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Where to start. Arrived in Vienna with the sun sinking over the Bavarian fields. My hostel turned out to be well...not quite as pleasant as the sunset. Place was more institutional than hospitable, and had an enormous amount of high school kids on field trips. Blew through most of the main sights by myself the next day. Stephansdom cathedral was very impressive, and I paid to take a tour of the catacombs. One chamber had the remains of over six hundred plague victims and the guide told us the church had to stop giving mass for a while because the rotting corpse smell was overwhelming. While waiting to climb the almost four hundred step tower, a group of led students came along and evidently had prearranged entrance. Snuck up the tower with the group. Being short has it's advantages. The evening far outdid the earlier part of the day due to the shonbronn palace. This place didn't look like all that much from the entrance that I took, but coming around the side left me with an awestriking view of expansive gardens, statues, and fountains. Europe in a nutshell I guess but still amazing. Looking from the palace steps-first there were four large gardens with specially designed flower arrangements, then after these was an enormous fountain with so much detail I didn't have nearly enough patience to appreciate it, followed by a green hill leading up to some type of gate/building with statues.
All of this spanned for around a half mile from the palace, and everything was flanked by countless statues. Made my way through some of the trails outside of the main drag and found lots of other similar stuff. Also sat down and had a nice traditional bowl of goulash while overlooking all of this. Due to the hostel and lack of backpackers down to meet someone new, I was ready for Salzburg the next day. On the train over I met a ukranian guy living in new York named roman and a girl from Iowa named Jessica. I'm noticing most of my start up conversations are taking the same path, but the initial stuff worked out and we all got lunch. They were supposed to get to Munich for the German game, but I managed to convince them to stay a while. Or maybe Salzburg did. Very beautiful little town with some cool castles, churches, and of course mozart's house!!! Even had the chance to use the old chaps toilet. Next day was by far the most memorable I will take from austria. Don't know if you've seen band of brothers or are up on your world war two trivia, but hitler received a nice chateau in the alps for his fiftieth birthday which happens to be very close to Salzburg. Hopped the train in the morning and met two interesting and well traveled elementary school principles by noon. They toyed with the idea of trudging up the mountain, but took the harshly overpriced bus leaving me hoofing it alone up the beast. Was going strong the first hour, but had to remind myself how bad it must have been for easy company fighting their way up the very same path I was walking. Unbelievably, while thinking this, I looked down and saw a discharged bullet casing! Couldn't believe my eyes...I know they are all over parts of Germany but that battle was pretty significant. Definitely worth the weight to bring home and keep for good. Very very few people made the hike up which made me feel like I deserved finding it. The view from the top will be much better described by my pictures. Had some spagetti to refuel and began my descent. Started a convo with some Dutch middle aged guys and wound up driving with them back to the train station. They found out I was yet to try the half liter heiferweisen beers, so we wound up talking about everything from politics to prostitues over a few of bavaria's best. Nearly missed my train back. This morning I took a quick bike ride to get some blood pumping through my sore legs and now I'm halfway to Prague!
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