Salzburg, Austria!

We arrived by train. One of Leslie's friends, Loui from back home, met us at the train station and hung out with us for the night. He took us around Salzburg, by the river, and through books streets on the way to our hostel.  Our hostel is seriously the nicest one we've stayed in yet! There were fluffed pillows, the bed was made, towels sitting out on our beds...  WITH MINTS ON THEM!  Also, they upgraded us from a 16 bed female dorm to a 4 bed room! It's seriously like a hotel!  There is a bathroom in here too.. AND a hair dryer!  I wasn't going to shower today.. until I saw that hair dryer Hah!  After we dropped off our things we went and got some sushi, and just hung out for the night.

Out first day, we got a little tour from Loui's dad, Joe!  He took us all around Salzburg; to the cathedrals, platzen (plazas), bier gardens, and some sound of music sights!  It was great!  Then we had lunch in a market; cheese sausage, spicy mustard, bread, and a Salzburg bier!!

He took me on his bike to Augusteiner where we got our first real biergarten experience... This was seriously a culture blast. And it was awesome.

We learned that to be a real bier garden you need to have chestnut trees in it. They allow just enough shade in the summertime, and when it rains there's enough leaf cover to not allow water to come through for about an hour. 

Now, to get an actual bier, You have to first decide on a size, and get a mug, which were all lined up the wall when you fist walk in. Then you wash it off in a fountain (a statue fountain). They were washed already, but the reason you rinse them again is to get them cold on preparation for the beer. Then you pay, keep the receipt, and when you get to the beer guy hand in the receipt, slam down and slide your mug over to him, and He fills it with beer!  From A BARREL. Loved that part... There were 2 lines, 2 places to pay, and 2 beer guys, and 2 taps.. one on each side of the barrel. It was great. I've never been served beer that way before!  Then they slam and slide it back down to you.. and it overflows a little, and the ground is all wet because of it. It's great. They have little market places inside the building too for food or other liquor. Places to buy food, such as sausage, fish on a stick (& I'm not kidding.. it's literally a fish on a stick.. and still looks like a legit fish), little bottles of liquor (Joe bought us apricot schnapps), pastries, and many other types of food! These little places are in Augusteiner, but they are not required to buy from. They don't bring in any money for the bierhaus, they are just there as an option. You may also choose to bring your own food, which is absolutely fine, the only thing that is required in order to be there, is buying a bier!  Then you go out into the garden to enjoy!

Loui met up with us after He got off work and we walked around town again, and stopped to get something to eat. Not sushi this time though.. something a bit more substantial.

We met in the garden, the next say, that Julie Andrews and the kids were filmed seeing "doe a deer!" It was very exciting.  After lunch we went past the Sound of Music house!  We were on our way to visit the school Loui works and hung out there awhile. Then he had to work.
Came back later on that night, and we watched a bit of the Sound of Music (our hostel plays it every night night lol), then Eurotrip! ...Amongst stopping it and chatting quite a bit.  Then we had to say goodbye.

We were heading to Munich in the morning.

Another bittersweet goodbye.. I thinking this will be a constant occurrence throughout this adventure..

<3 M