Back in Salzburg

Well it seems at his been a while since I last updated, so let's see what I have to tell you.

Slovenia is a scary country, never go there alone. It does have some nice buildings, and the cathedral is amazing but it is shady and very much still an Eastern European type country.

So Saturday I went to Postojna. It is also a scary town. I went to see the caves but the website only gave directions to the train station. So I got off the train and was like "now what?" Of course the train station is really old and run down and surrounded by old abandoned factories which of course made me feel so much safer...So I started walking. I found some signs that seemed to point towards the caves and the castle but after about 15 minutes of walking they disappeared. So I went into this hotel where I figured they should at least speak one of the languages I know and asked how to get to the caves. The lady there told me how to get there but told me it would take me 50 minutes to walk. She got her numbers mixed up cause it only took me about 15 minutes. Once there I had to wait 50 minutes for a tour of the caves. It was fun but not anything too special. They had tours in Slovenian, English, German, French, and Italian. I thought about going on the German tour but it was just as crowded as the English tour so I just went on the English tour.

Then I wanted to go to the castle in the cave but the sign told me it was 9 km away and I was not walking that far in some strange place. But I found out there was a bus that would take me there for free. However this bus only runs every 2 hrs so I wouldn't have been able to see the castle without missing my bus. So I just went to the castle, took a picture, and got right back on the bus, which then took me to the train station. So I had about 40 mins to my train which quickly turned into 70 mins as the train was late. I don't particularly like the trains in Slovenia...they are old and not well cared for. And the people that work on the trains only speak Slovenian and all the announcements are in Slovenian. So I always felt like I was on the wrong train or like I was going to miss my stop. So that was delightful. I spent the rest of the evening in my hostel.

So my 5 hour trip back to Salzburg was not as bad as expected. I was thrilled to be back on an Austrian train with announcements I could understand.

So once I arrived I found my way to my host's house. Peter-Paul is a wonderful host. I have my own room and he lets me use his wireless and he let me do my laundry. He has also made me dinner twice and he invited me out with his friends twice. He is an excellent cook and makes me wonderful meatless foods. He is also very smart. He knows so many interesting facts about Salzburg and just in general so it is so interesting to talk to him.

So now I am in Salzburg awaiting the arrival of my family. They have been trying to get a flight for 4 days now with no luck. Planes keep being canceled or leaving with no passengers it is sad. They are going to try to catch a 4 am flight tonight, which sucks for them but works well for me as I will be awake by then.

Tomorrow I might go to the lakes nearby or I might go to Mozart's birthhouse cause I haven't done that yet.

Well that's all for now.

All of my pictures are up now.

Sarah