The Ascent

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day in Salzburg.  We got up and enjoyed another great breakfast at the hotel.  I’ve come to enjoy this Nutella spread that is so prevalent here in Europe.  I had seen it and heard about it in the states but had never tried it out.  Past few days at the hotel I’ve been making a turkey, Swiss, egg, and Nutella sandwich.  Yea, it tastes pretty amazing, but I do miss my Jif Reduce Fat Creamy Peanut Butter!  We made a list of various things to see in old town and went to work.  We started off by going to the Mozart Museum and followed it with the catacombs located along the St. Peter’s Church within the mountainside.  Next, we picked up some tickets to go on a speedboat tour along the river at 6.  For lunch, I was not too hungry thanks to a filling breakfast and just hit up the market for some bread, fresh grapes, blackberries, and a peach.

Our entire stay while in Salzburg, I’ve had my eyes glued to this 6,500-foot mountain (Unterberg) that sits in the distance from our hotel, eager to make my way up it.  After getting lunch, we caught the bus out to the mountain where you can take a gondola all the way to the top.  Prior to getting on the gondola, we met Hannah and Amy.  They were both graduates and former tennis players from a small Christian school in California.  Amy worked for World Missions filming various stories around Europe, while her friend Hannah was from Slovakia and is getting her MBA and had met up with her to vacation.  We stuck around one another while around the top of the mountain sharing our adventures thus far, etc.  We got up to the summit where the weather was windy and cold (~35°F) but relatively clear.  We walked out of the coffee shop, and there it was.  We were in the clouds!  We continued the ascent up to a large steel cross that had been constructed at the peak.  

The view from above was unlike any other!  My God, “romancing” me with his beauty!  We continued to trek along the mountaintop taking all kinds of pictures and making fools of ourselves (Trevor and I performed shirtless jumping pictures).  Having time to sit up 6,500 feet above sea level, the Lord was really just putting my heart at peace.  This trip up the mountain and the view from the top completely summed up what this trip has taught/meant to me spiritually.  The beauty from the top was just like God saying to me, “Hey Daniel.  You know all those awesome things that I’ve revealed to you over the past couple weeks…their beauty and how it amazed you?  Well take a look at this!  Let this ‘woo’ you.”

Once returning to the coffee shop where the gondola let out, the six of us grabbed some hot chocolate and then made our way back down.  Hannah and Amy recommended a China buffet place for us to eat for dinner (a place they had only seen, not eaten at) and then an Irish pub to listen to some music afterwards.  Tired from a busy day, we gave them our boat ride tickets and planned to meet up later.  We went back to the hotel for a little bit, and I had every intention of taking a nap.  However with this beautiful weather and scenery, I couldn’t just pass it up.  I had some God time out on the balcony and then went for a run.  The runs have been so good.  As I’ve said previously, there is this underlying motivation running in a foreign country with a 6,500-foot mountain in your view.

We then made our way back into town to try out this China buffet, and let’s just say not exactly the best food I’ve ever had.  Different tasting than American Chinese food, but still had that all you can eat buffet taste to it.  We ran into Hannah and Amy again, highly recommending that they find a different restaurant to eat at.  The four of us headed on to the pub to just hangout and listen to some music planning to meet up with Hannah and Amy for the live stuff next door later on.  Meeting Hannah and Amy has really just caused me to reflect back on all the awesome/loving people we’ve met on this trip so far.  Whether it was Boris in Toulouse, Patty in Regensburg, or these girls in Salzburg, it’s been so cool to see how the Lord has allowed us to cross paths with these individuals, share passions/stories, and learn about their faith life.  About week ago, I mentioned how I felt that I was not allowing myself to see how God was revealing himself to me and working in me.  I was expecting it to only come through interactions with other people, but He revealed to me that it was his beauty He wanted to reveal…and believe me He sure has.  Anyways, it was so awesome to look back and see how through realizing that, the Lord continued to provide in my interactions with others like Boris, Patty, Hannah, and Amy.

Well after leaving the pub, we said our goodbyes to our friends to only realize that the bus stopped running at 11.  We made the decision that we would walk back, but this was very short lived after realizing it would be about a 2-hour trek if we were lucky (ended up taking a taxi).  However, for the 30-45 minutes we did walk, we did see a hedgehog.  Yea, that was pretty sweet.

As of now, I am currently on the train as we are making our way from Salzburg back to Zurich (beautiful).  We’ll be in Zurich until Tuesday and then catch our flight back to America!

 

The hotel we are currently staying at does not have free Internet access.  This will likely be my last post until I get back to Statesboro on Tuesday.