When we arrived in Vienna, the weather was cool and it was there was a nice shower (I know everyone in Texas is jealous). We went to our hostel and locked our bags up and tried to find St. Stephen's Cathedral. We saw a lot of neat buildings, but it took a long time for us to actually find the cathedral. A little Austrian lady helped us find it. She was a really sweet lady. The cathedral was beautiful! We climbed the spiral staircase of one of the spires. I'm sure the view was wonderful, but the climb was a workout, so we were very hot, and at the top there were tons of people, making it even hotter (and a bit on the stinky side). It was dark and dreary out, so we decided to skip the lines to look out the windows, and went back down the stairs and out into the cool air. We went back to the hostel and showered. One bad thing about most hostels is that you have to wait until after 2:00 pm before you can actually get into your room. After a night train, wer are usually counting the minutes before we can go to our room and shower!! The rest of the evening we spent doing laundr and relaxing. (This is when my shorts disappeared. I guess someone took them out of the machine or something, but now I am down to my jeans. I will be glad to get to Prague where I can afford to shop!!) Traveling like this really wears you out. Our underlying theme in Vienna was total exhaustion. We tried to catch up on our sleep, but nothing seemed to work. It did warm up after the first day, so the heat zaps our energy also.

The hostel we stayed at is affiliated through Hostelling International, which is used by lots of school groups and families as well as budget travelers. Our roommates for the three nights we were in Vienna were two 16 year old girls from Bavaria that were on a school trip. Katina and I went to sleep before the girls came in from their outing, and when they did come in, so did four of their friends. They were having a wonderful time, and decided to shout out the window to their friends on the floor below. They carried on like this for a while and finally settled down. It is times like these that you wish you had requested a double room instead of a quad!! (They are lucky Mrs. Watts wasn't their sponser or they would have been on the next bus back to Bavaria!)

Sunday we got up and ate another breakfast of bread and jam. We never miss these breakfasts because they are free and keep us full until well past noon. I got a little package of what I thought was cheese, but it turned out to be liver paté. It was very unappetizing!! (Needless to say, I didn't try it after I saw what it was.) After breakfast we took a tour of the Schönbrunn Palace, walked through the gardens of the Belvedere Palace, and went back to our room to rest a bit before we had lunch. We had to skip our traditional bread, cheese, fruit, and yogurt feast because we forgot that Europe shuts down on Sunday. It is the most bizarre thing. You can tour monuments and museums, but all of the grocery stores are closed. We had seen pictures of some of the items of the restaurants, and were a bit frightened, so after walking for a while we settled for Subway. (I know, it's very American, but at somepoint, you just miss it, and they have free bathrooms!!) After our lunch/dinner we went to a beautiful park for a while before we took a little stroll around the Ring. We passed the Rathaus where they were having a film festival, so we decided to take a look around. There were tons of food booths with a wonderful variety of food. Everything smelled soooooo good!! At this point we were very disappointed with our Subway decision. We stumbled upon a crepe place that had a huge selection to choose from. We found our dessert!! I was so excited because the whole time we have been in Europe I have wanted to get some crepes, and I finally did. They were so yummy. We walked around more of central Vienna, and headed back to our room.

Our last day in Vienna was going to be a leisurely one. (Not that we had really strained ourselves at all during our stay in Vienna, but we were really going to take it easy.) We caught a trolley and took it to Central Cemetary. It was a beautiful cemetary. It was so enormous. We visited Mozart's memorial, as well as the graves of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert. It was so peaceful and tranquil there. The cemetary visit took a large chunk out of our day because it was a long way from where we were staying. The rest of the day we just wandered around, and I made my way to an Internet Cafe. When I got back, Katina and I had our usual feast. I was sitting in the window sill when a guy (Matt) from the street called up to me. He had heard me talking earlier , and noticed my accent. He is from San Antonio. We talked for a few minutes, and he invited us out to dinner. We had eaten already, but went anyway. We went to a little cafe on the corner, and another guy (Brad) that Matt had met from Geneva went with us also. The evening was fun, and after the cafe we went to ride the ferris wheel that was in one of the more recent James Bond movies. It was after 1 am before we made it back to our room, which made us dread the morning. We had to be at the train station in time to get the 8:28 train.

After breakfast we hurried out to catch a bus to the train station. We were on our way to Salzburg. Once we got on the train, we were really struggling!! We closed the door to our compartment, put up the arm rests, and sprawled out. Nap time!! When we woke up, we were in Salzburg, and it was so beautiful. I had expected it to be similar to Vienna, but it is far from it. It is such an amazing city!! There are mountains surrounding the city. There are beautiful buildings everywhere, and a river flows through the center of the city. We went to our hostel, checked in, and headed out. We went to this really neat fortress that is perched up on this little mountain. It is the largest remaining fortress in Central Europe. The view was spectactular. I think it may have been at this point that I fell in love with Salzburg. This city ranks very high on my list. The weather was gorgeous. It was sunny, yet it wasn't hot, and there was a pleasant cool breeze that made the city even that much better. We walked around the older part of the city, and visited several churches. They are all so beautiful. I have so many post cards of all of these amazing buildings, that I will probably need two or three photo albums by the time my journey is over!! After walking around for a while, we went back to the hostel and took a short nap. It felt so good. When we woke up, it was late in the evening, so we decided to see Salzburg at night. In the lobby we met a Aliza, and she decided to walk around with us. After seeing some of the city, we found a little cafe to have dinner and to warm up. It was cold outside (aren't you jealous?!) This is a time that I really missed my tennis shoes that I lost, and my sweater that I sent home!! After dinner, we went to another little cafe where a violinist was playing outside. We had coffee and enjoyed the show. I really love Salzburg!!

After another late night, we were struggling again. We were going on the Sound of Music tour at 8:45 (and of course we had to eat breakfast first)! The weather outside was icky!! It was cold, and rainy (like low 60's cold)!! We were luckily on a nice bus that had a heater. We went to the various locations where they filmed the movie. It sounds rather lame, but it was actually wonderful. We saw several little towns surrounding Salzburg, and all of the beautiful scenery along the way. I had no idea Austria was so beautiful. We passed several little lakes, and I got to bob-sled! It was really fun. After the tour, we made the most of our time by seeing and doing as much as we could. We were leaving that night to go to Budapest. We just walked around, taking in all of the sights, and then went through some residential areas that were up on a small mountain. It was so beautiful. If there was any way I could have found a job, I would have stayed in Salzburg in a heartbeat!! The whole time we were walking I had a huge smile on my face. I can't even describe how beautiful this city is. I can't wait to go back!!

At 10:15 we went to the train station to wait for our train. We were an hour early, but we were homeless, and it was dark and cold. When we made the reservation, the guy told us that it would only be a six hour trip (not long enough to actually sleep the entire night). He said something about one leaving Munich at 11:28, and it was 2 hours longer. That was perfect, so we booked it. We assumed that we were hopping on a train, going up to Munich and back down to Budapest. It was completely out of the way, but who cares, we will be sleeping!! We went and waited at the platform we were told to go to. The sign didn't have Munich or Budapest on it, so I was a little curious. I went and asked the guy at the desk if our train was still at that platform. He said that it was, but at 1:18 am. It left Munich at 11:28 and arrived at Salzburg at 1:18 before it headed on to Budapest!!! I was so not pleased with the situation, but there was nothing I could do. We went and waited for two and a half hours in this little room along with several others. I attempted to nap by resting my head on my pack, but I didn't sleep much. Our train finally arrived, and we were able to go to sleep. We were so excited about that!! Plus, we were about to visit our fifth country, and be surrounded by a language that we had no clue how to speak it!!

I am tired of typing, so I will write about Budapest, Germany, and Prague in another posting. It will probably be a while (I will probably wait until Prague where it is cheaper). Sorry there is no picture on this page, but I didn't find one before I left. I hope that everyone is doing well. I miss you all!! (Go have a drink for me tomorrow because it just isn't the same over here!!)