to Austria

This was the big day. The departure from home base. This morning we packed up and caught our 9:30 train. Boy I’ll miss that station with it’s hour long lines and over priced water. For a while it seemed like we were there everyday, that’s how much we liked it. But anyway, we said goodbye and got out our train that stopped in a little town just outside of Venice we’d never been to before. Our train running slightly late, our 20 minute layover was shortened to 5 minutes during which we leaped off the train into an unfamiliar station where we then had to transfer to a bus. Of course it couldn’t be at all clear where the busses pick up so we ended up running (hobbling... Lots of bags mind you) through the station, down some stairs, around a corner, ask directionsed, ran down a street and then across a street and we were the last to get our bags under the bus before he closed it. Then we embarked upon the 2 hour bus ride that for some reason took 4.... It was never clear why. We got off the bus in Villach, a little Austrian town (I just love that name for some reason. Pronounced Vill- Lock) where they played the song, “Fuck You” by Lilly Allen in the grocery store, and finally we got on our LAST train. Lots of travel today. We took nearly the most convoluted way of getting here that we could- although there were actually worse. By the time we arrived in Salzburg it was about 8:45.

Longer than necessary trip aside, let me just say that Austria. Is. Beautiful. We were on the bus when we crossed the border into Austria. Driving through Italy it was flat, flat, flat, flat, then we came to the check point into Austria and MOUNTAINS. It was mountains the rest of the way. It was an amazingly immediate change. The last train had views like I’ve never seen. I kept trying to take pictures but they didn’t do the sights justice. We had really large and tall windows on our train and sometimes the mountains were so tall you couldn’t see the top from where you were sitting. There were huge jagged pastures of bright green grass covered in little black shacks and white pointy churches. It was rather cloudy and foggy but the mistiness added to its mysterious charm. Just awesome.

When we finally got off the train in Salzburg- by far the biggest city we’d seen. Everything else was villages- we were struck by the crisp air. Molto crisp. In fact, according WeatherUnderground.com it is currently 54 degrees. Quite the change from the 90/ 100s we were “used to” in Italy. We realized also that we had no idea where we were going and when we found our relative location on a map vs the location of our hostel, we figured a taxi would be needed. Our super friendly taxi driver pointed things out to us and constantly let us know where we were. When we asked what we should do while we were here he said, “well tomorrow you can come to a bible reading with me. It’s in English actually so you’ll do well.” We might have to take him up on that.

Turns out our hostel is kind of on the edge of Old Town. Not too far away from things, but not close enough that we really wanted to go out exploring at 9 at night when it was wet and cold and we had no idea where we were. The hostel itself, we noticed as we walked up to it, is a “youth hostel” making it appropriate of younger people and families. This can be good and bad. It means children but probably nicer accommodations- and both of these things turned out to be true. When we walked in, I told them my name and they asked, “you have a 6 person dorm room reserved?” “Yes.” “Well you can upgrade for a private for free.” I don’t know what kind of deal that was but after some deliberation we took it. The rooms here actually amazingly new looking and clean. It looks like we were the first people in our rooms AND we have our own bathroom and this may be the cheapest place we’re staying. So far so good, Austria. Now we just have to hope for a day without rain tomorrow so we can go explorin! Possibly by bicicletta. I’ll let you all know how Mozart’s house is later. Yeah. That’s right. Be jealous.