Since Spring Break, I have visited Salzburg (Austria), Prague (Czech Republic), and Krakow and Auschwitz (Poland). All three were amazing trips. In Salzburg Alyssa and I explored the city, and our hostel had a good discount on a tour package including the Sound of Music Tour and the Salt Mines Tour. The Sound of Music tour was my favorite. We drove all over Salzburg, seeing all the main sites, stopping at scenes from the movie, and even went up into the mountains and went on a luge! All the while we listened to the music from the movie, which was quite funny. The Salt mine tour was really neat too. It included 2 crazy mine slides and a light show inside the salt water lake cave we crossed by boat. Also, I discovered the meaning of Salzburg... Salz = salt.. and Burg= castle. Salt castle! haha. We also went to a Cathedral one night where the local Monks brew their own beer and sell it to the locals. It was so odd, but really fun! It was just as it sounds, a big Cathedral open to the public, filled with tables and chair where about a hundred Czech people are relaxing and drinking Monk beer out of these clay mugs. They also had a bunch of local vendors selling food so we helped ourselves to some Hamburger mit Kartoffel Salat (hamburger with potato salad). I went to get our beer and realized there was a process. You order gross or klein (big or small), grab the sizes from the shelf, rinse them in this automatic holy water fountain, and gave them to the man at the end of the table to fill up from the oak barrel of beer. It was neat, but I did feel a bit odd as I drank my monk beer while trying to decipher the scriptures written on the cathedral walls...
I also went to Prague, which I have been dying to go to this entire trip. It did not disappoint! The city is one of the most well preserved medieval towns in all of Europe, and looks like it popped out of Disney world or something. I felt like I was at some medieval theme park in Central Europe. It was so beautiful. I went there with Stephanie, and while we were there we met up with Kaitlin and 3 other Erasmus students who all happened to be going there the same weekend. Steph and I went on a free guided tour of the city, which was very interesting. I learned much about the history of the Czech Republic, and about the wars that have screwed over the Czech people time and time again. I also learned that the Czech invented 3 VERY important things: the contact lense, the sugar cube, and BEER! I learned at a Brewery tour in Vienna that Austrians come in 2nd in the average number of liters of beer consumed per person in one year. Who comes in first? Oh course, the motherland of beer, the Czech Republic! While I usually root for the underdogs, I couldn't help but support the Czech efforts in remaining number one by consuming a bit of their fine beer myself. :)
More on these stories to come! :)
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