Salzburg Day 2!

So two days in one. The 24th: we traveled by train and bus to our first hostel in Salzburg. Done. Oh, and had a great dinner! Ok, the 25th: woke up in one hostel and had breakfast then went to another hostel to check in. Well, we arrived at out hostel at noon and couldn't check in until 5, so we stored out luggage and went exploring in the snow! At first it was just snowflake snow, but then it was gorgeous puff ball snow! It was so pretty and made me so happy! We took a bus to downtown and walked through the shops. The road was skinny and felt like it went on forever but had little arches you could go through on the sides. We went to the oldest bakery, to the crypts, and got sausages and pretzels! I got an apfel streusel pretzel, some got the Mozart pretzel and some the pizza pretzel. Delicious! Some I the group went to go get drinks while others of us went in search if the you shop we passed earlier. It was so cute! They even had stuffed Minnie and Mickey in lederhosen! So then my group got back to the hostel by 4:45 and waited for the group and the receptionist to come back. Once we all had our room assignments (such nice and big rooms! There's walking space!), we met at 6:15 to head to the Festspielhaus for the Vienna Philharmonic! The conductor was so animated it made it fun to watch. Then Joshua Bell played in the second piece and he took the prize for most gesticulation with a violin. The viola necks had a cool pattern like the rings from a tree. The first song after intermission, Strauss's "Metamorphosen," was wonderful but very thought provoking. I found my mind wandering and then being pulled back into the music. The next Mozart piece was so energetic and fun that all thoughts of being tired vanished. There were wonderful contrasts in dynamics with a great swell to the end. The group split for dinner and met back at the hostel. It was a busy day full of new things.