Gamecocks take Europe (part 2)

The Fortress from Mirabell Gardens

Before I begin with this, I just want to say that we are almost all caught up, I have this post and then one final post covering my Summer (which was pretty quiet) before we are back to present day! I will have lots to write about after this next week when I go to Oktoberfest and meet up with my cousins Rob and his wife Jess and Samantha and her brand new fiancé Geoff!

Let’s jump right back in! A few weeks ago, I left you on our final night in Budapest, my friends and I were all sitting on the banks of the Danube taking in the beauty of the city one last time, while all eagerly awaiting the train to Salzburg in the morning. The ride was pretty simple as it was a direct shot straight from Budapest to Salzburg so we were able to arrive around noon.  I could barely wait to get off the train as this was the first time I was able to return to Salzburg since studying abroad last Spring and living in that beautiful city for 4 months.

Our hostel up on the cliffs of “Monchsberg”

I had found a hostel online that I had actually never heard of when I was living there, but the reviews were great and from the photos it looked to have a beautiful view of the fortress (festung hohensalzburg) and the alt Stadt. When we got to it, we were blown away.  “Stadtalm Naturfreundhaus” sat up on “Monchsberg,” which is the hill that curves around the alt Stadt, as well as the hill that the fortress sits on top of. We were perched right on the lip of the cliffs that drops straight down into the town, and we had an incredible view of Salzburg and the surrounding areas, it was great to be back.

After checking in, we went down to the hostel patio, which was also a restaurant for those that wanted to hike up for the view. We expected it to be somewhat expensive but when we checked the menu we were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty reasonable and we settled in for lunch. I made sure to order some gulashsuppe and wienerschnitzel and we relaxed the afternoon away surrounded by the Austrian alps and the bells of the churches.

Not bad for a hostel front porch eh?

That night, we met up with Sam’s sister Maddie, who by complete coincidence was enrolled in the exact same study abroad program that I was in last year. Unfortunately for her, it was her last week in Salzburg, and I remember just how tough it was. That feeling of wanting to do everything you had not had a chance to do yet in Salzburg, but still making sure that you did well on your finals so that you didn’t return to school without any course credits.. It wasn’t fun final few weeks. But besides all of that Megan and a few of her friends met up with us at Augustiner that night so we could show Sam, Chloe, Zack and Josh our favourite beer hall in the world.

First night in Salzburg at Augustiner!

Everyone loves Augustiner, we all got our liter beers, sat outside in the open air biergarten, found our own table and settled in for the next few hours, it was deja vu all over again. A few minutes in, Zack saw an old Austrian man walk by with a trey piled high with food. He had chicken, bratwurst, ham and potatoes and before we knew it Zack was off, it was the most excited I had seen him so far on the trip. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he returned with his own trey loaded down and dug in, and we were all quick to follow suit and get our own dinners. It was so great being back in Salzburg, and it was fun talking to the new students in Salzburg, joking about our favorite kebab joints, or wurst carts, as well as our favorite bars or places in the city.

 

O’Malley’s with Sam’s sister, Maddie, and the new AIFS students

When Augustiner closed around 11 we headed to O’Malley’s, which was my classmates’ favorite Irish bar in the city last year. We would go there every every week for “student night” and karaoke and completely take over the place. It was great reliving some memories there!

Oh how I missed you O’Malleys…

After a fantastic first night we made our way back to our hostel, normally to get up and down from Monchsberg we would take “the lift,” which is just an elevator that runs straight up inside of the cliff face. But, there were three problems we had to deal with. The first problem was that the lift goes up into a modern art museum and the lift and museum stop operating at midnight, and as it was just past midnight at this point, we knew we had a bit of a hike ahead of us up Monchsberg. The second problem was that there are only “two” real paths up Monchsberg from the alt Stadt (I say “two” because there are a few more trails that run through some residents’ private property). And the third problem was that, we were nowhere near either starting point for both paths, one starts at Augustiner, about a kilometre up the river and the other is at the base of the fortress on the opposite side of the alt Stadt from us. We knew we had to pick one route though and we eventually started our “hike” up by the fortress.

Soon enough though the hiking got easier as we got to the top of the hill, but once up there, we got a bit turned around. I never realised how much was actually on top of Monchsberg while living there, (homes, more smaller castles, fortress walls) all confusing us, and it didn’t help that it was pitch black and we weren’t functioning at 100%. We were beginning to entertain the idea of sleeping under the stars since we couldn’t seem to find our way back and it was such a beautiful night, but eventually we saw a sign pointing us towards our hostel and we returned safe and sound. We learned our lesson that night, and made a mental note to be back at “the lift” before it closed for the rest of the week.

Once we got back, Sam, Chloe and I decided to grab a few glasses of water and sit out in the fresh night air and look out over the city. We must have sat out there and talked for three hours before heading to bed, nobody wanted to call an end to our first night and both Sam and Chloe realised why I was so crazy about this city.

Dom du Salzburg

The next day, we toured the city more in depth, we went to the Dom du Salzburg, explored more of the alt Stadt, saw Mozart’s birth house, and walked through the cemetery that inspired the director of “The Sound of Music” as well as a few filming locations. After this we grabbed some lunch, which again consisted of some Austrian favourites like wienerschnitzel and hearty goulash, before heading up to the fortress. Unfortunately, Zack and Josh were both feeling a bit under the weather that morning, and they had spent the first half of the day in our hostel room recovering, by the time we got to the fortress though they seemed to be feeling a bit better and met up with us there.

The fortress has a small cafe on the backside of it that gives you an incredible view of the valleys and mountains, primarily Untersberg, which straddles the Austrian and German border, the “Sound of Music” house, and also somewhere in the alps in that direction is the location Hitler’s Berghof and the Eagle’s nest. But at the moment we were back in full relaxation mode, which honestly for me is what Salzburg is perfect for. Our waiter brought us some warm pretzels and we ordered a few Stiegls and took in the views. I had forgotten how much time we spent “lounging” last Spring. But, with the views that Salzburg has around every corner it’s hard not to just want to sit down and take it all in.

Untersberg from the Fortress

Unfortunately, as we were sitting up there, we saw some dark clouds headed towards us, and we knew that if we wanted to tour the fortress and that we would have to get that in before the rain hit. So we paid our bill, explored the medieval arms museum, learned the history of the fortress and how it was built, and toured the dungeons before the rain picked up and we knew we had to book it back to the hostel. We followed the same route we took the previous night but it was much easier in the daytime to figure out our way home. What we couldn’t see in the dark of night were signs that would have guided us right back to our hostel, we only saw one of those signs the night before, and it would have saved us about an hour of trouble… Oh well, but for the rest of that rainy afternoon, we hunkered down in a cozy booth in the corner of the hostel and watched the rain come down.

Our cozy corner booth (I had an incident with my phone so I had to take this photo from “hotels.com”)

That night, I made sure we all got dinner at Burgerista… “What’s Burgerista” you may ask.. The best burger in the world, that’s what. I am not ashamed of how often our group would eat at Burgerista last year, it actually may be the best burger and fries in Europe and possibly the states. I’m almost positive it’s the only place in Europe that has lemonade and sweet tea also… I mean come on, how great is that.. It was just as glorious as I remembered and while everyone was hesitant at first to have a burger in Austria, they were 100% on board after their first bites.

BURGERISTA!

After dinner, Sam’s sister invited us to a bar (Shamrock was the name… yeah, yeah another Irish pub) where they were all celebrating their final night in Salzburg with some karaoke, I don’t even want to get into my last night in Salzburg as it was full of so many tough goodbyes, but we went and had a great time joking about what songs we would sing, before Sam finally bit the bullet and went and sang “Lola.” Not even joking, it’s one of his favourite songs, and whenever he is in control of the music it comes on without fail.. But as it was getting late and we weren’t keen on missing the lift again, we went to my main man Ali who owns Umut Kebab (formerly Mozart Kebab and my favorite kebab shop in the city) and got a couple of Steigls and headed up to our hostel to finish off the night.

My buddy Ali (best kebab guy in Salzburg!) and Chloe!

The storm that we thought had completely passed through earlier was actually just getting warmed up. Luckily our hostel had four massive square umbrellas outside covering their tables so we could stay outside and out of the rain. Before we knew it, there was practically a monsoon with lightning and thunder lighting up the mountains, it was pretty incredible being able to see the lighting striking out beyond the alps and over Salzburg, it was almost like fireworks. Eventually the storm began to move closer and closer and the wind started to make the umbrellas sway, so we folded them down and made a hasty retreat back to our room before we were all blown away.

Augustiner!

The next two days in Salzburg were again very laid back, and we continued our lounging and relaxing and taking in the city. We spent an afternoon on the banks of the Salzach river and made sure to tour Mirabell Palace and its gardens as well. On our final day, Maddie had a friend visit her, as they would be spending a week touring some other parts of Europe. The length of the trip and living out of hostels was beginning to catch up with us and we were all beginning to become a little travel fatigued. We spent one last night at Augustiner with Sam’s sister and her friend before we were all ready to get some sleep and prepare for the long train ride back to Amsterdam, where we would all spend a night or two before catching our flights (or train in my case) home.

The group on our final night minus Zack

That final night our hostel in Amsterdam wasn’t actually in Amsterdam, it was out on the coast about 30 kilometres from Amsterdam city center. When we arrived at our hostel after our long train ride, we found it packed with people and blaring loud music, with none of us wanting any part of that we decide to head down to the beach and relax on the cool sand away from the noise. It was a great last night for Zack, Josh and Chloe. We all made plans about when we’d all catch up next and where it would be. Once we were sure the noise had died down and most of the party-goers had passed out we returned to our hostel and fell asleep.

The next day was a hard goodbye, I said adios, and watched as their bus took them into the city. However, Sam who’s flight technically didn’t leave for another two days was going to try and see if he could get on an earlier flight out with the rest of the group. I headed into Amsterdam to meet a friend from study abroad who would be going through the city that day with his own group of friends, Dakota! On my way to met Dakota, I got a text from Sam, he wasn’t able to move his flight up and we had an extra day to hang out before he would fly home.

We didn’t do much as we were all exhausted, we grabbed a Heineken with Dakota and met his cool friends from California and talked about their plans for their Summer trip. Where they were going, where they had been, how everyone had been since I had last seen Dakota in South Carolina for (Game)Cocktoberfest. We watched some soccer on tv that night before both of us were falling asleep by 8 and said goodnight after grabbing some Dutch fries.

I ran into my favorite Californian in Amsterdam!

It meant so much to me that my best friends from South Carolina found the time and money to fly all the way to Europe to meet up with me and travel to some of my favorite cities. Friends like that don’t come around very often and I’m thankful for the bonds I’ve made with all of you, from playing hockey in Sam’s apartment my first year at Carolina, playing rocket league with Zack and Josh that first summer living together, and Chloe educating me on my taste of music the entire fall. Thanks so much to all of you for the visit, good luck with your last few semesters at Carolina (Chloe, Sam and Zack) and I’m looking forward to the next adventure with all of you guys as soon as possible! Go Cocks and Auf Wiedersehen!

 

Credits:

Starring…

 

Chloe Schorr

Josh Shipley

Sam Rogers

Zack Hill

Thanks for being the way you all are and for visiting, blessed to have friends like you four in my life!