Salty Mines & Free Lemonade

It took me awhile to realize where I was when I awoke in my sleeping bag. After reminding myself I was in Austria, Nick and I took down my tent and started making the trek back to the nearest bus stop. My parents spoke highly of the salt mines in Austria, so we decided to find our way there. It took a good hour before we stood in line for tickets (45 minute train ride + 15 bus ride). Everyone dresses up in these dirty white singlets. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Nick say, "Ugh...I think this one has blood on it."

Nick and I all geared up to travel into the mine.

We were grateful, however, to use the white pajamas because we both would wear the same clothes for days and didn't want them to get too dirty. I learned that the salt mines outside of Salzburg were the reason the town flourished so well. One of our favorite parts of the tour was the way we got around. Besides walking hundreds of feet underground (in both Austria & Germany), we would slide down long steep slides, which is how the miners commuted hundreds of years ago. The creepiest way we commuted was by boat on an underground pond. They played this bizarre music accompanied by strobe lights, which made me feel like little Charlie on Willy Wonka's boat ride. I'll never forget that.

Sliding down one of the underground slides.

After 90 minutes hundreds of feet underground, we surfaced. They took pictures of us on the train but they definitely weren't worth 7€. I like my pictures better anyway. Our bus back to the train station wouldn't come for another hour, so I told Nick to find me in the nearby pasture. I quickly fell asleep when I laid down in the nearby pasture. I was tired. Nick, thinking he was funny, woke me up 45 minutes later by first sticking blades of grass in my ear (didn't work) and then shoving larger blades up my nose (this worked).


I continued by nap on the bus and train back to Salzburg trusting Nick would figure out when to get off. Nick is very talented at many things but working with bus/train schedules is not one of them. I awoke at one point afraid we were going to far but Nick put his hand on my shoulder and comforted me, saying, "Graden, go back to sleep. I got this." To Nick's credit (and the local sitting next to him), we arrived back in Salzburg in the late afternoon.

The beer factory.

Austria is famous for beer. Although we don't drink beer, we thought it'd be interesting to take a tour of the HUGE beer factory in Salzburg. We literally ran from the train to bus #26, because we wanted to catch the last tour. We missed the last guided tour, however, they allowed us to go on a self-guided tour. This turned out to be much better & quicker. I think Nick would agree that the best part about the tour was the free drinks at the end. Their brewed (nonalcoholic) lemonade was to die for! Plus, they were free!

Eating crackers & drinking lemonade. 

Lemonade--the only nonalcoholic drink available.

This was our last night in Salzburg, so we decided to use our Salzburg Card for one more thing--a 45 minute "cruise". It was truly gorgeous cruising along the Salzach River as the sun set behind the Alps.

Cruising along the Salzach River.

The next day was Sunday, which meant we needed to find a church somewhere. If we took a train all the way to Prague, it meant we wouldn't be able to attend church. On the other hand, if we stayed in Salzburg, we would get to Prague way too late, which would leave us only one day to spend in Prague before flying home. I pulled out my trusty map and found Linz, Austria. We used a nearby cafe's WI-FI to see if a branch of the LDS church was located in the city. Thanks to LDS.org we found ourselves an address. About an hour after we stepped off the boat, we stepped onto the train heading to Linz.

Humored Nick waiting for our train. 

It was dark by the time we go to Linz. The only things we knew when we arrived was (1) church started at 9:30 am the following morning and (2) the address was Spaunstrasse 83, Linz. We probably stopped and asked for directions from about half a dozen people before two girls located the church on an iPhone. Hallelujah! In broken English, they told us to jump on the metro and get off at a certain stop. Thirty minutes later, we were kicking ourselves for not getting more detailed directions than take the metro and get off.


A nearby gas station caught my attention, so I suggested we try to find a map of the local area and ask for more direction. Linz is much more of an industrial city than beautiful Salzburg, which is situated in the Northern Alps. While the lady behind the counter was being so kind to locate a map and look for the street, in walked a girl in her late 20's. She headed straight for the fridge and pulled out a six pack of Corronas. At that moment she heard the lady helping us say, "Oh wow, it's quite far away!" Without hesitation, this Good Samaritan (whose name I forgot) asked if we needed a lift. Along with this girl and her two buddies, Nick and I crammed into a tiny 2-door vehicle with our large backpacks on our laps. Not able to see anything with my backpack obstructing my view, I handed the address to the unknown driver on an old receipt.


The ten minute drive miraculously felt shorter than I was anticipating. Without this car of Good Samaritans, Nick and I would have walked for many hours weaving in and out of neighborhoods looking for our church building. Although I had never seen this church before, it felt quite welcoming in the dark with its tall steeple. After Nick and I thanked the strangers a dozen times, their car sped off leaving us in a dark neighborhood. Fortunately, the church had a nice 20 feet of grass on the right side of the building, so we pitched my tent, set an alarm, and slept.