Salzburg Day 2!

Day 2 began with a visit to dear Deutschland. I found it really funny that we were going to spend the morning in Germany. I mean really, who does that? I think I'll pop over to Bavaria for a bit, be back by lunch. Haha. Anyways, we embarked to Berchtesgaden, a little Bavarian town that housed the area's most famous Salt Mines. After several bus trips and much confusion we found our little salt mine and went in to take a tour.

On the road to Germany. This will actually be my only trip to Germany! Haha 3 months in Austria, 3 hours in Germany.

Beautiful Scenery

We made it to the salt mines!

This was easily the most fun we had on the entire trip. Not only did we get to go on a guided tour of the actual mines, but they gave us these STUNNING outfits to wear. They were like one piece workmen's coveralls. We had so much fun just laughing and trying them on taking loads of pictures. Then they loaded us all on a little train and took us down the mine shafts. We got out a little while later and just walked everywhere, looking at the equipment and being guided in German. It was a lot of fun! We even got to ride a boat across a subterranean salt lake. At the end our tour guide gave us each a little salt shaker. Haha. I now take it with me everywhere, just in case :)

Putting on our super attractive salt mine suits. Ganz attracktiv, as we would say.

Group pic! Me, Anne, Anna, Winona, Laura.

Haha, Laura and I are looking sooo good!

We got to slide down these old wooden slides! You can see it on the left side of this picture. They are actually surprisingly fast and produce a considerable amount of friction.

Yes. The walls were very salty.

Salt Lake! Underground and slightly unnerving. We got to take a boat ride across it though and then drink some of the water.

Everything is cooler when there's a lazer show involved!

On the train through the mines!

Outside the mines. Soo beautiful.

When we finally got back to Salzburg we headed straight for the Modern Art Museum. It was actually pretty cool, it was on the top of this huge hill with a sheer cliff face. We took up an elevator and had a gorgeous view! The museum was really interesting. There was quite a bit of work by an amazing Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. We also had lunch at Afro Cafe. It came recommended by Rick Steves. Yeah...

View from the top of the elevator in front of the Modern Art Museum.

One of the photographs in the Museum by Sugimoto. I loved his explanations for his art. This one was to capture different shades of shadow.

I thought these were cool. He would go into a theater and keep the exposure open for the entire movie. The result is a white screen. The detail in the theater is remarkable.

View from the hike down.

Our tablecloth from the Afro Cafe.

Next we just started to walk around and hit up random churches and cathedrals. We even saw a huge wedding in one of the squares. We went into the church after everyone had left and it was so beautiful! There were still all of the wedding decorations up. There were white flowers everywhere and even entire birch trees. I couldn't even imagine how much it all must have cost. It was really something. We also went around back to the St. Peter's Cemetery. There were hundreds of graves everywhere, but it was peculiar because most of the graves were recent. Some of the older ones I saw were only from the 1950's. It was really strange. But beautiful at the same times. I was really impressed how well kept they all were. Each was like a miniature garden. Beautiful. Laura and I each paid a euro and went up into the Catacombs which were built into the cliff face above the cemetery. It was neat and even though there wasn't a lot there we still managed to find stuff to take pictures of :)

View inside the Franciscan Church.

In St. Peter's Church, where the wedding took place.

Domplatz.

St. Peter's Cemetery and the beautiful graves.

The catacombs in the cliff face.

Sneaking a peek with my camera through a door hole.

Inside the first room of the Catacombs.

By now it was getting a little late, so we decided to hit up the Mirabell Palace and Gardens. They were beautiful, but I think that the ones in Vienna are prettier. We did see the Pegasus fountain that the Von Trapps danced around in The Sound of Music :) That's us, always on the lookout for Sound of Music sights. We also watched a guy wade around in the fountains looking for loose change. That was a little troubling, especially since these gardens are one of the big attractions in the city. But at least it was entertaining! We all just kinda kept looking at each other and stifling laughs. Hey, you do what you gotta do.

Recognize this from any movie?

In front of Mirabell Gardens.

The Pegasus.

After that we found a brewery, tried some Weissbier (the local specialty), and had the most AWKWARD chinese dinner ever! It's almost too hard to explain, but the waiter kept doing the strangest things. We would ask for chopsticks instead of silverware, but instead he would take away someone's plate and bring the tiniest bowl ever. And then 5 minutes later bring some chopsticks. And then Laura was busy shredding the tabs from her water bottle and he kept trying to clean up her little pieces. But she was so embarrassed and wouldn't let him touch them! She kept hiding them in cigarette dishes and things. Maybe you just had to be there, but I literally thought I was going to pee my pants from laughing! It was like the awkward interactions in a Jane Austin novel or watching the Office. Sooo funny.


On the way back to the hostel, the craziest thing happened to us. We were waiting for the bus by Mirabell gardens and decided to go walk through the park rather than sit and wait 20 minutes for the next bus. By now it's pretty dark out and there aren't a lot of people around. We walk into the garden, and there standing in the middle is this tall cloaked figure. He's kinda far away, but it was so eerie regardless. And then all of a sudden a blindfolded girl is led up to him. They take off her blindfold and the cloaked guy (we called him "Voldemort") took off his hood and walked with her to the fountain (the same fountain we saw the guy wading in earlier). They kinda look like they were talking and then they bend over and he starts baptizing her or something! It was weird and made weirder by the circle of other people standing around the fountain holding candles/torches. A few of them were even crying. Yeah. CREEPY. So Voldemort finishes baptizing (or whatever) this girl and then just walks back to where he was. And then another blindfolded person is led out. In the meanwhile I had decided to follow him around and try to get some pictures. In retrospect, it may not have been the smartest plan, but there were some other people around so I didn't see the harm in it. So yeah, that was the time that we saw Voldemort in Salzburg. Pretty strange.

Voldemort!

Lots of people with torches. Creep? I think so.