Austria: Salzburg

Salzburg, Austria: hohensalzburg fortress
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Day two in Salzburg consisted primarily of recovering from the previous evening's intense partying.  Why?  Well, there were lots of Aussies staying in the hostel.  The previous night, Australia was playing Croatia with a chance to advance to the next round of the World Cup.

I was invited to watch the match with the Aussie contingent at, of course, a Salzburg Irish Bar.  There was a group of about seven Aussie girls who were so excited about the match that they were singing their original, expletive-ridden chants the entire day.  Most of the chants involved Beckham, Posh Spice, derogatory terms for Posh Spice, and then chanting an Australia player's name.  Good stuff, especially since Australia were playing Croatia and not England.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy!

Salzburg, Austria: part of the aussie crew
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Anyway, during the match everyone was drinking the local brews, mainly Steigl as I recall.  Australia ended up tying the Croats in a fantastic match, resulting in Australia advancing to the next round.  If you get where I'm going with this, you'll understand what happened next.

Upon the final whistle, there was a raucous celebration.  The bartender (who was from Canada and had bartended on my favorite island, Ios, for the last two summers) immediately began blasting Aussie-related songs, such as Waltzing Matilda and some song involving the line, "Last Flight to Sydney" or something like that.

Salzburg, Austria: the old town
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Then the shots rained down.  Shots of alcohol.  There were shots of tequila with lemons that were doused with cinnamon (actually quite good), shots of Jagermeister, shots of stuff I don't know, and more beer.  The mixing of alcohol is never a good thing, and virtually every Australian staying in the hostel was feeling ummm, not ok.

The bar was originally scheduled to close at 01:00 a.m., but stayed open until 04:30 because of the Aussies.  The party continued after the bar closed, and I arrived in my hostel room at 08:30 a.m., just in time to say hello to my hostel roommates who were waking up for the day ahead.

Salzburg, Austria: the salzbach river
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Aside from recovering, I took some more lovely walks up along the fortress and its surrounding viewpoints, and basically laid-low.  Went out for a quick drink before retiring early, as I had a four hour train ride to Slovenia in the morning.

Shout out to: Paul and Aaron from Edinburgh, Sean from Miami, and the Aussie Crew!