Today was a super early day. I woke up at around 6, but I was very excited because today was the day we have a free day. Most of our group chose to go to Salzburg in Austria. I couldn’t wait to go to a new country entirely. We got on a train headed to Munich at around 7:40, and then transferred to another train that got us to Salzburg before 11am. One difference I noticed between home and here is that the transportation is significantly cheaper than it is at home. The entire 3 hour, round trip train ride was only 14 euros, which I’m assuming would cost over $100 at home.

The train system was also much more efficient, and an interesting thing I noticed was that even though the train was only going to be a minute late, it still displayed the new times on the screen, meaning it is a very efficient transportation system.

Once we arrived in Salzburg, I stepped out of the train station and immediately saw this amazing castle up on the top of a mountain. The group decided that we were going to have to visit that at some point in the day. Since we didn’t have a plan, we just started walking around and exploring the city.

First, we found this absolutely amazing garden where there was a live orchestra playing great music. We wandered around this beautiful garden for a little while, finding a gnome maze, among other things. After this, we walked down many cobblestone streets with countless shops. Unfortunately, today was a holiday in Europe and all the shops (except the tourist ones) were closed. Luckily, this didn’t affect us much since we were all just about out of euros and not planning to go on a shopping spree.

We found a gelato place pretty fast, and of course I had to get some. It was great. After that, we headed to the castle. We took an incline (kind of like Pittsburgh minus the castle part) up to the castle and it was a cool ride to see the city grow smaller and smaller. Once up at the castle, we found that it was turned into a museum which was cool to see. We lounged in chairs in the courtyard of the castle for a while which was very relaxing. Today was a super nice day too so that was great.

After this, we headed back down the incline and walked around the city a little bit more until we found a café and sat down to have some cake. After this, we headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner and then headed back on the train. Our train got stopped in the middle of our ride and about 20 police officers boarded and checked everyone’s passports. I’m super thankful I brought mine because you are not supposed to need it in the Schengen zone. I’m now writing this on the 3 hour train ride back to the hotel. Once I get back I’ll finish up packing and go to sleep early to be ready for the 4:30am wake up to leave for our flight. I can’t believe this amazing trip and experience is already over. I am so grateful to have had this experience.