Blogs from Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria, Europe - page 43

Fugen and Salzburg Just photos for now. Will provide some description of the events later. ... read more

I got into Salzburg a bit before noon. I bought the Salzburg Card which gives you entrance to all the sites and public transportation. I found the bus number the hostel gave and jumped on. A nice Austrian lady asked where I was going and then told me she'd let me know which stop to get off at. The hosel was a short walk from there. The Youth and Family Guest Hostel is huge - I think it used to be a dorm. I paid and stored my luggage and went ahead and got a 6 euro lunch. Not bad for a chicken rice thing, fruit salad, noodle soup, and a green salad with tomatoes. Then I headed out to find the ticket office for the Salzburg Jazz Herbst. They were sold out of the 7 ... read more

I've come to a realization: German is a difficult language to "fake" your way through. It's supposed to be the language closest to English and all, but really, it's just hard. Thankfully, my sister knows just enough German to be able to kind of tell me how to get to where she is by following signs (although Amy ;-), I still hold tight to the belief that had you said Hauptbahnhof instead of Hauptbahnplatz or Hauptbahnstrasse, I would have had an easier time.) But all in all, we did well. We got all the right train tickets and didn't have to pay any fines for having the wrong ticket or anything. Thank goodness. I got to Linz late Friday afternoon and then Amy took me to a farmhouse restaurant to have wienerschnitzel. It was quite literally ... read more

I have now learned the full and true meaning of the phrase "cold sweat." On my last day in Salzburg I traveled to Werfen (Verfen) to see the largest "accessible" ice caves in the world. When they said accessible they didn't specify that this was no easy task. It being the beginning of autumn the caves closed early each day because it got darker and the caves were warmer than usual. I got there an hour before they closed and had to argue with the man who drove the bus (btw: he spoke no English (great for him, bad for me)) I then watched with amusement as two men from Delhi argued the same point using sweeping hand gestures and loud volumes. The Indians won and the three of us were taken up the mountain to ... read more

With the sound of Rachel and me! Laughing, that is - we had such a great reunion. She met me at the train station and we trolled around Old Salzburg in the rain, eating and having coffee and talking a mile a minute. Zipping through the Austrian countryside via train was beautiful. There were low-hanging clouds and forests that are the stuff of fairytales. Coming into Salzburg I caught a glimspe of the mountains - Rach's "alpity alps" - real mountains, jagged and snow-capped and ancient-looking in the cloudy dusk. On Friday Rachel had class, so I explored the old city on my own, enjoying the beautiful (baroque) churches, squares and elaborate fountains. I particularly enjoyed the water spouting from the statue-horses' noses, with the clipclop of horse feet from the real horses, drawing carriages right ... read more