It is always a suspenseful time, boarding a train, bus, or some other form of public transportation, because human interaction is almost always guaranteed. This can be good or bad, depending on who you are interacting with and what the circumstances are. In the case of my train ride to Salzburg, on the morning of the 30th of September, this interaction devolved into a horrible 2 hour ordeal. I got on the train and started looking for a seat, it was pretty packed. However, there was a set of four seats, two facing two, which I noticed and there was only one older man sitting in one of them with his backpack next to him. I always enjoy the groups of four seats because they allow for much more room for my legs. So I asked the man if the seats across from him were free and he said yes. Well, not even a minute into the train ride this sixty-something year old man realized that I was American somehow, I still have no idea how. I realized something about him, he was quite intoxicated. For the first half hour it wasn't a huge problem. He told me a lot of interesting information about the land and culture, between strong fits of unnecessary laughter, and I actually learned a bit and was able to practice my German, since he spoke no English. However, after those first thirty minutes and the downing and refilling of his 60% vodka and 40% Pepsi drink, it became too much and started to get a little tiresome. I pretended I fell asleep and managed to make it the rest of the way. Upon reaching Salzburg I wished him a good day and hurriedly made my way out of the train.
I met Johanna and her family there in the station, as they had been so kind as to come pick me up, (they live in a town maybe 30 minutes outside of Salzburg) and I began my absolutely amazing stay in Austria. I was extremely lucky to have the Eggers, there were the kindest people and most awesome hosts a traveler could hope for! We began by going to the Red Bull Museum by the airport in Salzburg, where some of the cars, planes, and other apparatuses that Red Bull sponsors are on display. I never knew this, but the creator of Red Bull is an Austrian, and Red Bull's headquarters are in a small town outside of Salzburg. I don't know how many of you are Red Bull drinkers, but you can feel good about buying a can of the energy drink now. It turns out the CEO puts a lot of the money back into the community there near Salzburg and is almost an empire there. Red Bull owns a soccer team, has that museum, provides phone services, and even has a monthly magazine that is distributed.
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| You can barely see the very exclusive bar/lounge on the roof of the museum. |
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| Might be a thrilling ride in the front seat of this plane? |
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| The airport runways can be seen through the glass there. |
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| There is a man who will soon attempt the highest freefall ever, Red Bull sponsors him. This was the suit from one of his earlier endeavors. |
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| Johanna and I |
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| In the background you can see an exclusive restaurant on the top level and the café we ate at on the lower level |
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| (From left to right) Johann, Katha, and Gerda |
From the museum we went the round about way home, by way of some of the sites of Sound of Music, the Red Bull headquarters, and the best Eis (ice cream) shop in the world, just to name a few. We then continued home and ate a delicious meal cooked by Gerda before watching the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup is a tournament that is put on every two years and consists of a team of the best golfers from the U.S. facing off against the best from Europe. The tournament alternates between a European location and a U.S. location. All Egger family members are golfers so the Ryder Cup is no small deal. Even though I do not follow golf, I found myself very interested in the tournament and stayed up until midnight with Johann and Gerda silently cheering for team U.S.A., who in the end suffered a crushingly close defeat to team Europe. Then
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| This is the church from the Sound of Music wedding. This small town is also home the the Eis studio which Johann has claimed is easily the best in the world. |
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The Red Bull headquarters is made almost fully of glass.
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I remained with the Eggers for two full days and left the morning of the 3rd. Unfortunately, I can't describe the whole trip in detail because there is just way too much! But what I can do is post a bunch of pictures and let them do all the talking! ...with a little commentary by myself of course! I will separate the pictures into the two days that I was there. The first day Johanna and I went into Salzburg, where she gave me the grand tour, and then the second day we went on a bike ride all over the countryside and surrounding area.
DAY 1: SALZBURG
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| This is actually a picture out of the Eggers' dining room window, they have a huge floor to ceiling window which has an AMAZING view! The whole house was gorgeous though, mostly designed by Johann. |
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| After hearing about it from a Swede in my language course, I finally wend to IKEA for the first time. |
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| Tunnel going through a hill in Salzburg. |
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| The Dom (Cathedral) in Salzburg |
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| A picture of a statue in one of the Salzburg squares, with Festung Hohensalzburg (Festung - Fortress) in the background |
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| Picture out one of the canon windows of the Festung |
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| View of the old keeper of the Kraut's lodge from the top tower of the Festung |
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| Salzburg as seen from the tower |
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| Backyard of one of the Festung residences |
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| In between the two big buildings, with the flowers above its door, you can see the smallest house in Salzburg |
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| Mozart's birth house |
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| Mirabel Palace gardens |
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| Johanna cooked delicious traditional Austrian meals two of the three nights! |
DAY 2: BIKE RIDING IN THE AUSTRIAN COUNTRYSIDE
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| Johanna took me to a very peaceful and picture perfect stream at the end of one of the gorges in the area |
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| The water was so clean you could drink it...we filled up our water bottles |
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| A lake we passed on the return trip |
This is a picture of a fleet of ducks that came all the way from the other side of the lake to see if we had any food. It looked somewhat akin to a naval assault. It felt like one too. After they reached our shores a couple of them proceeded to mount an offensive. They rushed up to our bikes and proceeded to try to eat Johanna's shoe. When that proved futile, they moved on to her bike, in a bid to consume the tires and kickstand. They couldn't manage to perform this feat either and turned back towards friendly territory, demoralized and defeated. There courage will live on. When most ducks won't come within a few feet of you, even if you have bread, these two came up and nibbled my fingers when I put my hand out.
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| Our last stop before home the second day was a waterfall |
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| View from the top |
What it comes down to is that there is no way I could put the trip in words. I am so incredibly blessed to be able to be here in Europe and to have such kind friends and families that are willing to take me in and show me around.Thank you so much Eggers for showing me such incredible hospitality and making my trip to Austria so fantastic and truly unforgettable! Well, hopefully these last two entries weren't two much (pun intended), but I have been meaning to get my Austria trip up for a while now and won't be able to post again for at least a week so I thought it better to just do it. Auf Wiedersehen und bis nächste Woche!
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| The two valiant warriors in action |
