Perfect Fall Weekend!

So after a rough morning in German class, and receiving 4 hours of homework all having to do with the Mauthausen concentration camp that we are visiting next week, I realy needed a good afternoon. We are done with classes for the week because it is a free weekend, and most of us are sticking to the general area this weekend (maybe a day trip to Munich, but nothing big - though in the beginning of the week we were thinking about going to Budapest, but we all needed a rest).



view of some of the mountains from the football park

Since the whole group was still in town, and the weather is BEAUTIFUL, we decided a football game was in order (American football, not soccer). Oh my goodness is Salzburg beautiful in the fall, well not just in the fall, but the leaves make me appreciate fall. We went to a park that is near our normal playing spot, but bigger. From this park we could see the surrounding mountains without the obstruction of buildings. OMG, soooo beautiful. And with the colors of the trees and the ground being covered with leaves... sehr schön! Some of us were more interested in playing in the leaves and staring at the scenery than playing football, but we eventually got the game going and played through sunset.

Watching the sun set over the mountains was also beautiful. It is definetly something I miss when I am at school. You forget how much better the mountains make the sunset.



oldest restraunt in Europe by
St Peters abbey church (built in 803 i believe)



Friday, I got to sleep in and it felt wonderful! In the afternoon we decided to get outside becuase it was another beautiful day! We walked around the altstadt, something I haven't done in a while. We went inside this cute little Christmas store, and that got me really excited for Christmas. The Christ-Kindl markt is going to be set up soon and I am sooo excited! I LOVE Christmas!





Salzburg (well a piece of it)



Anyways... We walked around the altstadt and we were realizing how much of Salzburg we still haven't explored. We are gone alot of the weekends and during the week we have class and homework and play football, so we don't get to the parts of town that we aren't familiar with.





After altstadt we decided to walk along the river towards our rooms for a while. It was so calming. I love that even though we are in the middle of a city that there is still a small town feel. Not like any of the other big cities I've visited here. Definetly unique and I love it.

 

altstadt - with the festung on top of the hill

Today we decided to go to what is known as the "salzburg lake district" a place with 4 pretty good sized lakes about an hour away from Salzburg. We were alittle dissapointed that it was cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining :). We walked around the largest lake in the area Mattsee. It was quite a walk. We spent about 3-3.5 hours walking around the lake. It was gorgeous. I love the Austrian countryside :). We walked next to the lake, through the forest (oh the colors), through cute little villages and even by some farms (got some funny looks from some Austrian dairy cows).


Mattsee





unsere Kuh Freund!







sehr schön! (very beautiful!)



Oh and before we walked around the lake we played at this park. It was so much fun. And quite a sight, 3 20 year old girls and a 21 year old guy playing at this park. Austrain parks are so much better than those in the US we have decided. Their structures are way cooler. The net swings... so much fun. And all the parks we have seen have zip lines! SOOO much fun. And this park had this cool little contraption, it was like a tetter totter mixed with swings on steriods, we had a BLAST!







our fun new toy at the park, it swings up and down and around all at the same time if you push correctly!