Sunny Salzburg

   Only one week into Easter break and I am ready for it to slow down a little bit! I got home at 8:30 pm last night after three fantastic days in Salzburg with Petra, Pavel (Russ.), Gabriel (Deu.), and Marietje (Belg.). After spending the first afternoon wandering around the city, we decided to buy a 24 hour "Salzburg card" for the next two days, which gave us access to more than we could possibly see in that amount of time...
   In lieu of a long-winded, blow by blow account of our adventures, here is a summary and I'll let the pictures fill in the rest (If the slideshow does not start, click here to go to the photo album)

(Thanks to Petra for sharing her photos with me! The album will be expanded when I swap with Marietje, Pavel, and Gabriel)
Day 1:

• 4.5 hrs on the train from Graz to Salzburg, met Gabriel there, found hostel.
• Lunch at a really nice place on the east side of the river
• Wandered around town, over the Mönschburg, along the river
• Bought bread, cheese, olives, and wine for a picknic-style dinner at the hostel
• Evening walk through town...

Day 2: 

• Breakfast at the hostel buffet
• Fortress Hohensalzburg tour and museum
• Mozarthaus
• Cathedral
• Lunch at a Pizzaria with a crazy waiter
• Tried to go to more museums, but they were closed- so we jumped on the bus and went to the zoo!
• Repeat of last night's dinner
• Belgian pub

Day 3 (so hot!)

• Schloss Hellbrunn (the original Disneyland!)
• Water gardens tour
• Palace tour
• walk through the gardens, up to a theatre cut from the rock, bus back to town
• Linner
• Train back to Graz with Petra, the other three off to Innsbruck

   Honestly, I had low expectations for Salzburg and was blown away by how beautiful the city is and how accessible. It didn't hurt that there were medieval castles visible in nearly every direction and that the weather was absolutely fantastic! We were on foot nearly our entire time there and didn't even touch the busses until the very end of the second day. Hoofing it up and down the hill in the center of town and through the cobbled streets left us exhausted at the end of every day! Unfortunately, I now have tendinitis in both of my achilles- totally worth it, though! Salzburg is a tourist magnet but manages to not sink to the level of tourist trap. A green-blue river cuts its way between the conglomerate walls of the valley, where buildings from the 12th c. to baroque seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. From the tops of the hills you feel like you can see from the Salzkammergut to München, the ragged edges of the alps jutting up through the green carpet of the valley.
   The tourist season has not quite started yet, so the streets, sights, and restaurants were not too packed. Even so, my "American alarm" seemed to go off every 30 minutes. I finally realized that for the other travelers I met it was probably nothing new to meet other Americans on the road, and that I am happier than ever to be studying in Graz!

   I am looking forward to being back in Salzburg in a few weeks with Mom and Dad- so much still to do!