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| Erin's Journal for 10-01-02 This was our day to go to Salzburg, so we got up nice and early and did a quick trip to the train station. We stopped in the store to load up on water and breakfast snacks, then got on with time to spare. We found a spot in a somewhat private cabin, with another couple already there. We quickly struck up a conversation with them, as we found they were Americans staying in a room with a tv and updated news. This political discussion quickly branched on to other things, and the long ride passed in a blink. Doug and MaryAnn were from Temecula, just a couple of hours from our home in L.A., but they'd both done a lot of travelling for their careers and were great fun to talk to. When we arrived in Salzburg, we decided to stick together, as they were only staying for the day and enjoyed us as well. We checked into our hostel (kinda disappointed with the lack of facilities and evidence of cheap ownership), then walked around town with our new friends. MaryAnn had some wonderful suggestions for local cuisine, and we tried Sturm for the first time. I liked it a lot, as it is a slightly carbonated sweet wine in its early stages of fermentation. We sipped this and anticipated more with dinner. Due to the midafternoon timing though, we couldn't find a real meal until 6pm. We staked out the spot we'd eat and went to wander the city for 3 hours until then. As we walked, we mentioned how nice it was to be in a somewhat small town. This one is pretty touristy, being the scene of The Sound of Music and so much Mozart romance (his home town!), so Salzburg was pretty pricey from the window shopping we saw. But it had a lot of charm all the same, and we looked forward to staying a few more days. Doug & MaryAnn were regretting the need to return home, but they have jobs and incomes that allowed them to travel pretty often, so we couldn't feel too sorry for them! At 6 we returned to our chosen restaurant, but were disappointed to see that the items and prices we'd selected during our afternoon decision weren't offered for dinner! We picked different things off the menu and had varying levels of success. My meal was probably the best of the 4, but still cost more than we'd wanted to spend. Oh well! These are the lessons you learn on the road! Afterward we walked our friends back to the station and wished them well, then returned to the hostel. It was still too early to go to sleep, yet one of our two stranger roommates was already asleep, so we had to go find entertainment elsewhere. I wanted more Sturm, but in our wanders through the city at night, we found few places open and settled for a beer and a hot chocolate in a sidewalk bar with fun American music playing. We relaxed there until we were ready to call it a night, then walked back in the cold to our hostel and crashed. |
| The city of Salzburg as seen from the hilltop fortress |