Hallo und herzlich willkommen auf Austira. Zie keyboards are different, so forgive me if my y's become z's and other funny business. The overnight bus ride from Prague to Salzburg in an aisle seat after not properly sleeping was a bit tough, but nothing a good snooze couldn't fix. Getting dropped off 4-5 km from the hostel in the suburbs at 5am and hardly half-awake was a little bit awesome, seriously. Knowing that nothing would be open at that hour (gas-station coffee never tasted so good), I walked to the hostel. I hadn't planned on it raining so much during the walk, but it was no matter. Halfway there I stumbled upon a criss-crossing underground tunnel system beneath the intersection which was littered with nice graffiti, and was quite nice to walk through alone in the dark (photos to follow).
A walk around town and a trip to the supermarket yielded a bounty of truffle salami and an assortment of cheeses (which did not make my belly rumble), along with some potato salad and deliciously seeded bread. At the cafe bar I met an older German man named Manfred who was in town for his son's birthday, and we had a nice long chat about everything German. He was stationed in Winnipeg for a time as a German soldier, and his English was much better than my German! He was griping a bit about the solidarity tax that the West Germans still have to pay for the re-building of East German infrastructure, and he felt that it was unfair now that West German infrastructure in his opinion has fallen behind, and yet they still must pay this tax which the East Germans don't. He said that the re-unification of the country is still largely incomplete in a spiritual sense; he described things as 'fractured'. After some tips on good Germanic foods and beers (local brews are always the best, he said), I bid him farewell and headed for a darkened evening stroll to Motzartplatz for an view of whatever I could still see.
On my way back around, some young Austrians were having a beer by the river and literally poured a whole bottle down my throat. With these new friends, we marched from club to club for about an hour, never staying in one place for long. There was no room to dance in the main club, it was more like a squishy sardine situation. I believe that I was the oldest person in the club, it was really a foreign feeling! With no room to exercise my excellent repertoire of dance moves, and feeling a little bit self-conscious about my age, after a quick session of being a photographer and lying about being friends with Justin Bieber, I marched back to the YoHo hostel for a good night's sleep.
Now, hopefully the weather will cooperate for some nice views of the Alps from Gaisberg mountain, then for a hop on a train to Vienna to meet some friends I met in Prague.
Sorry, auf Wiedersehen!
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