The Hills are Alive

This past weekend was my first trip without any adults from school accompanying us. It was just Hayley, Erin, Cherith and me heading into the beautiful country of Austria. We were all super excited to be traveling in a smaller group than normal, and to see Salzburg. There was so much on our schedule to get done, and I was hoping that we would be able to accomplish it all. My biggest concern was the Sound of Music tour because I was beyond stoked about going around the city and seeing where Julie Andrews had been so many years before. Random fact, Salzburg means salt castle and we could have visited the salt mines, but we didn't have enough time. Sad day. Anyways...

Thankfully, this trip started out on the right foot, and we made it to and on all of our trains without any problems. We arrived in Salzburg around 2pm, and we didn’t really know where we were to go from the train. We had written down the directions, but that was about the extent of our knowledge. It took us 45 minutes to find our hostel because where we were supposed to turn left we turned right because we saw construction in the way. Little did we know that there was a path through the craziness that would have taken practically straight to our hostel. So a ten-minute walked turned into almost an hour. We were all more than ready to check in and put our bags down. Once we had found our room (which was much nicer than I was expecting) and were ready to go shopping and we took off to go find the city center were Old Town was located. Somehow we ended up on the complete opposite side of town, but at least we stopped at a bakery, ate some deliciousness, and the nice lady informed us we were not anywhere near our destination. Thankfully it was within walking distance and with an hour to spare before everything shut down, we made it to Old Town. The architecture was amazing, and I instantly fell in love with city, but I have a problem with falling in love with wherever I go. God has truly given me an extremely expensive passion. Guess I will just have to marry rich J After everything started to close down, we headed back to the hostel so we could watch the Sound of Music. I mean we were in Salzburg, the town where it was filmed, and we were going on the tour sometime that weekend, so it was only fitting that we watched the movie. We sat in wooden chairs for the whole 3 hours and it was literally the most uncomfortable thing ever, but the movie was as fantastic as ever! It was a great way to end our first day in Austria.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Old Town, and this time we went in the correct direction, and we made it  in an easy ten minute walk, if that. The first thing we visited was Mozart’s Residence. I was looking forward to seeing his house, but honestly once we had gotten there and walked through it, I was a little disappointed by it. I think it would probably help if I was a bigger Mozart fan, or was a musician. It’s cool to say that I have at least been there though. You were not allowed to take pictures, but we designated Cherith to be the sneaky one with her iPhone, so we would have some pictures. We did some shopping in between that and going to visit Mozart’s birthplace. The latter visit was also a disappointment to me. I don’t know if I just didn’t like it or if I am just not a big enough Mozart fan. There was a lot of focus put on his family, rather than Mozart himself, which I found interesting because I have only ever really heard of Mozart himself. 

Mozart's Residence

Mozart's Birthplace (smack dab in the middle of Old Town)

We took a break to eat lunch next and in order to sit at the café tables you have to order something, so naturally we all decided we needed to try apfel streudel because it is supposed to be delicious in Austria, according to my Aunt April, and Maria mentions it in the favorite things song in the Sound of Music. To be honest, I didn’t think it was anything special. It was not very sweet, and it had these raisins like things in it. I ate it all, so my mom would be proud, but I was little disappointed with it. After lunch we headed up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is this huge fortress that overlooks the entire city of Salzburg. It was built in 1077, but through the next several hundred years, it was added on to, which makes it the fortress it is today. The view from the top was phenomenal, and the last thing we did was take an audio tour up one of the towers and the view from up there was even better. I loved seeing the 360 view of Salzburg, and I took tons of pictures to show everyone back home! 

At the fortress there was a smaller marionette theatre inside, and it was stinking creepy. The dolls just weird me out, but the things that people do with them is so talented, and honestly I think it would be pretty neat to see a show with them. It still was a little eerie to see all of them in a museum though. 

The MOST delicious Tiramisu

The fortress was probably one of my favorite things that we did on Saturday, but the shopping was pretty fun too J Once we made our way back down the mountain side in the cable car we decided it was time to look for dinner. The one disappointing thing about Old Town is that many of the places close around 5 or 6. That made it slightly difficult to find a place to eat, but as we were walking back to our hostel we found the perfect place. The owner spoke English and he even offered us English written menus. We knew instantly that it was the place for us, and the prices were not too shabby at all. I tried the schnitzel with potatoes and salad, and while it was good, to me it just tasted exactly like chicken. Unfortunately, my schnitzel did not come with noodles like Maria sings in the movie. For dessert, I decided to try the tiramisu, and it was literally the best I have EVER had. It was to die for, and I savored every bite of it. If I had not been so full, I swear I could have eaten another one it was that good. The other girls got crepes to split, and those were fantastic as well. We really lucked out with this place. I was very satisfied. Eventually, we made our way back to the hostel to be in for the night.

Today was our last day in Salzburg and what better way to spend your last day than on a Sound of Music tour. I don’t care how nerdy I sound, but I was BEYOND excited to see all the places this movie had been filmed at. I was thinking of my mother the entire time because she would have loved it, considering the Sound of Music is her favorite movie. You were with me in spirit, Mom! 

The first place we saw was the back porch of the von Trapp family’s home. It was gorgeous and looked like it did just in the movie. This was the spot where the children and Maria fell out of the boat when they were greeting the captain. 

Fun fact: the back porch was the only thing used in the movie because they used another house for the front gate and front door. And anything filmed inside the house was filmed back at the film studio in LA. Next, we got a good look at the mountain where the von Trapp climbed over into Switzerland for safety at the end of the movie. Fun fact: directly beyond the mountain is not the Swiss border, instead it’s actually Germany.

 After that we drove to Hellbrunn palace where the gazebo is now located because they moved it from it’s original spot because the back porch and lake shot is now private property. We didn’t actually get to go inside the gazebo, but we got pictures with it. I didn’t sing 16 going on 17, but believe me I was tempted. Fun fact: the inside of the gazebo shot in the film was actually filmed back in LA. They only used the gazebo for the outside shot of it. 

Next to Hellbrunn is the place where Maria skips along the alley path, singing, “I’ve got confidence in me!” while on her way to the von Trapp home. So obviously, we had to get some kind of action shot on the path! And yesterday while we were walking through the town we found the fountain where she funs by and splashes the water, so clearly we found it necessary to take pictures of us doing the same thing. However, the fountain was super high up, so they had to have had a step stool for her to do that or something because it was no easy task to repeat her actions. 

Just like Maria.. Almost.

The path where she skipped

The next place we headed to was the church were Maria and the captain were married. I actually got to walk down the aisle and everything. Yes, Hayley and I did walk down it together like we were getting married. It was completely normal and acceptable, and I loved every minute of it. The church was unbelievably ornate, and right across the street from it there was a café where the children ate apfel streudel at before filming their scenes. So, logically we also decided we needed to eat apfel streudel there because then we could say that we ate at the same place they did. We were those people, and I have no regrets. Once again, I was not impressed and I probably didn’t need to get it, but at least I have the memory. That has to count for something! The one thing I was really bummed out about was the fact that we didn’t get to go to the Abbey. I was really hoping we would be able to, but it was not apart of the tour. I got to see it from a distance, but that was all.

Red Roof of Abbey

Same cafe the children ate at and below is the apfel streudel :)

 After the tour, we went across the street to Mirabell Gardens where in the movie the kids and Maria skipped through the flowers and the Pegasus fountain. It was gorgeous and there were so many flowers popping everywhere. We saw the little tunnel that they all rode their bikes through, and we walked underneath that as well.

We pretty much lived the Sound of Music all day, and I loved every second of it. To make it even better our bus ride to all the places was super cheesy, and our guide for one knew so much information and she did a great job telling us everything, and number two did a wonderful job of leading up to all the songs in the movie. We practically listened to every single one, and we sang along. It was fantastic.

 Honestly, today was probably my favorite day in Salzburg. I had a blast, and I was nowhere near ready to leave. There is just so much more to see and do here, but alas we have to get back to campus because in two days we leave for Taize in France. This month is crazy, and in the past 6 days I have been in 6 different countries. I would say this experience has been more than a success for me. Salzburg is definitely a place that I would love to go back and visit one day, and I recommend it to anyone because it would make for a great place to stop and enjoy the beauty of it. I enjoyed every minute here, and I am sad to leave it. I will be back one day. Europe has already wiggled its way farther into my heart, and I have no idea what I am going to do when I have to go back to the states in two months. It’s definitely going to be hard and an adjustment. But, thankfully, I have two more glorious months on this fantastic continent, and I refuse to waste any time while here. I will make the most of it! Til Next Time.