january 04 1997 - day nine - salzburg, austria

"when a white man gives another white man who thinks he's a black man a gift such as this...the world is a truly wonderful place."
this quote more or less sums up a lot of the mentality recently. being as tired as we were, geoff and i partook in 'dueling jesse jacksons' before we left the hostel in vienna this morning.***


it was a 3 hour train ride here to salzburg. brian and i spent most of that time, eating away at "der strudel." it was huge. geoff continues to nail me in slug bug (another insomnia-induced, time killer) because i am rarely paying attention and he thinks it's fun to catch me off guard. i figure we'll be in germany in two days, i'll get him back then. anyway, we talked to a guy from switzerland for a while on the train. he was quite nice and he was very interested in our trip. it was a nice distraction.
we got here around 11 or 12 and of course, the confusion set in. we wandered around looking for our bus to go to the hostel. during the waiting around, laura decided to go on to munich, so she went back to the station and we're a group of 5 again.

almost as soon as she left, our bus showed. we arrived here at yoho. it's our second 'top 5' hostel on our trip. (the other being balmer's) i like to call it "little sydney." because there are a ton of aussies here. we've met several, phil, belinda, sandy, and annette, to name a few. talking to them just makes me want to go to australia even more. well, one continent at a time, i guess.
after we settled in, we didn't do much. we took a bus and walked to the center of town. everything here is so old. it's really a pretty city. we ate a a quiet little place outside the city center. i had possibly the best ham and cheese sandwich i've ever had. it was about 5 inches thick. we walked around the shops and did some light shopping in heavy snow.
snowing in salzburg
after a while, the snow stopped and we (at least brian and geoff and i did) settled into a cafe. i walked and found a cane for geoff. he bought it. of course, whether he needs it now or not, i don't know. at least he found one.
we turned in early because most everything closed at 5 or so. this was cool, though. yoho has a bar where everyone hangs out. we sat around and talked to people from all over the world til about midnight. overall, i like it here. lots of interesting people.
in salzburg
***neither geoff nor i actually claim to be black. i realize that two white, midwestern kids running around austria acting like jesse jackson is not the most politically correct behavior, but we were sooooo tired. you have to understand that. do not be offended.

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