The hills are alive...

With music, not the bad horror movie! So we have quite a bit of catching up to do, we know. But we have not been in a place with great internet, nor had a place to upload pictures. So I will start from several days ago. And Katie, do not worry, your chef will give a full food report soon.

Well Kati went through most of our Prague adventure already, up until our last night there. We went to the Czech Beer Festival with people from our hostel, which was an exciting experience. It cost 130 CZK to get in (15 CZK = $1, you do the math), and then you paid 39 CZK for a token. There were numerous tents set up down a line, all sponsored by different beer companies. 1 beer = 1 token, so we just worked our way down the line. They also had "traditional" Czech food, so we had some goulash (very good). Once it got good and dark (which doesn't happen here til around 10pm), Kati and I went to the Charles Bridge, Prague's most famous landmark, to take pictures without all the daytime tourists. All in all, Prague gets a thumbs up.

Kati already mentioned our debacles of the train (much hilarity), so I will get right into Vienna. This was a city neither of us knew anything about, so we definitely just wandered for a couple hours after we arrived. We stayed at Wombat's, which is a very hip place, apparently. It has its own bar, so is supposed to be social. We found dinner at an out of the way restaurant we read about on our guide map and it was in a little courtyard (I will save food related things for Kati, the foodie). The next day, Tuesday, we had no guided tours, which was actually a relief...they get old after a while. Kati mentioned our day as 10-year-olds, but here is my obligatory suggestion/advice: lunch at Naschmarket...lots of stands to buy fresh food and sit down restaurants that are pretty cheap. So the night that we had seemed so enthusiastic about did not end up as exciting. We went to our hostel's bar, drank a pina colada, and ate a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Pretty quality I'd say. We get more exhausted than we realize, and by 10pm, we are dead.

Wednesday was supposed to be spent heading to Munich but we opted for a quick day trip to Salzburg, the home of The Sound of Music (hence my post title). We had a nice little lunch special that was 3 courses and only cost €5,50. Then we decided to hike up to Ferstung Hohensalzburg, which is a big fortress (we are cheap and did not take the tram). Well that thing was boring and did not offer good views so we walked 500m west to Richterhöhe, which is a big scenic overlook (there is also some kind of structure there...not really sure what, but I'm sure that's why the spot has a specific name rather than just "lookout"). Anyway, this spot was amazing! Salzburg, as much of Germany and Austria, is on the edge of the Alps, but this was our first view of them! We also went to Stiftskirche Nonnberg, which is a nunnery, yes the very one from whence Maria came before the Von Trapp household. We walked in the chapel and it was deserted and silent, until the nuns started to sing from up in their choir altar. It was pretty cool, because it was one of the first times we seemed to experience something really authentic and out of the blue--we were like flies on the wall. Then we walked to Mirabellgarten, which is a big garden that the children and Maria ran through. So typically, we followed suite and did the same. Well I did, Kati just shook her head in disdane. Salzburg ended up being one of our favorite places, because it was really quiet and really small. It was also a lot more scenic than Vienna which just seemed to be a lot of museums (and we hate those...boring and they cost money).

I just want it to be known that as I am typing this, "My Heart Will Go On" came on in the internet cafe. Classy.

Well this brings us up to date to our day spent in Munich. We got here last night and found our hostel after much confusion from poorly phrased directions. We went to another hostel to meet up with our Prague friends who were here at the same time, and it ended up being our first night out past 2am! Whoo, we are NOT completely lame! It wasn't much of an exciting night out though, no German rave clubs or anything. We went to eat kebab and go to a hostel bar. But we, for some reason, have a private room, so that is a nice change in pace. Today we went on Lenny's Free Bike Tour at the recommendation of one of our friends. It was better than walking, but 40 people is too many for a bike tour; they should have split it up. We saw the important things in Munich, but I can't really relate too many of them to you...the bike kind of prevented me from writing things down as we moved along. However, we did learn that Munich was founded in 1156 and was 65% destroyed in WWII. Lots of seemingly old buildings are actually from the 60s when they were rebuilt. But they did try and rebuild it as much as possible, so it still has an old feel. Also, we learned that in Munich they like beer, which is why it took things a very long time to be built. We went through Englischergarten which is Europe's largest city park, where we saw some river surfers and some nudists (none attractive). Our scenery of the day was hiking up the 305 steps to the top of Peterskirche for €1, which gave us an overview of Munich (very nice). It was vey hot and sunny outside today so we both burned with weird tan lines. Can't wait for Nice and the beach!

We promise not to slack in posting anymore, for both our sakes--1) this must have been terribly long to read it you made it this far, 2) it was terribly long to write and my hands hurt. And also we apologize for any lack of phone calls; no freaking phones will take calling cards (except Joe and Linda, I already tried and you were not home--your fault!). Til later, auf wiedersehen.