When we were dropped off in Salzburg from our carpool guy, Brad and I found ourselves at a cafe with free ifi wto get into contact with our couchsurfing host, Christina. She immediately offered to pick us up… with a half baked cake in her car (that was for US!!) and brought us back to her old house. We were going to have the whole house to ourselves since she was already moved into her new one…cool! It was really cute with a big garden full of tomatoes and other veggies, and the inside was decorated with tons of souvenirs from India. While the cake finished baking, we sat down and enjoyed really great conversation for hours over shisha and tea. Christina gave us tons of great tips about India and also taught us a lot about the Austrian government…complete with some pretty cool personal stories! We finally parted ways after devouring the cake, and Brad and I went to bed excited to explore the city tomorrow!
Brad watering the garden!
Salzburg is a quaint little city on a river and probably most famous these days for being where “The Sound of Music” was set…they even have tours, although Brad and I couldn’t bring ourselves to do it! Brad did agree to watch the movie with me though since he had never seen it 
We walked around the streets for a while, which were pretty typical of Europe… paved pedestrian streets filled with shopping! It’s always nice to look though! We avoided most shops but couldn’t resist one lady who had a stand full of giant pretzels with crazy toppings. We picked out one covered with chocolate to eat right away (which sadly turned out to be a bit disappointing, but still yummy!) and one filled with bacon and cheese for the next morning which we baked in the oven and was AMAZiNG!!
Pedestrian street!
Chocolate pretzel!
Eventually we made our way up to the famous castle on top of a big hill that overlooks the town. There is a train that takes you vertically up the mountain, but Brad and i opted for walking, as we usually do! It wasn’t a bad hike, just hot, AND when we finally got to the top, the entrance fee was outrageous so we skipped it! We figured we just wanted to see the views anyway, so found our own wall to climb for a beautiful and private view! After a pretty full day exploring the town, we felt satisfied that we had seen what we wanted, and made our way back to Christina’s!
Beautiful view from the castle!
Brad and I were planning to go out with Christina and her boyfriend to a kind of underground “punk” scene in Salzburg, which apparently are not very common, but unfortunately we got back too late…after getting a bit lost on the walk home, an had no way to contact them! Luckily though, Christina stopped by the next day and took us to a garden party she had organized! It was a community garden that everyone contributed to and enjoyed! It was a really nice evening with “pay what you think is fair” food which were served on compostable plates with compostable knives and forks There was also a kind of silly looking man with a great voice walking around to everyone playing guitar for their enjoyment – 0o AND a fun playground that Brad and I played on all night!
Garden Party!
That was pretty much our time in Salzburg. It was simple, but we really enjoyed ourselves and the highlight was meeting Christina and being introduced to her lifestyle!