The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music: Salzburg

Though Salzburg,Austria is known for the movie "Sound of Music," it has so much more to offer. I had hoped to take the Sound of Music tour, but Chris and I weren't able to afford it once we found out the tour was €40 per person. At least the tour will give us an excuse to go back to this beautiful city once we have more money.

Salzburg is proud that Mozart was born in and lived in the city.

The night we got to Salzburg, we ate at a wonderful place called Ristorante Beccofino. I had lasagna and some amazing raspberry tiramisu. I can't wait until we go to Italy so I can try some tiramisu there.

My delicious raspberry tiramisu.

We woke up at 6 a.m. so that we could see as much of Salzburg as possible since we had to leave at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly foggy day so we weren't able to see much of the city. We climbed all the way to the top of Hohensalzburg Fortress, only to find out that it was closed and wouldn't open until much later in the day. I'm sure the view for the fortress is spectacular, but unfortunately, all we could see is fog.

On the way down from the fortress, we discovered the road had ice so we tried not to slip while walking downhill. It was quite the entertaining experience.

I love the green color of the Salzburg Cathedral.

Then, we had breakfast at a bakery and walked around town. The Salzburg Cathedral is beautiful and the Salzach River provides a lovely setting for the city. Did you know that Salzburg means "salt mountain" because of the large salt deposits in the area? I thought that was interesting. I also enjoyed seeing the Mirabell Palace and its gardens. I bet the gardens look absolutely beautiful in the spring and summer.

Salzburg Cathedral from the side. 

We left Salzburg too soon, and I really wish that we could have seen more of the city. It is a city that I plan to visit again as soon as I can.

The Salzach River and part of the city. I am sure it is even more beautiful without the fog.

The Mirabell Palace has a beautiful park. I bet it looks incredible when the flowers bloom.

Our trip back to Maastricht from Salzburg was difficult. Our trip was almost entirely booked with reservations so we were unable to get a seat with our Eurail pass and had to sit on the floor near the door with nine other people for three hours. It was unfortunate, but we still managed to laugh about it and have a good time.

Johnny and I sitting on the floor of the train

This week is difficult with finals and major papers due, but after it is over, we get 20 days of independent travel. We are using our independent travel to go to Spain, France and Italy.

Herzogenrath-August-Schmidt-Platz: Our Journey to Berlin.

Well, it was bound to happen. For us, it was sooner rather than later.

We got on the wrong train.

This weekend, 10 of us decided to take a trip to Berlin and Koln (Cologne). Everything went smoothly until the third train change. We had about 45 minutes to wait between trains, and our train was late.

The local train ended up coming a minute before our train so we accidentally got on the wrong train, which took us to...Herzogenrath-August-Schmidt-Platz. Jonathan knew a little German (enough to ask, do you speak English?) so we found a nice lady at the grocery store near the train station who told us the local train we got on makes a loop and would be back at the station in about 30 minutes. So we were stuck waiting for this train to loop back around in this random sketchy city in Germany. We had to call Melissa Bilbro (one of the Baylor assistants) to figure out which connections to make to get to Berlin.

Four hours later, after midnight, we made it to Berlin. We were all incredibly exhausted at this point so we went to the taxi line to get a ride to our hostel. The taxi driver told us the hostel was "200 meters to the right" so he said it would be easier to walk.

So we walked. and walked. and kept on walking. We ended up stopping at another hotel to find out where we were. We found out that the taxi driver was very wrong. The hostel was over a mile and a half away. We finally got to the hostel around one in the morning. Check in took a long time so we all passed out once we got to the room.

Berlin itself was incredibly interesting. I will write a post about everything we did in Berlin tomorrow.

Sic 'Em Berlin!

Love you all,
Olga