D27: Salzburg, Austria

When I departed from the United States, I’d packed the same rain jacket I’d packed for my hike and although I only used a few times, I discovered a rain jacket loses its effectiveness when stuff in a backpack for three months on end (and also it kind of smelled) so I sent it home with my parents when they left from Venice. I’d been nervous about not having a rain jacket since Europe is notoriously rainy this time of the year and I was lucky to snag a nice North Face jacket in Florence on clearance. I hadn’t needed it until this morning when I stepped out of the train station in Salzburg.

view of the fortress

I walked the mile and a half from the train station to the hostel since it was only a slight drizzle and I wanted the exercise. I dropped off my bags then began my tour de Salzburg by visiting a few coffee shops and taking a slow, but highly caffeinated start to my day. I was honestly pretty tired but set my sights on the castle/fotressed perched on top of the mountain/hill at the edge of town. I could pay $10 for a ride to the top or just walk, so of course I walked.

Fortress Hohensalzburg is set overlooking the city, which got its name for the salt mines (Salz is salt). The fortress was key to defending the region and had been developed over several thousand years until ultimately growing into the magnificent compound it is today. I am a sucker for castles, and I spent several hours absolutely geeking out over the castle and its history.

Since I still felt tired from being sick, I headed back to the hostel earlier in the evening after stopping by the grocery store for dinner. Since I would be going to Budapest tomorrow, I watched the Grand Budapest Hotel which turns out has nothing to do with the city of Budapest but it is still one of my favorite movies.

It was an early night since I needed to be at the train station by 6am.