Festung Hohensalzburg

Right in my backyard is this beautiful medieval castle. It was built in 1077 under the orders of Gebharb von Helfenstein, the same man who began building Schloss Hohenwerfen. About a week after we arrived in Salzburg, my roommate, our suite-mate, and I took the afternoon to climb up to the fortress.

The castle was only attached once, but it didn't fall. Through out other wars it was used as barracks and storage. And during WWI it held Italian prisoners of war.

Now it holds a few restaurants, as well as a lot of museum space. A display of instruments, weapons, and other items during the medieval ages are inside the fortress. As well as a bunch of WWI items.

I couldn't quite figure out what they all were about since everything was in German. But it was still super neat to look at. The mask above on the bottom left was a torture device that people were forced to wear for periods of time.

Though the best part of the castle was definitely the views of the city of Salzburg.

There was also a church, and some great ruins that they had just found recently.

And the previous main reception room of the fortress now holds classical music concerts.

As always, all the pictures can be found on facebook or this link:

http://on.fb.me/cb8Edb

*photo 2 was slighly edited

photo of me by Noelle

St. Rupert's Festival

In the spirit of backtracking Salzburg celebrated their patron saint, St. Rupert at the end of September. This celebration was awesome, because they erected carnival rides and a giant beer and sausages garden, as well as tons of street vendors in one of the large squares in the old town.

Everywhere, people were celebrating. And often times wearing the traditional dress, which is Lederhosen for the men and Dirndl's for the women.  Now, I just realized the horribleness of the fact that I don't seem to have any creeper pictures of traditionally dressed locals, so for now you'll have to take a look at some that google turned up.

 The festival had tons of sweets. Marshmallow filling seemed to be a common one, as well as gingerbread shaped hearts with different German sayings on them. I was only there a few hours before leaving for Budapest but it was such a neat celebration it made me wish I could be here next year so I could celebrate St. Rupert again, and go on some of the rides!

Highlight of the Day: Rooftops

As it turns more and more towards fall and winter I get more thankful for every warm sunny day that we get here. Today I enjoyed they day by spending sometime on our beautiful rooftop terrace doing my homework.

And not only is the terrace great, but the view out over the city is so beautiful.

Hope your day's as pretty as mine.