As I'm writing this, I'm sitting on a train at the Salzburg train station. We're scheduled to depart for Munchen, Germany in several minutes. We don't have internet access on the train, so I'm typing this post in a word document and then I'll post it later tonight when we hopefully have wi-fi at the hostel in Munchen.
Last night we had very spotty wi-fi at the St. Sebastian hostel in Salzburg, so I wasn't able to post there. I'll have to make up for lost time and fill you all in on our adventures from yesterday (Thursday) and today.
When we woke up on Thursday morning we were at the Wombats hostel in Vienna. Wombats is fairly similar to a cheap hotel, with a lobby complete with wi-fi, a small bar off of the lobby and decent sized rooms. The main differences are the 20 euro/night price and the fact that they put 4 people to a room. Grant, Phil, and I had a roommate named Bruce from San Diego. He was traveling through Europe after his mother died and left him with a large sum of money.
We woke up for breakfast at Wombats at 7:30 in the morning. They had a simple spread of breads, jams, meats, cheeses and fruit juice. After breakfast we checked out of the hostel and stored our backpacks in the off-lobby storage area. Then, we headed out into the Vienna morning to catch the bus line to the Schonbrunn palace!
The Schonbrunn palace was home to the Habsburg dynasty from the 18th century until the end of the empire in 1918 (one of the conditions of Austria-Hungary's World War I surrender). This gigantic palace contains several thousand rooms and looms larger than life on the Austrian landscape.
We arrived soon after it opened for tourists at 8:30 and immediately began our tour. They provided you with a small handheld recording device that walks you through the history and significance of each room as you moved through the palace. The sheer amount of information that was at our disposal in each room, wing and hallway of this magnificent structure was unbelievable! In the several hours that it took to make our way through, we were presented with copious amounts of biographical and historical information pertaining to the Austo-Hungarian empire, the Habsbrug dynasty and the Schonbrunn palace.
After finishing our palace tour, we walked out to the extensive gardens outside the palace. Here we found breathtaking grounds, statues and fountains. This definitely was the place to hold a garden party in the 19th century!
Our day at the palace continued with a trip though several mazes and labyrinths (complete with mathematical puzzles and climbing poles) and a half-an-hour demonstration where we learned how to make apple strudel. Of course after the "Strudelshow" (as it was called) we had to get some apple strudel for ourselves (any one in my family can attest that I'm a sucker for advertising, especially when it comes to food). The strudel we had was amazing! I have a newfound respect for Sgt. Shultz's love of the stuff.
Well, after an amazing but thoroughly exhausting morning in Vienna, we headed to the train station to activate our rail passes and board the 3:14 train for Salzburg. As we leave Vienna (figuratively in this blog, we actually left it over 24 hours ago), I must say that I was very impressed by the city. The architecture and sculptures that are found literally everywhere you look simply take your breath away. I feel like I could spend several days just walking around Vienna and it would be well worth my time.
I think we all slept at least a little on the 3 hour train ride from Vienna to Salzburg. When we arrived at the Salzburg station we were refreshed and ready to head out into the city to find our hostel! We had minor difficulties locating it, but after about half-an-hour or so of traipsing around, we found ourselves staring at the large wooden door guarding the entrance to the St. Sebastian hostel.
While the Wombats hostel in Vienna was comparable to a small hotel, St. Sebastian's was more like housing in a monastery. There were several floors of small rooms surrounding hallways devoted to church life and the practice of music. The floor below our room had a large piano in the center and opera singing and violin playing could be heard in the floors above us. Everything was very small and quaint and of course there was little to no internet access.
I hope I've mentioned this before (because it merits mention) but Grant has been scoring connections for us all throughout this trip! Our gracious host in Zilina, Slovakia, Brano, was a connection of Grant's as are the people we will meet up with in the future in both Briedenbach, Germany and Paris, France. Well, Grant came through again last night in Salzburg. He ran into a girl from Texas in the lobby while Phil and I were upstairs and invited her and her friend (also a Texan) to go to dinner with us. It was great talking with some other American travelers and sharing our European adventures thus far. Phil and I would like to formally thank Grant for providing us with not only places to stay and generous friends throughout the continent of Europe but also female dinner company! You've got to hand it this guy. He never ceases to amaze me.
We woke up for breakfast at the hostel this morning at 8:00. The breakfast that was provided for us was only a roll, preserves and coffee, but it was free (you get what you pay for). After showering and checking out of the hostel we headed downtown to see the city of Salzburg. While not as visually impressive as Vienna, Salzburg does have a lot to offer. We saw a good portion of the city, including a gigantic an ornate catholic cathedral, an extensive summer home and garden belonging to an archbishop and my favorite part of Salzburg, the Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart birthplace and museum!
The Mozart museum was absolutely fantastic! I learned so much about the life and contemporary times of this world-renowned musician and composer. They even had original manuscripts of some of his early compositions (the first being at age 8) and the violin that he played at age 6.
Another huge tourist draw to Salzburg is "The Sound of Music". While we didn't take "The Sound of Music" tour or see "The Sound of Music" museum we did get several pictures of scenery that is easily recognizable in the movie. It's definitely going towards the top of my "movies to see again" list when I get home.
Well, now it's 1:00 in the morning (about 8 hours after I wrote everything previous). We've arrived safely in Munchen, Germany and I'm sitting in my bed at the hostel getting ready to put this post up (now that we finally have internet access). We got into Munchen around 5:00 and checked into the Euro youth hostel which was very close to the train station. We met a guy from Brazil named Victor, who is sharing a room with us, and invited him to eat dinner out in the city with us. We ate at the Hofbrauhaus, easily one of the most memorable experiences of the trip! The place was HUGE and absolutely packed! We walked around for 10 minutes looking for a seat before we finally found one. It's easily the largest restaurant I've ever been in and it features huge portions and live music! I ordered the roast suckling pig, which turned out to be a good choice.
It's late and I need to put this post up and get off to bed. We're getting up for breakfast at 7:30 tomorrow and then exploring Munchen before our train for Frankfurt leaves at noon. It's going to be another whirlwind day!
Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Munchen.
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