me everyone has them!!!) and I actually slept until about 4 am give or take waking up every 20 minutes! People were drinking and blasting music on the train, they would also walk by my window and see me sleeping so they would hit the window, how nice! So we arrived at Salzburg at 5 am and on the night train they don't say on the loudspeaker what stops they are at so good thing we were up!! We hung out in a place where you are supposed to hang out if the world isn't up yet and it smelled bad and was filled with a bunch of sleeping people. Fun! Had about an hour and a half there and I finally said that was enough of that. We had a mile walk to our hostel using the GPS (which has not failed us yet!) and were excited to get to our room even though we knew it was early. Typical check in times have been around noon, so we were hoping to go around abit and come back in a few hours. NO, check in was at 3 pm. Ahhh. So we locked up our luggage and started sightseeing. I LOVED Saltzburg - no one was around and I couldn't figure out how this beautiful city was so quiet! Then I realized that it was only 8 am. Hahahah. I would recommend this city for a family trip or even a romantic one, there are a few castles, tons of classical music things going on, and of course they are known for being the location of The Sound of Music filming. Yahoo! We get to our hostel and I have to say it was the WORST one we have stayed at. The guy at the desk reminded me of Lucas, if you haven't seen the movie look it up on Wikipedia. He meant well but just had no idea what was going on. For example, I was told the girls shower was on the 2nd floor (why it wasn't on our floor, I don't know) and when I can't find it I ask him. He says, well, it should be there, did you try all the doors? and doesn't seem to mind that I'm walking around aimlessly. Anyway, a good point to know is that when you go to buildings in Europe, the floor you are on is usually K, ground, who knows, and then floor above is 1, then 2, etc. Things like that make me crack up. Until I came out of the shower and realized I had to walk past a whole bunch of non-post shower people in the lobby. Our room looked like a dorm from like the 1960s (no offense parents out there), oh I'm not gonig to even bother trying to explain how not great this place was, use your imagination! But this is how I know I like the city because I'm still having a good time even though the place I'm staying in is horrible. A few highlights - Augustiner Beerhall (beer is actually made by monks) and Salzburg Music Festival (world renowned I guess, we saw a film of past festivals and a performance where people danced in traditional outfits holding candles on the Mozart Square). Great place but time to move on the next morning.

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