Day 61

I woke up at 8:00 on Saturday and packed up what I wanted to bring for my weekend in Salzurg. It involved testing to see whether or not the clothes were actually dry first, but luckily I found enough dry stuff to supply my need for the weekend. Once I was ready I walked to the ÖBB platform with Andy, Tony, and Paithan. We eventually found the right car and Erica and Dan saving our reserved seats. Charlotte had woken up late and was running to make it to the platform with me on the other end of the phone. Sadly, she didn’t make it. I handed my phone to Michaela and she talked to Charlotte and advised her as to what to do. I spent the first part of the trip writing out my journal from the bullet points that I had been putting down every night before I went to bed. I quickly got burned out from this task and started watching Phantom of the Opera. Once we arrived we all got off of the train and followed Michaela to our hostel. We all got checked in and put our things in our lockers in our rooms. We then headed to lunch. Still not being able to order schnitzel I decided on the trout. I was surprised when I got a whole fish on my plate, but (after a little instruction from Michaela on the technique of eating a whole fish) I was pleasantly surprised with how good the meal tasted. Once we were done with lunch our tour guide led us on our tour of Salzburg. We started out at the Sound of Music bridge that Maria and the children run across in their outing and then made our way to the birth house of Mozart and the Mirabell gardens where parts of Do-Re-Mi were filmed. After our tour we walked around for a half hour and then met Michaela to go up into the fortress. After spending some time there, we headed down the hill along the ridge of another hill to go to the Augustina Brewery (Augustinabräu). On the way there Michaela told us of her dream to visit a country for each letter of the alphabet and how far she had gotten. I’m pretty sure that the only country she was missing was Zimbabwe! Once we got to the brewery we found a table in the courtyard and got our beer and food. We were there for about an hour or so when Michaela said that she would be taking anyone who wanted to go back back to the hostel. All of the girls left and so did I. I honestly didn’t want to be spending any more money than I already had and I was very tired. Once we got back to the hostel I was invited to work on my homework in the girls’ room instead of having to do it alone in my room. We all talked for about two hours and then I decided that it was time for me to go to my room to get ready for bed. On my way out I heard singing coming from the bar downstairs. I went down there to see a choir serenading the bar, which was pretty cool. Andy and Dan were there and were very excited to see me. The three of us headed upstairs to our room and Dan went straight to sleep. The guys had all been drinking and it got loud! Somehow Dan managed to sleep through it all despite the fact that it went on until about 1:30! I eventually fell asleep around 2:00 which was a miracle considering how loud Dan was snoring!