After my last post, I spent another week in Germany hanging out with Danielle, and then for the weekend we went to Munich. My main motivation for going to Munich was to go to Oktoberfest, which was a great time, but we also did some other things too.
Since Danielle already wrote a post about our time in Munich, I'm including the link here:
http://solongusa.blogspot.de/2014/10/lindsays-visit-munich-and-dachau.html
After Munich we parted ways again (but we will soon be reunited in Amsterdam for a 2 1/2-week, multi-city adventure!), and I traveled to Salzburg. I added this to my itinerary because I decided to fly to my next destination, Norway, midweek since the flights were cheaper, so I had a few days to kill somewhere. I looked at the map and realized Salzburg wasn't too far away from Munich and I could get a cheap bus there, and that was my decision-making process. So it was a bit of an afterthought in terms of my original planning, but it turned out to be way more awesome than I expected! All I really knew about Salzburg was that The Sound of Music was filmed there, and I had no idea it would be so beautiful.
From the beginning it was a bit stressful with planning because even on the bus on the way there at 9:30 pm I had no idea where I would be sleeping that night. To complicate matters, my German cell phone service would not work once I got to Austria, so I basically had to have a plan by the time I got there or I would be pretty stuck. So after trying to work something out with someone who knew someone in Salzburg and not getting very far, I just decided to stay in a hostel I had found online. So once I got off the bus around midnight, I walked about a mile with my close to 50-pound backpack to the hostel, and luckily they had one cheap bed left! Score! Sleeping arrangements continued to cause slight stress for the next 2 nights as well because I booked each night at the hostel separately since I wasn't sure what I was doing each day, and I ended up switching hostels the third night because another one had a cheaper room, but it all worked out in the end. So a few things I learned: winging it can be exciting but ultimately it's better to have a plan going in, I have become very dependent on my smartphone (which is something I would like to try to wean myself away from), and my backpack is WAY TOO HEAVY! Since I moved rooms every night and changed hostels once, I had to carry the bag around a lot and it felt like it got heavier every day. I'm working on figuring out what I can get rid of, but it's hard!
Anyway, on to the good stuff. I took so many pictures in Salzburg, but here is a sampling of the best ones. Note: traveling alone necessitates taking numerous "selfies." I'll try to limit the number I post, but no guarantees:)
 |
| Mirabell Gardens (the Do-Re-Mi song from The Sound of Music was filmed here!) |
 |
| Me at Mirabell Gardens |
 |
| Great view of the Old City I got when I walked up the hill to Capuchin Church |
 |
| More of the view |
 |
| The house where Mozart was born |
 |
| Collegiate Church |
 |
| Inside Collegiate Church |
 |
| Inside Franciscan Church |
 |
| Franciscan Church |
 |
| Salzburg Cathedral |
 |
| Inside the Cathedral |
 |
| St. Peter's Abbey and Cemetary (the escape scene in The Sound of Music was supposedly filmed here but it didn't look familiar) |
 |
| Mozartplatz (they really like Mozart and The Sound of Music in Salzburg, if you didn't notice) |
 |
| Hohensalzburg Fortress up on the hill |
 |
| Me enjoying the view from the fortress |
There were so many gorgeous buildings and churches, the architecture there is just stunning. Pictures really don't do things like this justice, but at least you get a little bit of a taste of the beauty there. Whenever I'm sightseeing in Europe it reminds me how young the United States really is. We just don't have beautiful old buildings like this that date back as far as European cities do. It's amazing what people could build without all of the modern technology we have, and I don't think we would be able to replicate it now. Even though we're supposedly so advanced, I don't think we have the skills anymore to do some of the things people were doing hundreds of years ago.
After a full day of sightseeing in the city, I decided to travel south of Salzburg to experience some fresh air and mountains. I really wanted to experience the Alps so I found some places to go that were easily accessible by train. Here was my first view of the gorgeous mountains:
 |
| View out the train window |
The first stop on my journey was Werfen, which has the largest ice cave in the world, so I figured I should experience it. Even just getting up to the cave was an adventure because I had to take a bus up a steep winding road that felt like it went straight up the mountain, and then after paying for admission the cave, accessing it required walking about 10 minutes farther up the mountain, taking a cable car, and then walking even farther up. The views at every point along this journey were spectacular. The cave itself was cool too, and I mean that literally and figuratively. Since there is ice all year round the cave clearly stays cold all the time, and it was about at the freezing point once we got inside. Luckily I had brought extra layers so I stayed comfortable. There was a guided tour that took us up hundreds of stairs (I think it was around 700!) because the cave when back and up into the mountain, and along the way there were constant sheets of ice and some cool ice formations. Once we got through all the stairs there were more walkways leading through various caverns where the guide would stop periodically and tell us about the history and formation of different areas of the cave. One cool thing about the tour was that there was no artificial light inside the cave so our tour was lit with lanterns that were distributed among the visitors and the tour guide had strips of magnesium that he burned to produce light to lead the group and illuminate some of the ice formations. I really liked it, it made the cave feel more authentic and less like people were trying to change nature. And then at the end we walked back down about the same number of stairs to get back down to the entrance. It was a cool experience, although on my frugal budget it got a little pricey with all the parts of the journey that I had to pay for, but overall it was worth it. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave, but I wanted to document it so here are the pictures I was able to take:
 |
| Cute little restaurant at the top of the trail |
It was a great hike with an amazing view that made it even more worth it, and being out in nature again made me feel great. Every time I go hiking I'm reminded that being outside is where I am happiest, and it put me in a great mood for the rest of the day. When I hiked back down I had some time to kill before my train left, so I sat by the water and enjoyed the evening. All in all, it was an awesome day!
The next day, I had until midafternoon before I had to catch my bus, so I walked around in Salzburg a bit more.
 |
| Another picture at Mirabell Gardens with Mirabell Palace in the background |
 |
| Inside St. Peter's church |
 |
| View of the Cathedral from a viewing platform at St. Peter's Catacombs |
Then I took a longer walk to see anotherSound of Music filming site...Schloss Leopoldskron, which served as the backdrop for the back of the Von Trapp house in the movie:
After that, it was time to prepare for my trip back to Munich for my flight to Oslo, Norway. Even though I didn't have many expectations of my trip to Salzburg (or maybe in part because of that), I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm really glad I decided to go there. It was also a test-run of a solo traveling experience that I will be doing more of later on in my travels, and I would say it went quite well. There were times I got a bit lonely, and I didn't do as good a job of making friends at the hostels as I wanted, but I talked to some people while I was there, and most of the time I really didn't mind being alone. It was nice in a way that I could do and see whatever I wanted because I didn't have to consult anyone else about where to go before I made a decision. So I don't think I would want to travel completely alone all the time, but at least I know that when the time comes that I am sightseeing in a new city alone again I won't have a problem with it.
Now I've currently been in Norway for a little over a week volunteering on a family farm on an island on the southern coast. It's going well and the family is really nice! I will write a separate post about my time in Norway very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment