Once in Salzburg, we spent an enormous amount of time wandering around. I knew absolutely nothing about Salzburg, what goes on, what the town is known for, or the general layout. The hostels were all full, hotels booked, and everything kind of spread out. We eventually found a small hotel for only 30 EU each that was run by an Asian family that was full of Asian people. It was cheap and accomplished what we needed. A few quick showers and we headed to the old town.

In old town, we walked straight to a pub we found in a brochure that looked like a local’s hangout called Paul’s Stub’n. It was tucked away in a tiny alley. The only way we knew something was going on inside was the sounds of people speaking languages foreign to us. We snaked out way up a bunch of stairs and found the garden. The prices were great and the food was amazing. Jason got his first experience ordering from a menu that had no English. We pointed to two things on the menu and the food was awesome. Jason had some kind of chicken dish that surrounded a potato smothered in a cream sauce. Mine was a potato pasta dish that had about a block of strong cheese melted over it and served in a cast iron skillet. It also had about a cup of little fried onions on top. Delicious! The salad was the best part. And it was only about 6.30 EU.

Today, we got up and went to the castle that towers over Salzburg. It was a typical castle with a museum inside and a horde of tourists, though not nearly as bad as I saw last year in August. The castle tower had a magnificent view (we had to take a funicular to even get to the castle base) and copious amounts of pictures ensued. Right now, we’re off to Innsbruck, the base of the Austrian Alps. The Alps!!! We plan to hang out there a few days to do some house cleaning and relax after the chaotic departure from Poland. This will not be our only time in the Alps. We are doing the Swiss Alps and probably the French Alps as well.

In case you have not noticed, we skipped Hungary and Slovakia. Hungary was skipped due to a time crunch and the fact that we simply needed a day to recover after Ania got us annihilated at a bunch of local’s bars in Krakow. Speaking of Ania, Ania is a friend of Chelsea, who is the girlfriend of a classmate of ours. In exchange for hand delivering an interesting fiction novel and card to Ania, she agreed showed us around. Jason and I were not fully aware of what that meant, but we should have been suspicious when Chelsea’s email to Ania told her to be gentle on us. When we got to the first bar, Ania immediately told her friends to not order us shots. That kind of tells you how the evening went overall. Suffice it to say, Polish vodka really is awesome and cheap, and the beer really is stronger than what Ania referred to as, “American crap.” They are not messing around there. The Dizzy Daisy hostel can thank Chelsea and Ania for providing them with an extra day from Jason and Jon as we needed a bed and a ton of water the next day. Hanging out with Ania and her friends was a fantastic time and it was great being as close as we could to being a local for the night. Poland is a fun country with lots of history and, sadly, suffering. The people are more weathered and hard, compared to other European countries I have visited, but they also know how to lead simple and rewarding lives.

We’ve also skipped Bratislava. It came down to another night train and us being stuck in Krakow for yet another day. A little thinking and we had the time recovered by skipping Budapest, and I realized if we skipped Bratislava, we would have 3 extra days. Add in one of our buffer days, and I’m going to push us into Italy after Austria. I love Italy and am drooling at the chance to see Venice and the northern lake country. More updates soon!