Salzburg, Austria

I just got back from Salzburg, which was really cold but also kind of awesome. I stayed with my great-aunt, Carole, and her children: Nadia, Arno and Bernard (Nadia's fiance). They were so nice and basically brought me all around Salzburg, showing me all the sights. We visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress, Mozart's natal home and walked around the old town. I could not get over how old everything was! We had tea in Salzburg's oldest cafe (Tomaselli), which was founded in 1705, and then had lunch at Austria's oldest restaurant, Stiftskeller St Peter, which was founded in the 800s! The food there was so good (slices of pork with gravy, something that was a lot like stuffing, and sauerkraut with bits of bacon), but Carole's cooking was also so good. She also bought bread that the monks make at St Peter's and it is really good stuff.

It was also really funny recognizing so many places from The Sound of Music, which Nadia and I watched Friday night (even though it was in English and she doesn't speak English). Nadia also has two horses, one of which I got to ride on Saturday. At first, I was a little intimidated by how massive this horse was (you know those gigantic central European horses used to pull carts and such?) but she was such a sweetie.

I left Monday morning on my train to Mannheim, and took another train back to Paris. Nadia packed me about three days worth of food so I had plenty to eat on the ride. I wish I could have stopped for a bit around Germany - it was weird just taking a train through without actually seeing anything, especially when the train went through towns I'd read about or watched in Monster (an awesome Japanese TV show that's set in Germany and the Czech Republic). Oh well, I'll visit Germany one day. Wow, I can't believe I'm complaining about not being go somewhere when I've already had so many opportunities.

Speaking of which my Chinese visa is due to arrive soon. Only four more days until China!