No kangaroos in Austria...

Yes, it's a sad but true fact that a T-shirt in Salzburg stated, but I had a wonderful weekend in Austria despite the lack of marsupials. Myself and two other american students (Chad and Dallas) caught the four-hour train from Stuttgart at 5:50am. (yes. I know. but we wanted as much time as possible there.) In Salzburg we met up with a couple other american students in the same program, one of whom lived nearby, and set of to see the city.

As a whole, Salzburg [Here, but winter for some reason] has a lot to see, but its all packed into a fairly small area by the River Salzach and flanked by substantial hills on both sides of the river. One of these hills has been fortified since the before the middle ages and the entire hill seemed to have walls and towers growing out of the rock. The top is dominated by the multi-tiered Hohensalzburg fortress, which exudes a very commanding precense of the area.

Hohensalzburg Fortress, from across the river

There were several amazing cathedrals all within a couple blocks of each other. A couple of these were amazingly ornate, with delicate stone carving all the way to the lofty arches and huge paintings on the ceilings. The feeling a walking into these lofty, delicate stone vaults is indescribable. Somewhere halfway between a vast cave and a palace/museum.

Largest cathedral in Salzburg. The display visible at the end is about 4 stories tall

Nearby was St. Peter;s, another smaller cathedral that dated from several epochs earlier. It was nestled right up against the shear fortified cliffs but several buildings were built up into the cliff face over a shallow system of caves known as the catacombs. Crypts were visible form inside, but no artifacts on display.

Catacombs at St. Peter's from below. Don't miss the very upper left part.

After perusing most of the other sights in downtown (Including Mozart's birthplace and Mozart's residence and Mozart's this and Mozart's that), we hiked on up the fortress hill which provided views of both the city and of the different lines of fortifications that had been built up over the years. Many were just like I'd imagined: Old castle walls and arches overgrown but reasonable intact. The walls of the main fortress were nothing short of monumental from up close, and it was hard to tell where the cliff ended and the walls began.

Old remains of a wall on the fortress hill

We were lucky enough to be at Salzburg the weekend of a big festival there, but compared to the World Cup festivites in Germany, it seemed downright tame. But we got to see a parade and get some of the street food (roasted half a chicken... so good!) that Salzburg is supposedly well known for. We hiked up the hill on the other side of the river, got a beautiful sunset, then checked into our hotel and (finally) met up with the other student from Stuttgart who was planning on coming with us. (Life is different without cell phones!)

After a restful night at the hotel (quite nice and not extremely expensive... all the hostels had been booked so it was actually the cheapest place available) and a good breakfast, we set out for our Sunday activities. Turns out the student from the Salzburg area had a company car to use, so all six of us drove about 40 kilometers along the edge of the alps to the seven lakes region. There are a series of seven large (scale of kilometers) lakes nestled in the foothils of the alps, right [Here]. Did I mention it was absolutely beautiful?!

Wolfgangsee in Austrian alps foothills

All of us decided to opt out of the 26€ train ride to the top of a nearby mountain, but instead those of us feeling energetic blasted up a trail for a bit over an hour and probably got close to 3 miles in and 2000 feet up. Got into some absolutely cliche alps territory! Goats and little houses and steep slopes... Even hit some snow in a ravine with some (small) ice caves. I cannot wait to get deeper into the alps some future weekend!

A (flat) meadow in the Alps

After that, we drove back to the city to get one of girls to her train and the rest of us just chilled in a park and played cards for an hour or so until we caught our train back to Stuttgart. I think I will always remember this weekend as the trip that everything "just worked out." (There are more reasons for this than mentioned... close connections, not knowing how to contact each other, etc) But literally everything worked out nicely and I am left with great memories of Austria!