Salzburg, Austria

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Salzburg was absolutely beautiful- think Tahoe meets Marin then double it. We felt pretty satisfied with the one whole day that we spent out there. The train ride on Friday was just incredible with views of the Alps, mountains, and steep cliffs all around us as we moved along a lush green valley with rolling hills, farms, small towns, and vineyards. Painting a picture yet? Saturday morning started out with a couple tasty doughnuts to prep us for a steep hike up Mount Kapuzinerburg, which had a trail that conveniently began a hundred feet or so from our hostel. Speaking of that, we had a room with 9 beds which was an interesting experience. It was cool except for the latecomer that turned on all the lights at 1:00 then 3:00 while 8 other people were asleep then when he did go to bed, we all had to suffer through his horrible sleep apnea and unreal godawful snoring and choking. Thankfully he wasn't there the second night. Back to Mount Kapuzinerburgaufwiedersehengutentagschpeckensiedeusch. Grueling hike up seemingly endless stairs...again, but again, with unreal views. Over an hour later we reached the top and took more pictures so that this story will be easier to tell, see pics 😉
We made lunch in the hostel's awesome kitchen with ingredients we got from the store in attempt to replicate burritos. We were close: tortillas, avocado, salsa, Swiss cheese, and kidney beans. After this almost Mexican meal, we rented bikes just in time for one hell of a thunderstorm. Luckily the absolute downpour occurred while we were in the train station checking times for Vienna. After seeing some killer lightning bolts and hunkering down in a cafe, the sun broke out in full force, drying the streets and exposing the wonderful views of the river, mountains, buildings, and a castle. We rode all of their downtown/city center then way up then back down the river. The designated bike lanes were very nice too. Not to mention Austria has way better and friendlier drivers than Italy! On the way back home we found a beautiful park with a unique rose garden that snaked its way across the grass and around fountains, a tunnel made of thin branches or vines, playground, and a really cool tall shrub maze! That night we took the bikes out after hanging out in our common area and bar with our roomie from Australia and a guy from LA at our hostel. Like every other city we've seen so far, the night has a whole new scenery and energy. Along the river were clubs, bars, and an Irish pub that all had either live music or varying DJs and party animals everywhere. The interesting and unique part of these places was that they were in cavern like places that were all side by side and either resembled a dungeon or a stone cave. We got to experience five or so of these places before deciding it was probably time to return our bikes since the half-day rental started at 1pm (now 1am). Salzburg was a wonderfully clean, scenic, and courteous city but once again, time to move on.

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