Salzburg, Austria

   A word of warning if you ride the train between Linz and Salzburg. Do not be surprised if the train conductor warns you that the car you're in isn't even going all the way to Salzburg, and you have to squeeze your way through narrow aisles and dozens of other people standing in them to find a car that is going to Salzburg. And then if you find yourself riding the whole way standing up in the cold luggage area at the back of the car... Don't worry. It's because you didn't pay the extra money to reserve a seat; you were miserly and only bought your €22 ticket. But it's only an hour and a half! ¡No pasa nada!

How we ride trains.

   Once we arrived, we took a deep breath before stepping out into the bitter cold and crowd of Asian tourists and backpackers. We quickly found the tourist information where a girl with only the tiniest hint of a German accent showed us exactly how to get to your hotel and sold us our bus passes. As we rode the bus through the streets of Salzburg, I couldn't help but feel that I was in a new country entirely. Looking back, I now realize that was our first time navigating a new city completely by ourselves. And although that first day was a little bit confusing, we quickly got used to it, and barely thought anything of a new city after that.

   We checked into our hostel and enjoyed a couple glorious hours of Wi-Fi while we waited for our room to be ready. And then in the couple hours before sundown, we wandered around the city a bit.

So excited to be in Salzburg!

Oh, and on the bridge's side, you can see a bunch of locks. Lovers write their names on the lock, lock it on the railing, then throw the key in the river, leaving the lock with their names.

   The next morning, when we got up and looked at the window, we realized... It had snowed!!! Finally!!! We had been afraid that we wouldn't have any snow at all for our Christmas in Austria.

   Maria's sister (Maria is the lady with whom we stayed) knew a tour guide in Salzburg. Before we left, she called him, and just like that, we had our own personal tour of Salzburg lined up! We were a little worried about how we would recognize Luther. All we knew from a tiny cell phone picture was that he was tall; which in Germany isn't as distinguishing as it is in Spain. But as we walked down the pathway next to the river, a man stopped and asked if we were Vanessa and Kalifa. I guess our self-description as "a short semi-Asian in a black coat and a short, black girl in a purple coat" was helpful after all!

    We had such a fun time! Luther walked all over the city with us, explaining history, food, & customs and showing us a lot of places we never would have known about.

   We had such an amazing time in Salzburg! Practically every day, we were greeted a light new blanket of snow. Although it was so cold that by 3:30 every afternoon, we could barely speak and returned to our hostel as fast as we could. But the fairy-tale like castle on the hill (once you got inside, it was actually more of a functional fortress!), bishop's residence, sweet people, Christmas markets, and the mounds of Mozartkugeln everywhere... It was amazing!

St. Sebastian cemetery

Grave of Mozart's father and wife. Mozart himself was buried in a common grave in Vienna, according to the tradition.

St. Peter's Cemetery

The old horse baths. The riders would ride their horses right down the steps into the fountain!

Why yes, I did think of Narnia!

Such a fairy-tale scene!

Salzburg has a couple dozen churches, if I remember correctly.

This was a lovely, isolated church in the hills opposite the castle.

At the Christmas market in front of the cathedral.

I believe this is the place where Doppler first detailed his physics theory.

BEAUTIFUL view from the Hohensalzburg (the castle above Salzburg)

I took this photo for my dad, who has always wanted to see the Alps! They ARE just as gorgeous as you think!

The castle courtyard.

Although it was mostly functional inside the castle, the residence area was beautiful.

It looks like a closet from the outside. But no, it's the only toilet! What a luxury.

We saw several of these in Austria. I'm not sure what they are... Maybe a solar clock?