Salzburg

My first 2 day of Salzburg were filled with alot of heavy rain!
But I still made the most of the days. I got up early on my first day and walked through the old town. There were lots of church bells ringing and classical music in churches and from buskers. The center was quiet because it was Sunday. The air felt really fresh and the city is quite clean. It is alot less hustle and bustle compared to Prague too. The hills are all around the border of the city aswell. I met up coincidently with a group from my hostel doing the free tour taken by one of the hostel workers. We climbed up a big hill on the new side of town for a good look over the city and of the river etc... There are lots of sound of music cliche locations here hehe... I went to Mirrabell palace which has a beautiful garden! There was a wedding group there. Also beds of roses and fountains beautiful garden planning. I got some dinner at the vegan restaurant and the owner gave me a free dessert to eat!! with a yummy sesame pastry and blueberry jam filling.
On day 2 I was determined to hike up to the fortress overlooking the city. It was very wet and cold. I climbed up with my crappy umbrella and then walked along the crest of the hill... it was quite a long walk too! with some beautiful views and I packed a little picnic! I bought some bread from a very cool bakery with lots of pretzels and even little hedgehog pretzels... lots of creative dough molding there! So I had a pretty good day! and looked around in some churches in the afternoon etc... had to give in and buy a waterproof and windproof jacket... I was soaked and still have possibilities of windy raining cold day on my trip! So its an investment...
I had the best hotdog for lunch too! It such a good sausage with very nice mustard! Extremely satisfying.
Today I had the best day of all. The sun came out!!! I watched a bit of the sound of music whilst it was still cloudy and then went on a bike tour run by my hostel. I think it was good value as it was just the cost of the bike hire plus the cost of entry to the palace and it was a discounted entry to the palace. Also the day was beautiful for riding and it was a very small group of 3 plus me! We through lots of shady trees and some very nice house properties and past fields of grass with wild flowers and past some very beautiful views of the mountains too! The very big one even had a little snow on it!!!
The Hellsburn palace was very cool too! We walked through the trick fountains! which are very tricky... and I got pretty wet. It was like a summer palace built by the king for his amusement. He had a dinner party etc and as the guests are not allowed to stand up until the king leaves the table etc... he had built these trick fountains into all of their chairs and around the table... so they got really wet but they weren't allowed to get up. Everything had a surprise fountain in it... statues... like a deer will shoot water at u from his mouth and then his antlers will start spurting water everywhere... and walls ... alot of jets just seem to aim at your crotch too. He had some beautiful fountain rooms with like a feature wall of a woman in water or like king triton. etc... suprise fountains in door ways and from the roof and floor... haha There was a very cool musical water room where the water moved around pipes and blew out conch shells in a special way to make music and bird sounds... he had water powered moving displays... It was a very nice fountain garden! Inside the palace was cool too... he had lots of weird paintings of animals and exotic animals...They reminded me a bit of my style of paintings. He had a bird room just full of paintings of birds and a room with beautiful Chinese wall paper and a fish painting room and another music room with beautiful gold and red painted walls with people and birds everywhere... it had good acoustics for renaissance style music etc... he seemed to be a very eccentric king Anyway! We rode back along the river and the sun was fully out with a nice breeze and lots of green trees etc... very peaceful.

I haven't been able to afford to eat too much here... but eat some pretzels and very nice frankfurters with mustard and grated horseradish! When not eating those I eat bread and jam or fruit or soy milk or juice poppers... for like breakfast, lunch and dinner. hahaha
Salzburg is expensive! and my hostel is no where near as nice as the one in prague... staying in a mass dorm with bunks and the bathrooms are mass ones and toilets too are unclean. No kitchen here!! which is why I cant cook good meals for myself. It is very busy and party and lots of big groups of backpackers who r traveling together... The other night I was in a common room and I realized it had 12 Australians and 3 Americans in it... no one else. I'm trying to get away from Australians!!! ... and Also...internet is not free!!! and no place to sit quietly... The hostel tours have been good though and the train station is really close! Also i enjoy staying in an all girls dorm... its nice :)
I really love salzburg though... all of the surrounding nature is very fresh and exciting... I have an urge in me to hike everywhere hehe and swim in lakes etc... and crunch around in the snow... Id love to stay but I will be heading to Vienna tomorrow I think... :)

OK well... it takes me a very long time to put up photos on these computers... I put some up of latvia on facebook if you haven't seen them yet.

Love Emily