Venice, Salzburg, & Munich

Venice

Arriving in Venice, we knew it was our favourite very quickly. Less tourists, no busy roads, beautiful sunshine. Our hostel owner was friendly and everything was laid back. That evening we walked around the local area, we were away from all the touristy spots. We watched the Italy game in a square at a bar and tried a new European drink, "Spritz" which is like Campari and something. It was gross basically. As the sun went down we watched a lightning storm in the distance. Venice is beautiful at night. Many people were having candlelit dinners by the canals. I loved how everything was decorated with colourful flowers. Venice was just so pretty. 

The next day it rained a lot, until about 6pm. It didn't put us off though and we visited all the tourist spots in our €1 ponchos. The rain did get in the way of a gonadal ride, but that just gives us an excuse to come back. The tourist areas were busy and so we were relieved to be staying a long way from them. We did a couple of laps of the islands and didn't get lost, even without a map. We stopped for a cappuccino which was perfect in the rain. We were ordering cappuccinos now to avoid the whole latte issue again. 

That evening was our night train to Salzburg, and so we headed to the station around 8pm. We had to share a 6 seated cabin with two guys which meant there was extra legroom. It was difficult to sleep though, and when the trains swap carriages in the night it is loud!

- Evie

1) Having no streets, and therefore no cars or traffic makes getting around on foot much easier, and quieter, and prettier.

2) Watching an Italian soccer game at a bar in Italy is an experience I will not soon forget. 

3)Sometimes ponchos are necessary. Once you embrace that, nothing can bring you down. That being said, we are so ready for rain now.

4) The lack of touristy things to see in Venice was kind of refreshing. We walked around without any real agenda and it was perfect.

5) Also, lack of tourist things meant way fewer people trying to sell me knickknacks. However, there was an increase in people trying to sell me knockoff Louis Vuitton and Gucci handbags. Also, we are much more likely to buy things from cute children than we are from creepy adults, which explains why I now own a rubber band bracelet. If anything, we have chosen to 'invest in small, locally owned businesses.'

6) It was decided that if a gondola ride ever does happen, we would like it to be in front of, or behind, a group who paid for a guy to sing. It would be too awkward if he was singing for us, but we would definitely like the whole experience.

7) They have crepes in Venice (seriously America, step up your game).

8) Gelato is still good. I feel like I have an obligation to try all the flavours (Evie's iPad keeps adding u's to words).

9) Night trains are not good for sleeping. They are cold and oddly shaped. 

10) We are definitely coming back to Venice.

-Megs

Salzburg

We arrived in Salzburg early, early enough to get free breakfast at our hostel when we arrived. The hostel was full of school groups and the staff just weren't prepared for that, it was a mad house. 

We originally planned to go on our tour that morning, but some miscommunication meant that it had to be pushed back until the following day.

Instead, that morning we visited a castle on a hill, one you can see from all around Salzburg. There were great views up there and it was Megan's first castle! There was also an Austrian choir group singing up there which just added to the atmosphere of it all. 

We finished the day in the town, which was very small. There was some kind of celebration for some famous local chef so we crashed it and got a ton of free food, and wine for me. One of the bridges there was covered in locks, just like the idea from the love lock bridge in Paris. We've seen locks all over on our travels, and it's become a form of vandalism basically where a nice idea has really got out of hand. 

Later we watched the USA vs Germany game in an Irish pub before heading back to the hostel to watch the Sound of Music. For dinner we tried Bosna, some kind of fancy hotdog with mustard and onions.

The next morning we had our Sound of Music tour which took us all over. We saw a lot of the Salzburg hills and surrounding area, and stopped in a nearby town Mondsee. There we had one of Maria's favourite things, crisp apple strudel and ice cream, oh and cappuccinos too. 

After, we had to quickly head to the station for our next stop, Munich. 

- Evie

1) Driving through Germany was like driving through the forests of a fairy tale. I half expect to meet talking woodland creatures.

2) I'm pretty sure that every Christmas postcard of a snowy town with a church with a big steeple must have been based on a town in Austria.

3) Latterhousen are real things- like people where them to work and stuff. And you can tell a lot about a girl based on her dress, like where she's from, or if she's married or not.

4) One thing America does better than anywhere so far is the sports bar. No where else seems to have bars or restaurants set up to watch sports. Tv's seem to be an afterthought.

5) I now know more about The Sound of Music than I ever thought possible. If we ever watch that movie together be prepared to be bombarded with fun facts (like Christopher Plummer doesn't actually sing!!!! I know, mind blown).

6) At some fast food restaurants, they charge you extra for ketchup, and sour cream can be considered a dipping sauce.

7) Salzburg has done a really great job staying simple. It is modern without being flashy or pretentious, and has managed to keep the small village mentality.

8) In all of our travels in Europe, I've only seen 5 Starbucks.

9) The best wifi I've gotten in the past 3 days was in an 1000 year old castle.

10) I will never forget eating apple strudel in front of the church where the Sound of Music wedding scene was filmed in Monsee.

-Megs

Munich 

Because we were held up in Austria, we arrived in Munich late. Since we only had one night there we decided not to rush around and do touristy things, and instead just chill at our hostel. There were palace gardens close by so we walked around those first. Our hostel was basically a campsite with a giant tent full of bunk beds (for over 100 people). They had a BBQ and campfire, hammocks, and big litre beers. After a little ping pong we sat around the bonfire drinking from giant beer glasses and eating weird German sausages. It was all we needed from Munich really. 

The next morning we watched the Glokenspiel in the town square and had Currywurst for lunch. At 12:45 we had to be on our train to Prague and so we were saying goodbye to Munich as quickly as we arrived. 

-Evie

1) Crossing the border from Germany to Czech is more strict than any other we've done. We've already spoken to the German police twice and have had our tickets checked just as many times.

2) Currywurst is awesome, though it's hard to make something worse by adding curry sauce. 

3) Out of the two of us, I am definitely more up for trying the local food. It works out great because I can experiment and order something random while Evie has a safe back up plan. Everyone wins.

4) I haven't been to too many big cities in the US, but from what I can tell, almost every single place in the world has a better public transport system than we do. Same with recycling programs- a tent in Munich had a better system than most of America.

5) Almost everyone speaks at least two languages and we're lucky than English is so common.

-Megs