Salzburg, Austria

Last stop of the trip was Salzburg.  I have heard so much about this place from my family and I am soo glad that I finally got to go!  Unfortunately Kate had to go back to work in the States so she flew back on Sunday from Prague.  Even though she got sick during the trip she was a real trooper and was a great travel buddy :)  On Sunday I got on a train in the morning, and no joke, I am pretty sure Kate got back to the States before I even made it to Munich.  Those Czech's need to work on their trains.  It was a very pretty train ride, though, and traveling on trains is MUCH better than flying anyways.  So my friend Kara (the person I was meeting in Salzburg) and I ran into each other at the Munich train station on the way.  We of course were overly concerned about eating and missed our train to Salzburg.  Whoops!  Luckily there is always another train within the hour, so we got on the next one and were on our way.  

Once we got there,  we found our hostel which was called the YOHO hostel.  Once again, best hostel ever!  For 17 euros a night it was really clean, nice and even had an inexpensive hotel bar with austrian food and HEFEWEIZEN beer, which is my favorite kind of beer ever.   They even had discount prices on the famous Sound of Music tour which took us to all the places where the movie was filmed in and around Salzburg.  

The first day, we did some sightseeing around town.  I finally saw this McDonalds that I have been hearing about for years.  It is just your standard McDonald's, but the sign is the fanciest McD's sign you'll ever see.  My grandpa refers to it as the "club" so I went there in his honor.  We also walked up the mountain and got a great view of the town, as well as the alps on the other side.  Mozart was born and grew up in Salzburg, so we saw his house and apartment too.  Once again, we were SO lucky with our weather.  Nothing but sunshine the whole time.  One thing is for sure, this town seems to have a lot of money!  It is built right on salt mines so I am guessing that had something to do with it at one point in time.  

The next day, we decided that since we were in Salzburg, we had to go on the Sound of Music tour.  Now I'm going to be honest, I'm not even sure if I've ever even seen the movie.  But it was still cool to see everywhere, and they took us to the lake district out of the city too.  I could have gone without the 4hour sing-a-long that basically was our tour guide belting out every word and note of every song in the movie the entire time that we were in the car.  I tried including a video of that but it wasn't working, so hopefully that will be coming soon.  I also have to say that one of the most exciting points of the day was when we saw signs for the show "The Amazing Race."  It was being filmed at the palace where the famous Sound of Music gazebo now is.  I took a picture of one of the signs that I saw, but there also were about 15 matching white Mercedes out front that were supposed to belong to the people in the amazing race. After I took a picture, an angry man came and put a garbage bag over the sign.  Another oops!  If anyone watches that show, let me know when this episode is on! 

The last night we went to the Augustiner Brewery and had our last fix of Austrian weinerschnitzels and beer.  I had such a great vacation and I feel so lucky to be able to do all of this and get PAID in the mean time :)  I do have to say though, this was the most exhausting "vacation" I have ever had!  

UNICORNS in the Mirabell Garten.  

This might look familiar to some of you Sound of Music fans
I love a good pegasus.
This was an entire garden of DWARF statues.  basically a dream come true. 
The fancy McD's sign
Getreidegasse-famous for the rod iron signs
Inside the cathedral that had 5 organs 
          View of the other mountains from the top!
The city from the mountain


The Amazing Race sign 
Gazebo.  Something happened here with a Nazi and a Von Trapp daughter.
Cemetary at St. Peter's Church 
Enjoying some sausage and beer at the Augustiner Brewery