April 12th- The hills are alive with the sound of..... Mozart

Woo, Easter. As we awoke this morning we were greeted by a treat, a tasty hopping chocolate treat



To add yet another country to my book this day was dedicated to Salzburg, Austria. The birthplace of the arrogant, yet talented, prodigy Mozart, and the filming location of the American sensation, the sound of music which even had its own irritating tour (meh).

The musical master

The horrendous beginning of a horrendous tour, we did not take part.

Salzburg, despite being one of the biggest cities in Austria, has a really small feeling to it. Before we knew it, we had already navigated across the city into the main old town area. This section of town was jam packed like any other European town, with the two houses of Mozart (which we declined to tour, I mean... they're just houses... houses that cost about 20E each just to walk inside of), along with some interesting old churches, and many fusion resteraunts.




Being a fuision-based country, these resteraunts were really Austria's clame to fame in the eatery department. Generally they would serve Austrian food, Indian food and something else (perhaps italian, or even American). They were really awesome. We ended up stopping at one that seemed pretty nice, and coincidentally ended up being a place that Rick Steeves recommended (his picture was shown about five hundred times throughout the building). There we feasted on goulash complemented with a giant bread and egg dumpling.


Fusionriffic


A hearty Austrian meal

Followed by a hearty austrian desert

Along the streets, there were also egg shops. Yes, that's right, a whole shop dedicated to these oval shaped bird embryo cages. They were, of course, painted various colors and had all of the chicken goo drained out of them. These had all sorts of designs including themed ones for holidays/sports/events.

Want a dozen? How about seven hundred dozen?

Speaking of eggs, it was indeed Easter after all. As fitting for the big day of fluffy bunnies and chocolate, big churches were ornately decorated for easter, with flowers all over the alters. Some of these were quite magnificant, mainly being pure white on the inside for the walls, but having extravagent art in between.

I can see the light

and the ceiling



Once again, we were caught in a bit of a time constraint, so we tornadoed through the majoirty of the city. We did get a chance to get a few good looks at the castles on the large hillsides oft the city, and walked up a great ways, the houses in the area were large, fancy and beautiful. It was quite the eye candy.

Poseidon's fountain


What would a european town be without a castle or two

As the clock struck 5, the fairytale ball had ended, the spell was unwoven and we were wisked back onto a train to Münich. Having still a bit of daylight, we decided to take this time to explore around the old town. But first, "woh sind die biergartens bitte?".

Aquiring the mandatory information we needed, we set out into the city to get one last look around as it was our last day here. We took a tram, which was free with our hotel, to the other side of town, and then walked the entire way back, snapping photos all the way. Along the way, we stopped at these recommended places... and... well they weren't beirgartens at all! Just overpriced cafes, what a let down. So we kept going, searching frantically for a nice place to sit and have a half a liter of bitter. We finally settled at... well.. a kababery.

Kababeries are kind of like European fast food, except that they serve a lot of more interesting meals, such as falafel (yum), or meat peeled off a rotisserie (gyro style). Not only did we settle for this meal department, but the restaurant ended up being just across the street from where we began, our hotel next to the main train station. Fortunately, like all places that serve food, we were able to grab some beer and at least sit outside and enjoy the night, listening to the clatter of glasses clicking together, "prost!" and the passerbys.

A liter heavier, we made the long journey back across the street, and promptly collapsed...tomorrow... "ich bein ein berlinner"!