I Tripped and Nearly Got Stuck in a Drain-Ditch!

View of the Castle from our Hostel

       Yesterday was our third day in Salzburg and it seems to be the most popular one so far on this trip. Its a small place but lots of hustle and bustle goin' on. The first thing we did yesterday morning was go and visit the Hohensalzburg Castle/Fortress. Now, I like to think of myself as a decently healthy human bean.... but, man, that hike up was intense! There was a mix of stairs and the hill but both were pretty steep.We weren't even half way up and I as already winded. It didn't help that the day before, a small group of us went and did a small hike up to the monastery. So now my legs and ankles are super sore. On the bright side, however, by the end of the trip I'll have nicer legs (maybe??... haha).

So, fast forward from our long and tiring hike, the view from the Fortress was absolutely amazing and the fact that it was such a nice, sunny day made it that much better. One cool thing that I learned from our guide was that the mountains that we were super close to were a part of Bavaria. Then we were told about the various people that ruled over this Castle/Fortress. It's interesting because, there were no Kings or queens or princesses that rule here; simply archbishops who were essentially princes. There was one story about Prince Archbishop Leonard von Keutschach that stuck out to me above the rest because instead of having anything fancy like a Fleur-de-lis on his coat of arms, he just had a simple white turnip. The story behind it was that when this prince was younger, he wasn't taking his studies seriously. It got to the point where he and his father got into a heated argument which in turn resulted in the Archbishop getting a turnip thrown at his head. Thus, the turnip became the humble symbol on his coat of arms. Apparently, there are around 57 or so turnip symbols that can be found in paintings, friezes and sculptures around the castle.

This is one of the heaters that people would use
to keep rooms warm for up to 8 or 9 hours

    After we went through the main tour of the castle, the guide took us up to a tower that faced the city of Salzburg  which almost no-one gets to go to unless they are working there. The tower had a really great view of the city, however the purpose it was built for wasn't so great. Apparently, there was one point where the citizens had rioted and surrounded the castle. So to prevent that from happening again, the archbishop built the castle as a warning that if it happened again, there were cannons on the tower that were aimed at the citizens.

     The visit to the tower ended our awesome tour of the castle. But i think most of us weren't looking forward to the steep hike back down... So a on our way down, I decided to hold on to the hand rail and walk backwards because I thought it would work different muscles... However, I had forgotten about the small drains that go horizontally along the pathway. I ended up getting my foot stuck in one of those and nearly fell backwards if not for the hand rail. Lesson learned, pay attention to where you're going.

This was the hike up..
 but behind my head is one of the drains I got my food stuck in...