Hallo!

Well, I survived Salzburg, and it was really nice. I can't decide whether Prague or Salzburg is my fave place now. They are both very nice and both hold good memories for me. I think the reason they are both holding such good memories is that not only were they pretty places, but I also had good hostel experiences and met some nice people. So the combination of the 2 things made it extra special.
20/2- I woke up at the ever delightful time of 4am and drove to the airport, for my 5am check-in and 7am flight. Coventry airport is... well... THRILLING! (if you like sheds with 1 tiny counter selling bottled water). I arrived in Salzburg, caught the bus to the station then walked to the hostel from there. By the time I arrived, wearing my 4 layers, my full pack and my little backpack as well, I was red and boiling hot. I dumped my pack, and went off to explore. I used my free hostel map to find my way to the fernicular up to the top of the hill where there is a fortress. I was walking around up there, and down in the old town, in just a t-shirt, trying to cool off. This drew some looks and points, but it was quite warm and glorious blue skies and sunny, with the 12'C. The view from up the top was quite good, but then the Alps were behind making it seem less high up! I then went for a walk to the river and sat on a bench filling in postcards,but the sun was setting by now, and the temp dropped so I was in 4 layers again, gloves and beanie!Back at the hostel I discovered 4 new room mates, 2 from South Korea who spoke VERY little English, and 2 from Indonesia who spoke good English.
21/2- THE DAY OF THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!! yayayayay!!! The tour guide was a rather camp guy who had some good (well rehearsed) jokes and comments and he made it a very good tour. It was another glorious, blue sky day. We had a stop over in a place called Mondsee which is by Lake Mondsee where I had proper apple strudel. More about the tour later... When I got back, I took the tour guide's (Peter's) advice and caught bus number 25 to Untersberg Mountain, where I then caught the cable car to the top. OMG! It was scary and exhilerating all at once. Dangling from a cable all that way up,and when it went through one of the 2 points that were attached to the mountain to regain the tension, it kind of falls down again and bounces a bit! SCARY! Especially the 2nd one, as you couldn't see after it and it just bounced down over a huge snow filled valley between the top peak and the point it was attached too. When I got up there it was covered in icy,old snow, which was rather hard to walk on in sneakers! It was quite cool up there, as once the annoying children had gone, it was so very quiet, surreal, the quietest place I have ever been. When I got back to the hostel I met another new roomie, Amanda, from England, who has been on an afternoon sound of music tour and she had met others from the hostel there too. We went down for dinner (schnitzel) and ended up playing card games with some of the other guys in the hostel for a couple of hours which was fun.
22/2- I got up and struggled for ideas of what to do with myself, until my tour at 2pm. I ended up going out to the old town again. I went into a store called 'Easter in Salzburg' which is all blown eggshells handpainted. A lady asked how many there were and he said around 100,000!! Then I got some souveniers, then I went back, put them in the hostel, dumped the stuff and watched the last bit of the sound of music dvd that plays every day (with the annoying girls there from America who didn't understand bits, like they had never seen it before, GRRRRR, fools!) then I went for my tour, which was very pretty, and rather informative, but we also had 2 stops of free time for around and hour which wasn't very 'value for money' on a 4 hour tour! I went to Bavaria in Germany though, and I saw some amazing views. The water was crystal clear too, which was cool. They say it's drinking quality, but I don't know about the duck poo! When I got back I played some more cards with some different people in the hostel.
23/2- I went to Mozart's home and museum in the morning, then went to the airport. Salzburg airport is slightly more exciting than Coventry! Through the other side, past security check there are a whopping 2 stores! Neither of which sell books of magazines and my flight was delayed by an hour and I had nothing to read. The flight back was uneventful, and I arrived to pouring rain in Coventry!
I am now at my Aunt's place where I appear to have completely buggered upmy right knee. YAY for me! *grumble*. Anyways, sound of music tour! I have come up with the first (and possibly only) raych's blog quiz! The first person to email me (raychl@bigpond.com) with the correct answers gets an authentic prize all the way from Austria! So, in order to win, you need to email me the spot in the Sound of Music that the following locations appear. Please email the number of the photo, followed by your answer. Good luck!

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(5) (this one is a bit tricky cos it was being rennovated)

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