Greetings from the Yoho Youth Hostel in Salzburg, Austria!

Today was a great day at the Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves in Austria. We arrived in Salzburg yesterday afteroon. It was only a 90 minute train ride from Munich. It was a little sad leaving Munich-- we all had a fun time in that city. As we were walking to our hostel, my hand rubbed against a fuzzy feeling plant. Literally seconds later, my hand began to burn and itch very badly and then I broke out in a bumpy rash. It was not very pleasant, but it went away within the hour. We went sightseeing all day yesterday in Salzburg. We basically just explored the city in a relaxing way-- we weren't looking for anything in particular, just aimlessly walking. Jason did a great job! We did some light hiking up a hill, and honestly, Jason reached the top faster than I did. Salzburg is a lovely city with many outdoor seating resturaunts and narrow, winding streets. After a full day of sightseeing and aimless walking, we were all completely drained-- We had dinner and drinks then went back to the hostel and crashed.

This morning we woke up and had our tour to the worlds largest Ice Cave. The cave was accidently discovered in the late 1800's and has been perserved and studied every since. The bus picked us up and dropped us off directly at our hostel, which was very convenient! We drove through the spectacular Swiss Alps. I couldn't stop taking pictures-- I must have nearly 100 photographs of just the Swiss Alps and surrounding scenery. The bus ride was a bit scary when we started climbing the side of the mountain-- the road was very narrow and windy (with no ledge or bar for protection). Andrew and I kept looking at eachother with weird faces. Nonetheless, I continued to snap away at the scenery with my camera. When we got off the bus, we had a 20 minute hike up the mountain to a cable car (the cable car took us further up the mountain). The 20 minute walk was DIFFICULT because it was such a steep path. And did I have any Asthma Attacks? NOOOO!! I felt great! :) The cable car was steep and fast-- The scenic views were unbelievable. And finally, there was one more 20 minute hike to the entrance of the ice cave. This hike was steep and difficult, too-- but the aticipation of getting to the ice cave was motivation to keep walking.

Before entering the Ice Cave, we needed to put on jackets and dress in warmer clothing because the cave is around 0 degrees Celcius. When the door to the cave opens, a rush of cold air comes flowing out of the opening. You need to push through that breeze in order to enter the cave. The breeze is so strong that it will blow you back-- you really need to fight it to get in (getting out of the cave is the opposite, the breeze forcefully pushes you out of the openeing). The ice cave was so incredible, although freezing cold! Every third person on the tour is given a Magnesium Lantern to carry through the cave-- there are no lights in the cave, so the lanterns light everything up. The cave was filled with these extremely high and thick sculptures of ice upon ice. I learned that you can determine how old an ice formation is by counting the layers (I guess it's similar to counting rings on a tree). One layer represents one year. Some of the formations we saw were about 1,000 years old! It was so neat to experience an Ice Cave-- especially the worlds largest one! Jason did a great job, too! He definitely hiked up the mountain much faster than I did and he climbed over 1,000 steep stairs. Everyone on our tour was amazed by this and he was honorably mentioned by our tour guide, haha. We had a great day! Ohh yeah-- on the hike down from the Ice Cave butterflies kept landing on us! One landed on my nose, and one on Jason's hair. I have some really cool pictures of it!

Tomorrow is our last day in Salzburg, Austria. I booked The Sound of Music tour at 9am for myself. The boys aren't coming with me and they keep making fun of me-- they (particularly Jason) have been singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of mucus!" Whatever! I love The Sound of Music! :). My cold has also finally gone away, but poor Andrew is sick now. He went to bed early tonight.

I hope everyone is enjoying the blog and pictures!
Cheers!
<3 Allie, Andrew & Jason