Czechin out the Czech

Where did I leave off. Oh, yes, Austria. So I escaped Germany who was having many festivals which meant no rooms. I get to Salzburg around 5pm and find out its the equivalent of Salzburg days and everyone who has ever lived in the city comes back to have a tacky carnival. So what does this mean for me...... no room in the inn. I called almost 15 places, including those out of my price range, and not even a stable with the animals was available. And there were no available night trains out of the city. I was scoping out the best train station bench at this point. For some reason I really wasn't freaking out though. Not sure why. So I overhear the sweet sound of English. Never thought English would be sweet music to my ears but I love it at this point in my trip. I hear some American boys trying to figure out what to do. I march right over and tell them I need a place too and we should ban together to try and find a place. We went to the tourist office and she found us a pension with 4 beds. She said she was very surprised she found us a place. It was a little more then I wanted to pay but it was a lot better then the train station bench so I'm sure it will be fine. The boys were nice but jet lagged so I think I talked to them for 20 mintues and then they went to bed. It was the best shower and bed I have slept in for weeks now. But one snored so loud. I think he should have had to pay more then a third of the room. Salzburg was really beautiful. Sadly I am not smarter then this Czech computer and I can't figure out how to upload pictures on it. So please stay tuned for lovely photos of lovely Salzburg. Oh and I went for a walk before my train to Hallstatt and got soooooo lost. Of course I get lost when I have a time sensitive event such as catching a train. This is the second time this has happened. It happened in Amsterdam as well. I don't get lost once the entire time I'm there and then I go out for a little jaunt and have to end up running to the train station with only moments to spare. In Salzburg I found myself on the opposite side of the twenty train tracks as the station. I was getting ready to start climbing the fence and dodging trains to make it to the platform when I noticed the pedestrian crossing over the tracks was down just a 100 yards. Good thing I looked up and over. Ha.



Hallstatt, Austria
This little mining town was believed to be started in 800BC. That's like, a really long time ago. They have found roman artifacts that supposedly date back to that time period. I fell in love with this place from the glimpse I got of it through the trees from the train. I checked into my hostel and realized I was not only the only person in my room, but the entire hostel. Yippy!!! Talk about off season. I haven't been totally alone in sooooo long. It was wonderful. I layed on my bed and basked in the silence, did some yoga with no eyes watching and thinking I was weird and I slept without having to hear someone snore for the first time!!! There is a bone chapel where there are 600 skulls that have been painted and arranged in a little chapel. The cemetery is so small that people only got to be buried for 12 years and then dug up for the next person to be laid to rest there. The practice stopped in the 1960's but residents can still request to be put in the chapel. It is a charming little town.


Prague, Czech Republic
This was the first city where I was going to be arriving late at night and having to find my hostel in the dark so I was a little nervous about that. But it all worked out just fine and I'm staying in the Ritz Carlton of the hostel world. This place is oh so nice. It's very new and a hotel on the top floors so the lobby and amentities are much nicer then hostel category. Of course I have to sleep in the dungeon basement, but I'm not above that. I hung out with my some of my hotelmates for the last three days. We call ourselves the North American team. Brenna is from Canada and Marianna is from Mexico. We stood in correct order with me in the middle in all photos. Brenna's boyfriend is here on a "business trip" doing some "research" with his company Steam Whistle which is a microbrewery in Toronto Canada. So I was adopted into a pack of 10 wild Canadians who kept me out dancing til the sun came up. I called it a night at 7am as they were trying to get me to go the the after after party. I told these little animals I am too old to party like a rockstar. Sorry Utah, I don't think I represented us well. Pretty fun boys though.
I was wandering the streets of Prague and looked up to see a familar face. It was Nick who stayed in the same room as me in Germany. It's a small, small world. Last time we saw each other we said bye and he was headed to Berlin with no plans after that. I didn't really know my exact itinerary at that point either. We laughed about the weird coincidence and then hiked up to Prague Castle together and then around town for a few hours. We are making bets if we will run into each other in Italy too.
Prague has beautiful streets and an incredible past. I went to the museum of communism and it was pretty interesting to learn about. There was a video at the end of real footage of some riots in 1989. It was so powerful to watch. It was kind of hard to watch at some points because people were being beaten by the police for voicing their plea for freedom. It made me so grateful for the people who have fought and continue to fight for me for my freedom. The Czech people have had to fight for themselves so many times for even the simple freedoms in life that I don't even think about.
In a few hours I am taking my first night train to Budapest. I'm not really planning on a good nights sleep but it is going to save a lot of time doing it this way. In Eastern Europe the train system isn't as good as western Europe. They don't have the high speed trains and the tracks don't go every which way. It takes a lot longer to get from one place to the next. Prague to Budapest is 8 hours so a night train will hopefully be worth saving all that time for me to spend it in the thermal baths.

So hopefully I am smarter then Hungarian computers and can upload some photographs in the next few days.