Salzburg

I took another night train from Budapest to Salzburg.  I thought I was being clever because these tickets were cheaper and otherwise I'd have another night of lodging to consider.  However, this night train experience also left me quite exhausted.  I left Budapest at 9 something and arrived in Salzburg at 3:30ish in the morning.  With their train station under renovation (and it being quite chilly), I really didn't have a place to go, besides a small shelter on the train platform.  So, I read my book (Into the Wild) while waiting for a coffee shop to open at 6.  In retrospect, I should have gone to my hostel and asked if I could sit in the lobby, but that didn't occur to me for some reason.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer was an interesting book to read during my travels.  I began it on the first day of my journey and finished it on the last.  It was about someone almost my age who goes off on long journeys all alone and eventually heads up to Alaska with limited provisions to escape society and live off the land.  I certainly saw parallels in our journeys, though his were much more idealistic and extreme.  And while he reveled in solitude I wished I had had a traveling companion.  Certainly there are advantages to traveling alone, mostly in the independence it allows (you can take as long or as short as you want at a museum), but my usual life is quite independent, living alone, with most of my friends and family far away.  In any case, I highly recommend the book.  It is a compelling read, and though it is non-fiction, Krakauer crafts it as a mystery and fills it with interesting psychological and philosophical insight.

After getting a cup of hot coffee and a bite to eat, I found that Salzburg is a beautiful city with a gorgeous landscape.  Some of the mountains had snow and the clouds/fog were moving slowly overhead.

I had the chance to tour two different houses that Mozart lived in, plus take a tour of sites from the film Sound of Music.  The latter had the potential to be cheesy, but it was a great and fun experience to see these beautiful buildings, see the lake country, learn behind the scenes information about the film and even sing to the soundtrack on the bus.  There was more to see, but I was only staying a short while.

One difference I noticed between Munich and Salzburg is in whether I was addressed in English or German.  In these cities I would always address someone (waiter, shopkeeper, etc.) in German first (I began with English in Budapest).  In Munich, they would almost always hear my accent or clumsiness and respond, to my dismay, in English.  In Salzburg, however, they would always continue in German, which I appreciated.  Also, at home in Rimbach, if I address someone in German, he usually would respond in German, and I became accustomed to this.  Not only do I want to respect their cultures by speaking in their native tongue, it helps me to practice speaking German in any situation.  I'm not really sure why these two cities were different in this respect, they are both tourist cities, if anything, Salzburg more so than Munich.  And I saw non-German speakers getting around just fine in Salzburg, indicating they do speak English.  In any case, it was easy to get around and someone who didn't know any German would easily survive in these places.

One excellent opportunity to practice my language skills was in Salzburg.  I stopped for lunch in a small cafe and there were no open tables, so an older man asked if the other seat at my table was free, and I said it was, and we had a nice conversation, all in German.  Interestingly, this year is Salzburg schools' first experiment with a Fall break and we talked a bit about that, among other topics.

I met many Australians in my hostel (and in Munich too).  It seems that it is really common to take a gap year between high school and college and many use that time to backpack in Europe.  Some of them were on the road for months.  I got so tired being out for a week.  I think this is because I kept myself so busy and wasn't staying for very long in any one city; to be out for so long you need to learn to rest.  In any case, it was really nice to return to my apartment and get some rest in my own bed.