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11/8: The train ride to Salzburg was nice, lots of little villages, forests, and mountains on the way. My motion sickness kicked in towards the end, though, which wasn't so fun. As we headed towards Salzburg, it started snowing more and more. When we arrived it was SO COLD and snowing big wet flakes. The bus to the pension turned around halfway through the ride for some reason, so we had to walk the rest of the way. It was a long walk, especially w/ the snow and me feeling sick. The pension is a private home... the woman who runs it is very nice. There's a bunch of German or Austrian guys staying here too for some gastronomy fair. The room is small, but cozy.
11/9: We woke up early, ready to get a start on our day of sightseeing in Salzburg. Unfortunately, there was only enough hot water for me to wash my face and put shampoo in my hair, and then suddenly it was ice cold. I tried staying in there to rinse my hair, but it was unbearable. The hot water never came back on, so I had to walk around w/ soapy hair all day. We took the bus to the old part of Salzburg - it's ancient! More winding, narrow roads lined w/ buildings that are hundreds of years old. We went to Festung Hohensalzburg, a fortress/castle on a hill above the city. There's a little train that climbs up the hill and you get off at the top. There were lots of Japanese tourists there, and then us. We walked around a little and took some pictures, then went on a tour. The inside was amazing. SO old! We got to see a torture chamber, an old toilet ("earth closet"), and lots of other interesting things. We climbed to the top of the fortress, where we had an awesome view of the city (which would have been better if it weren't for all the snow!).
After that, we decided to walk around a little, and we stumbled upon a little graveyard. I thought it was really old, but while some of the tombstones were, others from 1999, 2003, etc. Unfortunately, the catacombs were closed, but there were 2 Americans there, one from Chicago, and we talked to them for a while.
Next we went to the cathedral. It was huge, w/ paints everywhere, even on the ceiling. Churches here are nothing like the ones in the US. We ate lunch at a little Italian restaurant, and then bought some Mozart chocolates. They're totally redundant here, but delicious nonetheless. We crossed the river to go to Mirabell Palace, but apparently only the gardens were open. They were nice, but not exactly at their full glory in November. The outside of the palace was beautiful though. We went into another church after that, St. Andra. It was awesome on the outside, but not much inside. It looked really old. After that, we went to Mozart Wohnehaus, where the Mozart family lived after they beacame famous. Seeing letters and musical scores Mozart wrote was amazing. We managed to do everything we wanted to do in Salzburg - it's such a lovely little city, and I enjoyed it much more this time than I did in 2000.