Lauren and Raul would like to wish Caitelin a very happy birthday today! Happy 27th! Lauren misses you very much and can’t wait to talk to you again soon!

Days 0 to 4 have been updated with the journal entries. Unfortunately, the computer Raul and Lauren are using in Salzburg will not allow pictures to be transferred off the camera, so those will be posted at a later time.

Raul and Lauren said good-bye to their kind host Gerhard and mosied along to the boat dock. They were pleasantly surprised to find Ian and Brenda there, waiting for the same ferry to take them across the lake to the train station. They spent the journey to Salzburg sharing travel stories, and Raul and Lauren were interested to learn about life in California.

At the transfer point, Lauren and Raul decided to ride in a six-person compartment and ending up sharing it with a couple from Seattle, whom they had previously met on the ferry in Hallstatt. They gave Raul and Lauren advice about hikes around Salzburg and also about working for the Semester at Sea university program.

It is always nice to meet and get to know interesting people while travelling.

In Salzburg, they ascended Mönchsberg, a small mountain in the city, to Gasthaus Stadtalm, the hostel they had chosen for their lodging. Fortunately, they had beds available.

Next, Raul and Lauren made their way to Festung Hohensalzburg, a fortress overlooking the city. They opted to walk up rather than take the funicular. Near the top, they were dismayed to find that they would have to pay most of what it would have cost to ride the funicular to enter the fortress anyway. The fortress has a good view of the city below, but it was not worth the effort or cost to get there. At least the entrance ticket they were forced to buy included a ride down the funicular.

Also inside the fortress grounds, they ran into Brenda and Ian again as they were going to a concert. Lauren was especially glad to see Brenda, because she was “having a rough time,” as Ian put it, and so was Lauren. The heat, hunger, and disorientation was taking its toll. It would be nice to see a water fountain once in a while.

Raul and Lauren had a quick dinner at Saran Essbar Restaurant. They have begun to see a pattern of exceptional quality in restaurants run by non-Europeans, who are more attentive and eager to please. The food was tasty, but they were in a hurry to get to a concert and could not linger for dessert. Unfortunately, they discovered that the “nearly nightly” concerts at Mirabell Palace were not offered that night.

They meandered back to the old town and tried to find a way up Mönchsberg now that the elevator is not running. Will they make it back to their hostel tonight?

Republik Österreich