Salzburg

Today I move on to country number six, Switzerland. I have spent the last three nights in Salzburg, the home of The Sound of Music (hence the title of my last post - I guess I didn't explain that very well). The hostel I stayed at played the film every night at 8pm. I never actually sat down and watched it, but definitely heard bits and pieces and had songs stuck in my head the next day because of it though. I liked Salzburg. It was a fun little town (that wasn’t so little actually) and was sad to leave today – especially when I walked outside and saw how nice it was and how crisp and amazing the Alps looked. My consolation was that I am heading to Switzerland where I will continue to see the mountains.

In Salzburg I visited several sights. I went to the big fortress on top of the old town. I walked up to it and then took a little tram like thing down. I also tried to visit a monastery. The site was on my tourist map and it had open hours, so I went and knocked on the door. A monk answered and explained to me that the site was not open to visitors but I was welcome to tour the church on site. Oops! I also got to have some Austrian apple strudel and bought some souvenirs. I also found a reasonably priced charm for my charm bracelet for the first time since Munich.

My trip is steadily moving on and it’s weird to think that I’m almost half way through. I have very mixed emotions about the whole thing and they seem to change daily. My journey (as always) seems to be ever changing. I had planned to make Milan my first stop in Italy (after Switzerland) but I am unable to get tickets to see The Last Supper painting, my reason for going to Milan, so I have decided not to go. I will instead spend an extra day in Venice and an extra day in Florence, which I am quite excited about as they are both cities that I love.

I will spend a total of three nights in Switzerland (two in Zurich and one in Bern) – it’ll be a quick trip, but I think it’ll be the right amount of time. Switzerland is expensive and I would prefer not to spend the extra money. I will be staying with a couch surfing host in Zurich, but will be in a hostel in Bern. I will keep you all posted, of course, as to how things pan out.

I posted pictures of Salzburg, it’s my sixth album on facebook. There are so many pictures to put up, I am impressed that some of you are able to keep up! At the rate I’m going I think I will be somewhere between 12 and 15 albums by December. Goodness that is a lot! I also discovered how to upload videos and that has been my new thing to do. Some of you have found them on facebook and some have said that they’ve had trouble. I discovered that I had the video link hidden, but I’ve made it visible now so you should be able to find it.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. I am sure there are more things that have happened but my mind is a t a bit of a loss at the moment. I’m happy just sitting here being mesmerized by the Alps. I can’t imagine people waking up to these mountains every day of their lives. I am jealous – they are beautiful! I always laughed when I saw pictures of them because they looked fake, like someone had digitally created them, but the truth is that is how they look, but ten times more majestic and beautiful. God knew what he was doing when he put them together, that’s for sure.