Chill'n in Salzburg

9-9-2008

Today was the most relaxed day I’ve had on this tour thus far. Back home, sleeping till 9am is not sleeping-in. On a trip where I want to have every waking hour I possibly can, 9am is the new noon. Once Chad, Mike, Kris and myself grabbed a quick breakfast from the hostel kitchen Nazis before they took it all away, we gallivanted around Salzburg seeing what we could see.

We saw a panoramic painting a Salzburg by Johann Michael Sattler. The entire painting is in a little round room with 12ft high walls all around, freezing a frame in time of this great city. We checked out an art exhibit that traced the history of sin throughout western art. We bought some fresh fruit, found a stairwell that led to a courtyard overlook, and picnicked there. We stopped by a café to play rummy and have a drink. Then I did the coolest thing I’ve done in Europe to date: segwayed.

For a mere €15 I cruised up and down the Salzach River just people watching. Only, most people were watching me. Those things are suprisingly easy to get used to. 

My legs were sore afterward, but I think that’s because I was a little too tense. After a few more hours on that puppy, I would have been cruising around like Job Bluth (Arrested Development anyone?)

Later that night, we went to Hohensalzburg Fortress, the dominating castle overlooking all of Salzburg right from the center. There we saw a chamber music recital consisting of pieces by Haydn and the two Mozarts. It was truly a step back in time. Sitting, listening to two violins, a viola, a cello, and a fabulous horn soloist play in a room where people would have done the same in medieval times. Truly brilliant. While we were taking the cable car down from the castle after the concert, I chatted with the horn player and the first violinist. Both had studied at the prestigious music conservatory in Salzburg.

Following the concert, a few of us celebrated our last night in Salzburg by hitting up a few clubs: Blue Heaven (which we still think may have been a gay bar), Sega Club (where an Austrian who thought we were Mexican kept buying us shots), and eventually to a karaoke bar where the bartenders hand a micropohone over the bar and the singer sings from wherever he or she chooses. Salzburg = good time.