Vienna, Hungary, and my first afternoon in salzburg

Hello everybody,

Sorry for the little lapse in my postings; hopefully this will catch you up.

Two days ago ( my first full day in Vienna) I actually decided, on a whim, to take the train to Budapest. I figured Vienna would only take a day to see and So I decided to take a day trip. It was an interesting trip, but a very boring city.

As soon as I got off the train in was met by several gypsy women who wanted me to book a hotel through them. I ignored them, obviously. I went to the city park, which I had read had a castle in the center. The park was in pretty sad shape - everything was run down and it seemed there wasn't enough money for upkeep. The castle was actually just a fancy old building that with a stretch of the imagination could be called a castle. I walked across town, through street after street of small vendors, Internet cafes and cheap clothing stores. Across the Danube was a soviet-era monument called the citadel. It was actually more like a hillside park with walking paths and the top afforded a really good view of the city. Other than that, the city was a flop, I'm afraid.

However, Vienna was much nicer. I went with my three Korean roomates ( Eugene, June, and the other one who's name I literally could not say) on a tour of the city. We started off with a visit to the schools schonbrunn, which was a huge palace in the middle of the city. It was more than just a palace though; the main lawn stretched out probably a quarter of a mile to a big, beautiful fountain. In between, there were six large flower beds with a types of different colored annuals and perennials arranged in awesome patterns. We had a great time exploring the shrubbery mazes in the complex too. Yes, we stopped at the playground there, and yes, it was really fun ( they had a lot of interactive mini- construction equipment and human size funhouse mirrors and it was a good time being a little kid again.

We then went to two different shops to try doner kebab and viener schnitzel. We finished with a trip to the st stefans cathedral and chatted for a while by the Mozart statue. I really had fun hanging out with them and was sad to see them go. That night, I went to the rauthaus, which was a really impressive-looking city building, to see viennas outdoor film festival. They projected an musical/opera film on a big screen, and I must say it was a pretty neat thing to see. I got fairly cold though and left about halfway through.

I woke up early this morning and arrived at my hostel in Salzburg by lunchtime. The hostel is worth mentioning by the way, for it is close to the town center, cheap, and almost like a hotel. Anyways, I just got back from seeing the hohensalzburg fortress and walking around the residentzplatz town center. The fortress was very big and the entry fee included an audio guide tour of the site. I finished the tour at the top of the highest guardtower, and my breath was a little taken away. On three sides of me rose the alps, and they were truly beautiful. This was almost like the view from neuschwanstein, except that the entire city had this type of view! The residenzplatz was nice to stroll through; there were two men engaged in an active life-size chess game, and there was also a fairly nice but low-key shopping avenue.

I liked it and can't wait for tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be nice ( with the exception of Spain almost every other day has been drizzly). I hope to update again soon. Thanks for reading - I miss you all and looknforward to seeing you when I get back.

Last little bit of Germany

So...to continue where I left off.

[the name of the town near neuschwanstein was fussen by the way; autocorrect changes things and wont let me go back and edit them].

Two days ago I decided to have a rest day (sort of). I woke up a little later than normal, ate breakfast, and then went to the laundry mat to do some washing. You have to understand, this was quite a novel experience for me as I have never done laundry in a laundry mat before. Up to this point I have been able to rotate through my clothes and do some periodic washing with some detergent in the hostels' sinks. This might sound gross, but I promise it is not. It hasn't been very hot until recently and so my clothes were not that dirty. However, even I could realize that I finally needed to do an actual load of laundry.

After lunch and some catching up on emails, I walked to the town center and wandered through the Englischer Garten. This was a really nice park right in the middle of the city, but it also had a secluded feel. There was a small canal running through the middle, and at one end a dozen or so surfers were riding an artificial wave that had been built in the middle of the canal. It was a nice place to relax and I felt a little bit like a local.

I felt even more like a local when I wet the next day to Heidelberg. It is about a three hour train ride to the northeast, and was a great example of a typical German town. There was a city castle overlooking the village; it was a steep walk to get there but the views were really nice. Apparently the villagers used to bring tribute to the king and a colossal wine barrel ( holding over a quarter of a million liters) stood as a testament to this.

From the castle I made my way down to the bismarkplatz area, where there was a mile long, pedestrian-only shopping street. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn't that commercialized, and though there were some international stores there were also a good number of local shops and restaurants. I browsed through several and bought pastries from two separate bakeries. I tried an apple strudel as well as a plum cake, and both were pretty tasty. I efeeling how I was able to escape a little bit from the hyper-touristy areas and just experience life in a German town.

Today I woke up around 6:30am and made my way through a heavy rainstorm to the train station. It is too early to evaluate Vienna - I literally just got to the hostel and am waiting for them to finish cleaning my room - but hopefully I will be able to give a good report soon.