i could have probably stayed in salzburg for a couple more days, the hostel was quite a bit of fun, but most of the people were leaving, so i figured it was time for me to move on too.. so, as planned, hallstatt here i come..
the train ride to hallstatt was uneventfull, per usual. met some girls who were just day tripping to hallstatt, boo them. arrival however, was quite impressive.. hallstatt itself, is nestled right up on the side of a lake, which is surrounded on all sides by mountains that seemingly just appear right up and out of the lake.. the train station is on the other side, so you must take this little boat (stephanie) accross the lake and into town... its really and amazing sight...
get checked in to the hostel, um, big room, nobody there aparently... greeaat.. head off, have a kabab (EVERY town HAS to have a kabab place), and then off to tour the salt mine. you see (a little bit of history for you), hallstatt has been around for something like 3000 years, even before rome, because of its salt mine. nice. the tour was interesting, and would have been MUCH MORE interesting had i spoke GERMAN, seeing how well, the tour guide aparently only spoke german. but seeing as how i can count from 1 to 1000 or so in german, i was able to pick up on numbers.. dates i guessed. but of course i had to use my imagination as to what they were for. nice tour though..
sooo, back to the hostel, meet these two japanese guys there, we chat for a while, and then end up going back out for drinks and just laughing and what not.. not too bad of an evening at all..
lets see, today, more touring... this time, the MAMMOTH CAVE, and an ICE CAVE.. as before, they would have been sooooo much more interesting had they been in ENGLISH, but today it for sure didn't matter. the ice cave especially. it was PHENOMINAL. walking through vast caverns, with HUGE ice pilars and such.. these things were the size of subway stations.. it was incredible, although COLD. the coldest i've been thus far on the trip by far... just below freezing, good thing rick steves had told me to bring a sweater... haha.
and now, off to write some postcards and such.. i've got a stack of about 4 inches of them, i figure i'll send some and get rid of a few. cause my japanese friends have left, and it looks (as of right now anyways), that nobody new has moved in.. relaxing by the lake, fine by me :-)