The hills are alive....

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Hi everyone,

how long has it been since the last time I wrote? Probably not long enough for some of you 😊

I'm coming into the final furlongs of my journey now and the finish line is rushing towards me at a ferocious pace, but that's cool...

After Heidelberg, I've made my way into Austria, not Australia (you'll be surprised the number of times I've had to clarify this since I've been on the road).

My first stop was Salzburg, which is a beautiful and lovely city by all accounts, with numerous ye olde buildings and an imposing castle sitting on a nearby peak that overlooks the entire city.

You can tell summer is definitely in full swing as the number of tourists is immense, with many many dollars to burn at all the boutique shops that are nestled in the little laneways and corridors.

Sadly this isn't really my style so I headed out to a nearby town where Europe's largest ice cave resides (the absurdity of visiting an ice cave in summer only occurred to me while I was freezing my butt off in it).

After a short train ride and bus to the entrance, a cable car awaited to take us to the ice cave. However, you still couldn't escape the lines even out in the forests and a long line was awaiting us at the cable car station. Since the line was so long, Tristen (the guy I was travelling with) suggested we just climb the mountain instead.
'Why not?' I say in the devil-may-care attitude I've kind of developed these past few months.
An hour and a half later, and at 1600 metres above sea level, we finally get to the entrance of the ice cave. I may grumble, but it was really good, although at times it rained, and the wind sent chills through your bones, and the track in some sections was barely a foot wide at times (no seriously, it was fun!). And though a fall wouldn't have killed you, I'm not sure how much skin you'd retain after tumbling down a few hundred metres of shingles. And as true blue Aussie country music legend John Williams sings:
skin, skin,
everybody needs skin,
everybody needs skin,
to keep their insides in....but I digress.

The ice cave was really beautiful, but it was 0 degrees celsius inside (around 40 farenheit) and my converse all-stars were not quite up to the challenge, but the experience of it overcame any temporary chills I had.

And what visit to Salzburg would be complete without a sound of music tour?
(Up in the hills there was a goat herder lay-oh-lay-oh-lay-hee-hoo...)
I will go on record saying this was far and away the corniest, most insincere, uncomfortable guided tour I have ever been on. You only got to see the sights but none of us had enough time to re-enact any scenes from the film (no jumping from bench to bench in the glass house, no riding down the treelined lanes, no juggling fruit, no nothing...). But, the one saving grace of this tour is the sheer number of nice, wholesome single ladies that would go on a tour like this which did make it somewhat more palatable (but not much).

After Salzburg, a quick visit to Vienna to see the sights from 'Before Sunrise'. Vienna is a beautiful city, and from what I can tell has far and away the highest concentration of churches in a city centre I have come across. And after 3 months on the road, sadly the only reaction I have nowadays is:
oh...another church.
Don't get me wrong, they're still beautiful, they're just far too plentiful to be special anymore.
I did meet someone French whilst I was in Vienna, but it happened to be a male, and we did not make plans to meet again in Vienna in 6 months (sorry, it's a film reference for those who have seen before sunrise or before sunset).

Anyway, this rushed email must end, there's a long queue for the pc, and they are getting restless.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
the line, is long, and i must say goodbye....

lots of love,
Ben

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