Brati-what?

Hello everyone!

I'm back on my home turf of the European continent, and very happy with the chilly and rainy weather here. Yesterday, I made it back from Tel Aviv not without some major Israeli security shenaniganry. I arrived at the airport 2 hours before departure using public transport, and when I walked in, a security guard chided me for not arriving 3 hours early. This didn't really bother me, since the airport did not look at all crowded.

Before I could check in, there was a line for security. And, since I have the look of a terrorist I was picked out for extra screening, which in Israeli means "We'll check you so thoroughly that you'll start wondering if you are a threat to the state or not". First, they interrogated me about my stay in Israel, who I knew there, why I was visiting, and so forth. Then, when they found stamps from my day trip to Morocco two years ago they asked me a barrage of questions about that. Then I was allowed to take my luggage through the security point, after which they took my checked bag and thoroughly searched it and did tests of all kinds on it.

I passed that test, checked into my flight, and then had to check my bag into the "bulky luggage" due to the straps on the backpack. From there I went to the security line for getting into the terminal. Further stigmatized by my threat to society, I had to be stripped of all belongings, which were all searched and bomb-tested (they even made me take my iPod out of it's skin-tight case), and then I went through the metal detector. After all of that, I was set free to get to my plane. At the gate I waited for about 5 minutes before I was made aware that they had changed the flight's gate number. I had plenty of time, so I got over there well before the flight left.

The flight to Istanbul was relatively uneventful. Like last time, they offered newspapers and served a small meal. I had a 3 hour layover in Istanbul where I charged my iPod and unsuccessfully tried to use a payphone to keep my reservation for that night in Vienna, a failure that would come back to bite.

At about 5PM I got into Vienna once again, where the Johann Strauss bar greeted me at the gate, welcoming me back to Europe in a very appropriate manner. At the baggage claim I called my once-reserved hostel to see if I still had my reservation there, but of course it had been taken due to my lack of confirmation. No worries, I told myself, I'll just stay in another Viennese hostel. After calling all the ones in my book, I had no place to stay in Vienna. I thought about this for a while, and then started getting creative. As I looked through my tour book, I found that Bratislava, Slovakia, was about 1 hour away, and they had hostels there. I called one, and reserved their last bed for the night.

Just like that, I had added another country to my trip! I got a bus from the airport to Bratislava and enjoyed the trip watching the beautiful Austrian and Slovakian countryside roll by. In Bratislava, I got a nice walking tour of the city while getting to my hostel. It's a great city, and there were very few tourists. Later that night I attempted to use a very slow internet cafe, and failed to reserve a place in Munich, but I'm not worried about that.

So, this morning I walked a couple km's to the train station and headed back to Vienna, where I transferred stations and took a 3 hour train to Salzburg. During this time, the weather had become significantly cooler and the clouds much darker. The rain had begun by the time I got to Vienna, and I was so grateful to be experiencing this big difference from the extremely hot temperatures of Tel Aviv.

I confirmed my Salzburg reservation in the station and walked a while to the city center, where tourists abounded and gorgeous old town streets appeared everywhere. Since I had my pack, I couldn't be too mobile, but I managed to see much of the small downtown area of Mozart's hometown. To get to my hostel, I had to take a bus to the outskirts of the city, where I got off at the stop that the reception had told me to, but from there I was at a loss. To get some assistance I went to a nearby sporting goods store where the manager asked every employee if they knew the address that my book had for the hostel- no one did. Eventually a customer pointed me in the right direction and I got to my hostel, which is pretty much in the forest outside Salzburg- rustic, right?

Essentially, the last two days have been mainly travelling, but for the most part it has been travelling that has provided amazing views of expanses of country that I would otherwise not see. Tomorrow I'm going to a small lakeside town called Hallstat for a daytrip from here. It should be beautiful if it isn't pouring.

Hope all of you are going well! And I'm sorry, once again, for the lack of pictures.