Flying back to St. Petes

Flying back to St. Petes

- Traveling

- Nevsky Prospekt at night

Lots of traveling today- so this may be more boring than the usual posts because
1. I feel like we didn't do much and 2. I didn't take too many pictures 

(it'll end up being a post with a more normal amount of pics then.. haha sorry for the constant photo dump... It's just better than my words could ever describe) 

We left Munich this morning and when Kody was filling up the car with gas he was in paying for a long time... I shouldn't have been surprised to see him come back with a huge bag full of candy.
"Just had to get rid of my change..." This boy and his candy I tell ya.  

Although when I saw the Kinder Buenos in there for me
I was sure happy he had all that change! mmmmm 

 We made it into St. Petes and again enjoyed the Russian clap once we landed.
I actually started the applause this go round as well haha So great.
This pic is a great one of the "Saint Petersburg" sign that is one of my very first memories of St. Petes from my mission (obviously...flying in) but also of the sweet plane all decked out in the St. Petersburg soccer teams (Zenit) colors. Awesome. 

We checked into our hotel and I just have to share this coolest sink ever. 

The water just slides down this glass. So hip. So cool. 

 

Here is another example of the incredible Metro stations here. This is at the Pushkin station, so everything is super fancy and there is our man Pushkin at the end there! 

 We got out of the Metro to enjoy this wonderful sunset at the "triple threat" spot as I call it. Cause you walk out and boom- there is "Dome Knigi" or House of books -1

 to the right is Church of Spilled Blood -2 

 and to the left is Kazan Cathedral -3

 Triple threat, my friends. My gosh. It's already good to be back :) 

 Some dudes were giving out cheap roses... Now it's like we are on a real Russian date - they love giving flowers on dates. Little cuties. 

 After dinner (you guessed it- Kody got borsch) we just walked around and enjoyed St. Petersburg at night. We walked up Nevsky Prospekt up to the Hermitage

 

 Admiralty building 

 St. Isaacs Cathedral

 and back to the book store and Church of Spilled Blood in the distance. 

I just never wanted to leave and head back to the hotel because it's hitting me that tomorrow is our last full day here and I'm having denial about it all!
Just soaking in my city for all it's worth! It's good to be home :) 

Germany/Austria day 7

Day 7

Salzburg, Austria

- Driving back!
- Quick stop in Salzburg

- Evening in Munich

Today was much more low key... Just packing up and then driving mostly...
But we decided last minute to make a quick stop in Salzburg to check out two major sites. 

Why not, right? We're here! 

We went right to the center of the city where there are fantastic churches and an awesome fortress up on the hill overlooking everything. 

 Sorry to say I don't know much about this church- besides it's really impressive inside and out

 We had these pretzels for lunch. I guess pretzels are a big deal over here in Germany/Austria- so we finally caved. We shared one original and one cheese and bacon pretzel
Yes- once we heard someone say bacon that's when we committed to getting these. hahah Guilty.

Theres the fortress above us too!

 Pretty cool seeing all of these church towers as we were making the walk up the fortress

 But my land... Why was it so steep? haha seriously. Especially within the fortress walls.
Or maybe it was just harder with a pretzel in my mouth? Nope- It was a doosie. 

 "Smithy! give me 3 cards" Dominion peeps- where you at?! 

 We found this little unicorn that you would try to toss these 3 rings on its horn. 

People were totally impressed by us, of course. 

 mmmm seeing Salzburg from the fortress walls. So pretty!

 (even though it's always me trying to document)
I'm getting sick of smiling for pictures, but I ain't sick of doin this!

 Most of the fortress was more of a museum showing old artifacts and things... 

but here was a fancy room for your viewing pleasure

One big thing Salzburg is known for is Mozart living here- so you'll see posters, souvenirs, and whatever else with him all over the place. They even have these Mozart chocolates everywhere. We heard they weren't that great though...so I just took a pic instead of the double whammy of buying and eating not-so-great chocolate. 

 Statue of Mozart on Mozart street. The real deal.

 Ummm....would you look at all these decorated eggs?! This is just one section! SO many! Hollowed out and hand painted! We were super impressed and just in shock of it all. 

 Next we headed across the river and had to snap a pic or two of this bridge completely COVERED in locks! It's a European thing to put your names on a lock, hook it to a bridge, and then you both throw the key into the river to show your everlasting love. (awwweeeee) I love it. 

 Lookin back at the fortress

 Since Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg, there are a few famous stops to go to or even tours that take you from site to site. We just went to the closest one where part of "Do-Re-Mi"was filmed.
I'm secretly a big fan of Sound of Music. I guess I say secretly when I really should say that I just forget how much I really like that movie and love the music. 

 You bet I was singing songs ALL day. Especially here in these gardens and would embarrass Kody and get up and say "This is where they get up (like this) and walk around this fountain!" 

 "This is where they hop from step to step singing "do....re...mi....re...do" and Julie Andrews goes up an octave, and then up another octave and does this to cover her hat or head or something!"
And I obviously act out said parts as I went.
Kode would be so bored without me. 

After this nice little stop we got back in the car and headed back up to Munich.
We grabbed a quick dinner and then just walked around the city again- no new pictures or anything cause it was mostly the same stuff, just soaking it in one last time before we leave tomorrow.
I should have taken a pic or video of this guy playing the accordion though- Kody was completely impressed with his skills and never wanted to leave! After listening to 3 songs, I pulled Kody away because we were running short on time with our parking ticket. Little cutie just couldn't get enough of that music! 

Tomorrow it's back to Russia for my last fix of our trip! 

Can't believe our dreamy Germany/Austria part of the adventure is done! 

Germany/Austria day 6

Day 6

Hallstatt, Austria

- Our place and Breakfast with the cutest old couple
- Salt mines
- Boat ride
- Waterfall(s) hike

This place is just to die for. I'm glad we found this little home to stay in. We've only really spoken to the home owners for a little bit, but they are really sweet and made us this amazin breakfast! Rolls/bread, meat, cheese, cucumbers, jam, honey, hard boiled eggs and orange juice. It was delish.

 Oh and just cause I don't want to forget how cute. There was an old German couple that stayed in another room here that was eating their breakfast at the other table in there. They were the absolute cutest! We couldn't understand anything they said, but they had the cutest back and forth and he was always making her laugh. Seriously the entire time, it was so sweet.  Later I noticed the wife couldn't life the big thing of coffee so the little old husband jumped up, shuffled around the table and poured it for her... she looked over at us and said "my butler" :) DARLING!
Anyway- when I say that this place is so great...this is also what I mean...
View from our balcony!

 I could get used to brushing my teeth like this every morning

 Here's the house! I want it.

We made the little drive back to Hallstatt and went straight to the Salt mine.
It is the oldest known salt mine...on Earth! Pretty wild. Hallstatt is named because it means something like "salt place" or something- can't remember specifically... Anywho...
We went up this cable car thing that goes practically straight up the mountain! Super cool!

This poster-dude was seriously at every turn walking to the tour entrance...
so we couldn't help ourselves

 Once we got there we had to wear these fancy pantsy outfits. Not sure if it was really just to keep us warm, stylish, clean, or just for the special slides I'll tell you about in a bit...
But we were all for them!

 Kinda cool salt lights and handsome Kody

 Something crazy about this place... Like I said that it's the oldest salt mine.. they found this oldest stair case in Europe (and possibly the world)! They've also found in this mountain/mine tools, fabric from clothes, and a body of a miner from thousands of years ago all because the salt preserved everything! whaaaaaat?!

My favorite part of the tour was going down this weird little slides! That's why the back of the pants we wear had different fabric- so we could sit on 2 of these slides and zip down quite a ways! You really get goin and I would just laugh the whole way down!

 I tried to get a selfie mid-slide, but the dang camera wouldn't turn around! Kody's video on his go-pro is just gonna be of me freaking out that it wasn't working. haha oh well...
Still made the pose look great for the official camera they have
And yes- that white box is showin how fast we were goin! haha Awesome.

 We also got to ride on this little miners train. Basically a bench that you straddle and you zoom through the tunnels.

Kody is just the most good lookin thing ever.

There is a little look out from way up there of the lake and town at the end of the tour and you KNOW I can't pass those up! Seriously, Kody always has to pull me away from just standing and staring forever.
Seriously- I feel things.
Heaven on Earth for me.

 Gotta love those look outs that just jut out of the mountain!

 Back on the ground and can't get enough of this town! This is a stinkin PEAR TREE! Can you even imagine sticking your hand out your window to pick a pear? sheesh.

 Love this "bro" of mine

We went on a little boat ride around the lake for an hour. That little thing was just put-putting around at 300 watts! aka- not fast at ALL! But it was so relaxing and gorgeous. 

  I kept quoting Little Rascals when Alfalfa and Darla go on the little romantic boat ride.

 No big deal...again with the swans just chillin with us

 I love this place

 We finished the night with a little hike up to some waterfalls.
All we knew was that they were at the end of this valley... No real instructions or not too many signs, but we found the path and followed the river. SO much green, I just loved it!

 There was a fork in the road at one point and I could see a waterfall over some trees- so I picked going right.... well it lead us to what looked like someones home so we felt weird, snuck around the yard, and snapped this pic quick of the waterfall in the distance.
I thought, sure we didn't get up close- but we saw the falls, and
could turn back and be done at that point...
As we turned around Kody said "Pretty sure those weren't the actual waterfalls we should be seeing...it was kinda small"
Me being my stubborn and competitive self said that they had to be it- yes we took the wrong way, but why wouldn't those be the falls? Kody (ALSO being stubborn and competitive) bet that the other path would lead to the correct waterfall....
SO off we went- back to the other path, even though we were both ok with being done just a few minutes before....

 This pic almost needs no caption...

Ok, ok, Kody was right! There was another waterfall at the end of the path and it was slightly bigger than the first ones we saw.
(And yes- I was told I had to blog the whole true story haha)
I'm cool with it though...this way we saw 2 pretty waterfalls. ;)