I think it's safe to say that both Salzburg and Prague were big hits on our European trip! I don't think you can go wrong in Salzburg: The Land of Sound of Music, or Prague: The Land of Cheap Beer (and impulse purchases). We enjoyed both cities so much!
Salzburg
When Pia and I left Budapest, the train to Salzburg was overbooked. We didn't make reservations because we learned from a guy we met in Venice that we don't need to if we have a Eurail Pass... although getting from city to city might take longer because we can only take certain trains (free, slow, cheap, overbooked trains). But that's what we've been doing ever since and it's worked out well for the most part!
For the first three hours of the train ride, we had to stand until a couple seats finally opened up. As we were standing, we talked with a couple guys from Kansas who were on their way to Copenhagen to study abroad for the semester. Pia and I kept looking for seats to open up and we saw there were two open at a four person table. The very handsome man sitting there told us his friends were at the bar and they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, so we were welcome to sit there. As I'm listening to my music and reading my book, this guy quickly leans away from the window and nearly pushes me out of my seat. Then he starts saying, "Oh, why me, why me? Oh Dear God, help me!" Pia and I looked at each other, a little confused, then saw that there was a wasp on the window. I asked if he wanted me to let him out and he said he would be fine... then the wasp started moving and he yelled, "yes yes, let me out!" Then he grabbed his bags and never came back. I´ve never seen a man so afraid of a wasp before.
Once we got to Salzburg, we found our hostel quite easily. After checking in, we went to find dinner (a cheap burger place down the road) and walked around the beautiful city of Salzburg.
On Sunday morning, I went to a worship service at the Salzburg Cathedral. Even though it was all in German, it was still one of the highlights of my time in Salzburg. The cathedral was beautiful, and there was a choir, an organist, and instrumentalist. Then Pia and I met up at the catacombs and came back to the hostel to eat lunch. After lunch, we enjoyed Radlers and apple streudel in the beautiful Mirabell Gardens, where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed.
Our next stop was the Augustiner Beer Garden, Salzburg's biggest and most well-known beer garden. Here, we washed our own steins with water, then handed them to the man behind the counter who filled them with the fresh beer from the barrel. We sat in the beer garden for a couple hours and enjoyed our beers and brats. After the beer garden, we stopped in one of the main squares to watch a "free concert" that Pia saw advertised earlier that day. This concert ended up being a German opera (with no subtitles) that we watched on a big screen, until it started to downpour.
On our last day in Salzburg, we got up really early to hike one of the mountains near the city. Pia's book said it would take about 3 hours to reach the peak. That's a lie. It took us a total of 45 minutes to climb the 300-some stairs and steep hills to the top of the mountain. I was expecting to see fields of grass, so I could be just like Julie Andrews and sing "The Hills Are Alive", but there were no meadows. Just lots of brown and dull-looking trees. But I didn't let this disappoint me... I still got my Julie Andrews picture. Which, unfortunately (maybe I should say, fortunately), I can't post using this computer.
Since it didn't take us that long to climb back down the mountain, we still had plenty of time in our day. Pia stayed in Salzburg and I went to St. Gilgen, a place where my Godmother used to vacation as a child when she lived in Germany. It was about a 50 minute bus ride away from the city, into the Bavarian Alps of Austria.
I walked around the town of St. Gilgen and then just sat by the water, ate a couple peaches, read my book, and did some people-watching. It was a perfect afternoon.
When I got back to Salzburg, I took a nap, then woke up JUST IN TIME for our last chance to watch The Sound of Music in our hostel. Pia and I ran downstairs right as they were putting in the DVD. We watched my favorite movie of all time and ate some Wiener Schnitzel. Such Austrians.
I can definitely say that Salzburg was one of my favorite cities so far. The mountains around the city really add something that many other cities do not have!
Prague
This past Tuesday afternoon, we made it to Prague with no problems. As we were walking to our hostel, we were stopped at a crosswalk and we saw 3 Australians who were on our walking tour in Budapest last week. This was our conversation:
The 3 Aussies: "Hey..."
Me: "Hey! Weren't you guys on our walking tour in Budapest?!"
The 3 Aussies: "No... I don't think so..."
(This is when I looked at Pia to make sure I wasn't crazy)
Pia and me: "Yeah...you were..."
The 3 Aussies: (completely ignored the whole thing) "So what hostel are you looking for?"
Uhh...
I guess Pia and I weren't as big of legends in Budapest as we were in Dublin.
That night, Pia and I went to a restaurant a couple blocks away where we were able to get a 15% discount with our hostel. We each had a Pilsner and a potato pancake with sweet and sour cabbage and beef in the middle. Sounds interesting, but it was actually very good!
On Wednesday, we went on a free 3 hour walking tour around the city of Prague. The tour included the major sites in Prague - Old Town Square, The Spanish Synagogue and other areas of the Jewish Square, Municipal House Hall, The Astronomical Clock, and The National Theatre.
After the tour, Pia and I each wanted to find a cheap sweater because the weather is getting a little chillier. So we came across this store called "NewYorker", where they were playing American pop songs. When we entered this 3 story store of clothes cheaper than Forever 21, we both thought the same thing: we are going to be so happy here for the next 2 hours. And we were. (Impulse Buy Number 1)
On Wednesday night, Pia and I had plans to see a traditional Czech music concert, a gift given to us from my wonderful Godparents, Vera and Mark. Before the concert, we went to the Old Town Square for some cheap dinner and cheap beer. Then we walked to the Spanish Synagogue, where the concert was. The concert was absolutely beautiful! Thank you V&M!
On our way back to the hostel, we came across another concert on the street. This concert consisted of a string quartet who played much more contemporary music, such as ACDC and Joan Jett. They were surprisingly good as well!
On Thursday, Pia and I walked across the Chain Bridge, which is the most crowded bridge I've ever seen in my life. Then we walked up to the Prague Castle, stopping for some trdelnik, a delicious cylindrical pastry that is sold everywhere here, in Budapest as well. We spent our afternoon at a park near the castle, where we ate lunch and read for a while. We stopped in the Old Town Square (one of my favorite city squares!) for dinner again, and on the way back to our hostel, we passed the "Swan Lake" ballet advertisement that we had been passing for the past 4 days. We looked at each other and Pia said, "Let's just see how much they cost." So we walked into the ticket office, bought two tickets to Swan Lake (Impulse Buy Number 2) 45 minutes before the ballet started, ran back to our hostel (20 minutes away), quickly changed, and ran back. Unfortunately, I was changing in such a hurry that I forgot my phone was in my back pocket and it fell straight into the toilet. Yes, my Samsung Galaxy that is my only means of communication to the outside world (aside from random, free computers) fell in the toilet. And I would say that the ballet made it all worth it... but unfortunately, it did not. We most definitely saw the "budget version" of Swan Lake. And you ask, "What's the budget version?" The budget version includes a theatre that looks similar to my high school auditorium and cheap costumes that rip during the performance. One day, I will see the non-budget version of Swan Lake. One day.
Yesterday, we spent the majority of our day doing laundry. We walked all the way across town to one of the only laundromats in Prague. If you are looking for a good arm and leg workout, carry a full basket of laundry 2 kilometers uphill. That will definitely do it.
We spent our last night in Prague in the city center, listening to live music, sipping on Pilsner, and eating fried lard. (I promise we didn´t know it was fried lard before we ate it!)
Today, we arrived in Berlin! The first thing we did was eat a Currywurst. I swear, this whole trip revolves around food.
Also, my phone survived!!!! I put it in a bag of rice for 48 hours (which seemed like an eternity) and aside from the fact that it thinks the current date it September 2nd (it completely skipped over my birthday) and one button not working, I think everything else works! So Snapchat me yall... :)
Salzburg
When Pia and I left Budapest, the train to Salzburg was overbooked. We didn't make reservations because we learned from a guy we met in Venice that we don't need to if we have a Eurail Pass... although getting from city to city might take longer because we can only take certain trains (free, slow, cheap, overbooked trains). But that's what we've been doing ever since and it's worked out well for the most part!
For the first three hours of the train ride, we had to stand until a couple seats finally opened up. As we were standing, we talked with a couple guys from Kansas who were on their way to Copenhagen to study abroad for the semester. Pia and I kept looking for seats to open up and we saw there were two open at a four person table. The very handsome man sitting there told us his friends were at the bar and they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, so we were welcome to sit there. As I'm listening to my music and reading my book, this guy quickly leans away from the window and nearly pushes me out of my seat. Then he starts saying, "Oh, why me, why me? Oh Dear God, help me!" Pia and I looked at each other, a little confused, then saw that there was a wasp on the window. I asked if he wanted me to let him out and he said he would be fine... then the wasp started moving and he yelled, "yes yes, let me out!" Then he grabbed his bags and never came back. I´ve never seen a man so afraid of a wasp before.
Once we got to Salzburg, we found our hostel quite easily. After checking in, we went to find dinner (a cheap burger place down the road) and walked around the beautiful city of Salzburg.
 |
| Radlers. Can you guess which one is Pia's? |
 |
| Apple strudel |
 |
| In the beer garden with our steins! |
Since it didn't take us that long to climb back down the mountain, we still had plenty of time in our day. Pia stayed in Salzburg and I went to St. Gilgen, a place where my Godmother used to vacation as a child when she lived in Germany. It was about a 50 minute bus ride away from the city, into the Bavarian Alps of Austria.
I walked around the town of St. Gilgen and then just sat by the water, ate a couple peaches, read my book, and did some people-watching. It was a perfect afternoon.
 |
| This one´s for you, GV! |
When I got back to Salzburg, I took a nap, then woke up JUST IN TIME for our last chance to watch The Sound of Music in our hostel. Pia and I ran downstairs right as they were putting in the DVD. We watched my favorite movie of all time and ate some Wiener Schnitzel. Such Austrians.
I can definitely say that Salzburg was one of my favorite cities so far. The mountains around the city really add something that many other cities do not have!
Prague
This past Tuesday afternoon, we made it to Prague with no problems. As we were walking to our hostel, we were stopped at a crosswalk and we saw 3 Australians who were on our walking tour in Budapest last week. This was our conversation:
The 3 Aussies: "Hey..."
Me: "Hey! Weren't you guys on our walking tour in Budapest?!"
The 3 Aussies: "No... I don't think so..."
(This is when I looked at Pia to make sure I wasn't crazy)
Pia and me: "Yeah...you were..."
The 3 Aussies: (completely ignored the whole thing) "So what hostel are you looking for?"
Uhh...
I guess Pia and I weren't as big of legends in Budapest as we were in Dublin.
That night, Pia and I went to a restaurant a couple blocks away where we were able to get a 15% discount with our hostel. We each had a Pilsner and a potato pancake with sweet and sour cabbage and beef in the middle. Sounds interesting, but it was actually very good!
On Wednesday, we went on a free 3 hour walking tour around the city of Prague. The tour included the major sites in Prague - Old Town Square, The Spanish Synagogue and other areas of the Jewish Square, Municipal House Hall, The Astronomical Clock, and The National Theatre.
After the tour, Pia and I each wanted to find a cheap sweater because the weather is getting a little chillier. So we came across this store called "NewYorker", where they were playing American pop songs. When we entered this 3 story store of clothes cheaper than Forever 21, we both thought the same thing: we are going to be so happy here for the next 2 hours. And we were. (Impulse Buy Number 1)
On Wednesday night, Pia and I had plans to see a traditional Czech music concert, a gift given to us from my wonderful Godparents, Vera and Mark. Before the concert, we went to the Old Town Square for some cheap dinner and cheap beer. Then we walked to the Spanish Synagogue, where the concert was. The concert was absolutely beautiful! Thank you V&M!
 |
| dinner in the Square |
 |
| inside the Spanish Synagogue |
 |
| dinner in the Old Town square |
Yesterday, we spent the majority of our day doing laundry. We walked all the way across town to one of the only laundromats in Prague. If you are looking for a good arm and leg workout, carry a full basket of laundry 2 kilometers uphill. That will definitely do it.
We spent our last night in Prague in the city center, listening to live music, sipping on Pilsner, and eating fried lard. (I promise we didn´t know it was fried lard before we ate it!)
Today, we arrived in Berlin! The first thing we did was eat a Currywurst. I swear, this whole trip revolves around food.
Also, my phone survived!!!! I put it in a bag of rice for 48 hours (which seemed like an eternity) and aside from the fact that it thinks the current date it September 2nd (it completely skipped over my birthday) and one button not working, I think everything else works! So Snapchat me yall... :)
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