Another early morning, but this time we are heading to Austria. Same breakfast as always, and at this point we are great at waking up early in the morning. Me and a group of 9 other students decided to spend our free day in Salzburg, Austria. I did not do much of the planning with the train but I did help a little when figuring out the plan for the day. Our first train from Augsburg to Munich was at 7:30 in the morning and we were expecting to get into Salzburg around 11:30.

The original idea was to plan out our day on the train, but to no surprise, everyone fell asleep within the first 20 minutes of the train ride. The first 30 minutes of being in Austria was a little stressful. We did not have a good idea of what we wanted to do, what was possible to get done, or where anything even was. We walked past the garden and towards what we thought was the famous castle in Austria. Soon we discovered it was the fortress in Salzburg. Sahanna found a tram ride up the hill for 6 Euros and we did not expect much. Well the day took a quick turn for the better once we got up the mountain.

First thing, the view from the fortress was amazing. You could see the entire city of Salzburg from there. We walked around and took pictures, then decided to eat lunch from the restaurant at the top of the Fortress. I have never had lunch with a better view than that day.

After lunch we have to take more pictures, we found a different side and had to appreciate that side too. We met a nice group of tourists taking photos as well. Even though we did not speak the same language we still managed to build a friendship and take a group photo.

Now that we are fed and feeling more optimistic for the day we planned what to do next, the guys wanted to find a nice place to sit and snack on food, while the girls wanted to shop around a little. We bought some touristy thing but also some clothes along with it. We were going to meet up at 4 to eat food at a pasta restaurant.

We started in Mango, and then worked our way to Zara, meanwhile hitting everything in between. Me and Stephanie Ott bought matching shirts at Zara, different colors. Sahana and Michelle went to the Mozart museum, which I later heard was very fun! After shopping all the girls meet up to walk to the restaurant. We find out it is a tiny Italian place with no menu. We sit down outside, and the waiter tells us there is no menu and we have 3 options to choose from. I have the pasta with white wine sauce and salmon, best choice I could have made. Eating pasta, sitting with friends, and reminiscing about the last two weeks was the best way to end the day in Austria. The group walks back to the train station and heads home to Augsburg.

We get home, shower, and quickly go to say goodbye to the German students. It was nice to sit around, talk and just be with everyone. We say our hard goodbyes and it’s time to go home to Ibis for one last time.