Winner, Winner...Chicken Dinner!

Salzburg was definitely a great choice for our trip since we didn't have a lot of time. The town was really quite small and only a two-hour train ride from Munich!

After a few LOOOONG days at Oktoberfest, it was the ideal place to relax. An even better place to relax where we really got to see the sites was from the Sound of Music bus tour. Kevy and KT could not have been happier...the cheesy English tour guide humming as she told us the stories of Maria and the Captain. They were a little pissed though that running through the hills was not on the agenda (it was filmed on private property). I'll tell you what-- even though we didn't hear any music, the hills were most definitely alive with one thing...GRASS! Salzburg was one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. Vivid colored hills with all sorts of Alpine villages tucked next to these picturesque little lakes that fell at the bottom of towering mountains. Our pictures can finish that story...I'll finish ours right now!

The first day, it rained almost the whole day, but we grinned and beared it to see the sites. We rode a furnicular tram to the top of a huge hill where the fortress was. It was great, but it was too bad the weather wasn't better so we could have made use of the vantage point--you could truly see the entire city. The next day was beautiful though, and in between fighting with a giant bicycle race throughout the town, we were able to get around pretty easily.

The night, however, proved to be unreal! Good thing we answered the late night phone call from Klaus in Munich the night before. He had forgotten to tell us that the Salzburg Casino was a must! Good thing he did-- it was located in what appeared to be an old residence or castle of some sort. Aesthetics aside, it didn't take long before we were A) a hit at one of two blackjack tables, B) getting the entire table to laugh (including the dealers) with our random German outbursts of not-so-nice phrases, C) having our drinks paid for by our neighbors, D) winning money because of the man sitting next to us, and E) teaching everyone the phrase (including the dealer) "Winner, Winner...Chicken (or hendl) Dinner! We made out nicely...Salzburg and then some was paid for, so we headed home for our last night with our hostel mates: 2 Aussie girls.

Yesterday was a really long travel day that started with Marco picking us up from the train station in his Dad's car. After a really fast ride on the Autobahn (equivalent to about 150 mph), we made it to the airport just in time. Thank God he picked us up or we would have missed our flight...the line at the airport was a nightmare! We made it to Budapest and it's awesome here. Our apartment is positively adorable, and it was even cheaper than I thought it would be when we booked! That's pretty much the case with everything here; since they're not on the Euro, the American dollar is worth something once again! What a concept, right?

We'll write more tomorrow when we're in London... until then, stay tuned!

~ Kyle, Colleen, Kevy and KT