Osterreich

       I, again, will not be posting any photos because it costs to use the computer here, and I'm trying to save money (I'm not doing a great job of it). Everything costs about twice as much here as it did in Eastern Europe.
       I'm staying a few nights in a hostel in Vienna. So far I have really enjoyed Austria.
       Wednesday was really just a day of traveling. I spent most of the day on a train from Cluj to Budapest. I stayed for a night in Budapest and didn't see much of it. I'll be back on the 7th and, beginning on the 10th, will be participating in a 6 day program where I will help native Hungarians developed their English language skills, so I figure I can see this city then. Hungarian currency, forints, is very confusing. Every 300 forints is equal to 1 euro (fairly close to the US dollar at this point) so its very difficult to get used to. I ended up going to an ATM and taking out 4,000 forints, only to realize later that I had withdrawn the equivalent of less than 15 US dollars. Everything is super cheap in Hungary, so I only spent half of that in the time I was there anyways.
       On Thursday I caught a train to Salzburg, Austria. The train itself and the station I arrived at was such a contrast to what I had experienced with trains in Romania. The train was clean and comfortable and very fast. The station was well kept and clean and the people there looked like they were happy to be there. I found my hostel very easily and basically just hung out there for the rest of the evening.
       The next day I caught a bus, just over the German boarder, to visit the salt mines. The hills around Salzburg are so beautiful and the Alpine mountains are incredible and often reached into the clouds. The mines were very cool and I had a lot of fun on the tour. Later that evening, when I got back into Salzburg, I was hungry and decided to seek out the Augustiner Brewery for some food and beer. I found it just below a huge Gothic style church in the city center and ventured inside. I was expecting the bar type atmosphere that I'm used to in the breweries back at home. The first door opened into a large and quiet hall and this made me a bit uneasy. I walked a ways in and approached a set of large wooden, double doors and could hear the muffled roar of a crowd of people. I opened one of the doors and found myself in an all out Austrian beer party. There where people dressed in lederhosen drinking beer by the liter out of ceramic mugs. It was a large area with different places to buy all sorts of traditional Austrian food. Around the corner I found myself in front of a rack of ceramic mugs in half and full liter size. I grabbed a half liter mug, paid a few euros, and got it filled from a tap out of a barrel. I had a few beers and some schnitzel and then headed back to the hostel. There I met and English and an Australian guy and we made our way back to brewery to play some English drinking games.
       I spent the next day exploring Salzburg. I went into some awesome churches, saw some Christian catacombs, climbed up to the fortress in to center of the city, saw Mozart's birth place, explored some of the trails up in the hills, etc. I really liked Salzburg. It was the first city I've been to so far in Europe that I felt like I could really live in.
       Today I caught the train to Vienna. It seems nice so far. I went to a really cool brewery called 1516 that reminded me of home. Tomorrow I'll take the free walking tour of the city through the hostel and see what I can see.
    
That's all I have for now...