Roundtrip of Austria

For our first organized group trip, we took a "round trip of Austria" and traveled to Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Hallstadt. We traveled on a tour bus, and stopped halfway to Innsbruck in a small cafeteria where I proceeded to buy a famous Austrian dessert, sacher torte (a rich chocolate cake) and arrived in Innsbruck in the late afternoon. We checked into our hostel (my first hostel ever!) before going out on the town. We mainly meandered around the streets, checking out the shops and just exploring the town in general. A large group of us stopped for pizza, and I ordered my first beer, a rattler (which isn't even a full beer: it's only 50% alcohol & 50% lemonade!) The next day we had a bus tour of Innsbruck and then walked around the town a bit more before heading to Salzburg. In Salzburg, we arrived quite late in the afternoon and just had time for a walking tour of the city before going back to check into our hostels. It is truly amazing to be in such an old city, known for it's Old Town and baroque architecture. We walked through St. Peter's cemetary and the city stage where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed. I also got a scoop of ice cream inside Mozart's birthplace. Random fact (and probably all that I retained from the historical tour, since I'm so terrible with dates & names): there are more sales from Mozart signature chocolates than from his music! Pretty sad, but unfortunately true! The Salzburg Cathedral, the site of Mozart's baptism, was truly breathtaking. I could not help but gawk and stand in awe at the height of the ceilings and the intricate depictions of biblical scenes intricately displayed across the ceiling and walls. There simply are not words to describe the beauty of such a sacred place. After checking into the hostels, we went back into the city for an authentic German meal of wiener schnitzel, which is fried and breaded pork. It is great with lemon and (after taking the suggestion of a Hungarian friend) dipped in jam. After dinner, we took a leisurely moonlight stroll along the Salzach River before heading back to the hostel. The next day we traveled to Hallstadt, an adorable little market town. We took a tour through the Hallstadt mines, the oldest mines in the world! There were a few lights, but I can't imagine what it must have been like to work in the mines back then. We had a nice little lunch before leaving (I ventured to try dumplings and sauerkraut: the meal was ok, there was meat inside the dumplings but the sauerkraut wasn't that tasty). After lunch, we boarded the bus and headed home. Most of us used this time to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Overall, the trip was great! Even sitting on the bus and looking at the beautiful Alps surrounding us was a wonderful experience.