The hills are alive...

...With the Sound of Music. That movie was filmed in Salzburg, Austria. Guess where I went this past weekend?! That's right, Salzburg, Austria. I also spent about twenty-four hours in Vienna. So here's how our extra long weekend went...

First things first, a little story behind the trip. I went with one of my roommates, Emily, from Canada. There is another international student here, Bernie, who is from Salzburg. He had to go back for a week or so to meet with some of his professors and take a couple exams at his home university, so he invited a bunch of us to make the trip with him. Emily and I were the only two who actually acted on his invitation. Originally, we had planned to fly to Salzburg on Friday and return to school on Monday, but there was a mix-up when Emily booked our flights and we ended up flying in on Thursday and back on Tuesday. I missed all my classes, but getting to see Salzburg and Vienna was totally worth it!

Alright, so now that you know a little bit of background, let's get started on the events of the trip. Thursday morning we got up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM to throw a few more things together and take a taxi at 4:45 to Belfast City Airport. It was an adventure just getting through security as we didn't realize that all our liquids had to be in a sandwich size ziplock bag, not a gallon size bag like in the US. We got that sorted out fairly quickly though, went through security, waited for a while, boarded our plane, and landed in London fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. That would have been all well and good except for the fact that we already had a four hour layover! We made the best of it though, stopping at a couple different cafes, our favorite of which was the one with comfy chairs and beach music playing. We got lots of reading done at this cafe, and, when we found out our next flight's departure was to be delayed another thirty minutes, we played a few card games. Four hours and forty-five minutes after arriving we boarded our next plane to Salzburg. Two hours later we made the descent into Salzburg. Thursday was our only sunny day during the whole trip, which meant the view from the plane was absolutely stunning! There were snow-covered mountains as far as the eye could see. Usually I'm not a huge fan of snow, but when it's in the mountains you can't help but think it's beautiful!

Bernie met us at the gate and we began our sight-seeing immediately. The first stop was just across the tarmac, at what Emily and I thought was a crashed UFO. Turns out it's a hanger owned by the creator of Red Bull, which just happens to be a product from Austria. The hanger contains his private collection of planes, race cars and more, as well as several different high-class lounges and bars. We spent about thirty minutes exploring the collection and then embarked on a driving tour of Salzburg. From the backseat I caught a glimpse of the Convent of Nonnberg, the Ledopoldskron Palace, the Salzburg Castle and Cathedral and many other buildings that appear in the Sound of Music. Bernie also showed us his flat and drove us part way up one of the mountains before we went to his cute house in the outskirts of the city. When we arrived, his mom had Prosecco (sparkling white wine) and some delicious traditional Austrian food waiting for us. I loved all of it, but especially the Prosecco! I have yet to look online and see if I can get it in the states...I'll be very disappointed if I can't. We sat around the dinner table for a few hours after dinner, just Emily, Bernie and I, enjoying a few drinks. Then we decided to go into the heart of Salzburg to walk around a bit and check out some live jazz at one of the clubs, The Republic. The walk was pretty short due to the bitter cold winds. We stayed at the club for a while, having only one drink each because they were so dang expensive and listening to the great music. When we'd had our fill, we checked out a couple other clubs/bars in the area that were actually built into the mountain. Each of them had it's own, unique atmosphere - electronic music, American music, techno music, etc. It was hard to get the full effect, though, since there weren't many people in any of them due to the fact that Austrian universities give students the entire month of February off, so all the students were off traveling across Europe. We went to bed semi-early that night because we knew we had a long day of sight-seeing ahead of us.

Friday morning, after a great night of sleep under our super puffy, fluffy and warm down comforters, we awoke to find a delicious breakfast of fresh bread, homemade strawberry rhubarb jam and hot coffee. Apparently that's a typical breakfast in Austria, which was perfectly fine by me - the jam was so tasty! We also awoke to lots of freshly fallen snow, with more flakes dropping from the sky. Little did we know the snow wouldn't stop until two hours before we left on Tuesday! Emily and I put on lots of layers - tights under our pants, three long sleeve shirts, three pairs of socks, boots, gloves, scarves and hoods and hats - and the three of us walked into the city. We saw so much that day, I don't know if I can remember it all, but I'll try. First, our path took us past a house that's built in the middle of a large pond, although because of the snow you really couldn't tell. Then we walked through part of the Salzburg University campus and then into the city. We passed the Church of the Cajetans and from there walked into Mozartplatz, where a huge statue of Mozart stands waiting to greet you. After a quick stop at the tourist information center, we checked out St. Michael's Church, Residenz Fountain (which, like all the other fountains in both Salzburg and Vienna, is covered for protection purposes during the winter), Residenz State rooms (a building that appears in the Sound of Music), and finally, the Salzburg Cathedral. This cathedral's dome towers over the city. Inside, we found countless murals and paintings on every wall and ceiling, a gigantic organ on the back wall, a majestic altar, and ornately decorated surfaces. They certainly don't make churches like this in the States, which is perhaps why we stopped in so many churches during our time in Austria. In fact, our next stop was St. Peter's Abbey, Cemetery and Catacombs. We did make a short pit stop on the way there, however, buying some fresh rolls at Salzburg's oldest bakery. St. Peter's cemetery held some of the most extravagant tombstones I have ever seen. The view of the city from the Catacombs was spectacular as well. From there we walked through a tunnel to the other side of the mountain, past the Salzburg Festival House, and to one of the many cafes/bakeries in Austria. Bernie treated us to Mozart Balls, a delectable Austrian chocolate treat. Then he took us to his university and the Panorama Museum, which houses a 360 degree mural of Salzburg, before we walked back to his house for a lunch of gnocchi, goulash, salad and white wine.

We spent a little over an hour at Bernie's, trying to get warmed up, and then we went by car to Hellbrunn Palace. According to Bernie, this palace was the duke's summer house. There are extensive gardens on the property as well where festivals are held in the summer, but again the snow didn't allow the full effect. The best part about stopping here caught me by complete surprise. As we entered the grounds I was looking to my left at the gardens; then, I turned to my right, and what did I see but the pavilion/gazebo used in the Sixteen Going on Seventeen scene in Sound of Music! In case you haven't caught on, I absolutely love that movie, so I was more than thrilled to see all this stuff from it. We quickly explored the grounds and then climbed back into the car for a quick drive up another mountain. The drive was a little bit scary with all the snow, especially on the really steep road we took coming down. I'm sure the view from the top is absolutely amazing on sunny days! From the mountain we drove back to Bernie's and, of all things, we watched The Sound of Music! You might not believe it, but Emily and Bernie and even Bernie's whole family had never seen the film. In fact, Bernie's family doesn't even own it; his dad had to open an account at the movie rental store just so we could watch it. I just want to clarify that this was not my idea - my love for the movie must have just rubbed off on Bernie and Emily.

That night we had a dinner of frankfurts in goulash sauce with white wine before heading back to The Republic for 80s club night. Let's just say that experience was interesting. We met up with some of Bernie's friends there, most of whom did not speak English, so Emily and I just danced off to the side by ourselves. The music selection wasn't exactly stellar - either American 80s songs that aren't exactly easy to dance to, or German songs that we had never heard before and stood no chance of understanding. By the time we left, everything I was wearing and pretty much my entire body smelled like cigarette smoke (smoking in bars and clubs is still legal in Austria) and beer (having had a couple of glasses dumped on me). We went to a techno club for about an hour after The Republic before catching a taxi home. Let's just say it wasn't my ideal night out, but it was all part of the experience I guess.

Saturday was another full, and very wet and slushy, day of sight seeing. After a later start than we had hoped, we drove the car into the city, parked it, and hiked up a short mountain trail to a lookout at the Museum of Modern Art. We then continued on another trail to the Salzburg Castle. We did a short audio tour through the castle, briefly checked out the museums and then literally ran to the Salzburg Festival House to try and catch the 2 PM tour. Unfortunately, we didn't run fast enough and ended up just missing the tour. Major bummer. Emily and I were pretty upset with Bernie because he had held us up at the castle. We waited outside the opera house for a good twenty minutes while Bernie talked to the guard and tried to contact the tour guide so that we could join the tour, but he had no luck and we ended up just leaving our phone number with the guard in the hope that we could somehow join the tour. We didn't want to waste any more time waiting around, but we also didn't want to go too far in the off chance that someone might call, so we went to a nearby church - either the Franciscan Church or the Collegiate Church. This was a Baroque period church, therefore the decor was stunning! We snapped a few pictures and suddenly Bernie's phone rang - the tour!!! We raced back to the Festival House and joined the tour, and boy, am I grateful for that opportunity. The Festival House is another building built into the mountains and is comprised of three theaters: the Mozart Theater, which was completely renovated just two years ago, an outdoor theater, which is the one used in the Sound of Music (!), and another very large theater with seats for 1,600+ people. We got to go backstage in the biggest theater. That was the biggest stage I have ever seen! I only took one picture of it because pictures just didn't do it justice. From July-August it is festival season in Salzburg. I would love to come back for that!

After touring the Festival House, we crossed the river and went to the Stein Hotel's Stone Terrace for some delicious desserts and another spectacular view of the city. I was more focused on the delectable apple strudel on the plate in front of me, rather than the view. Emily got a sweet cheese strudel and Bernie had the traditional Austrian sachertorte. Naturally, we all sampled each other's desserts. I think the sachertorte was the best. It's a chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle.

From the terrace we walked to the Mirabell Garden, where another scene from Sound of Music was filmed. We stumbled upon a greenhouse in the grounds and spent a few minutes warming up in there before beginning the very long trek back to the car. Maybe it wasn't all that long, but it felt long because my left boot, the one whose soal is worn through, was completely soaked. I was so excited when we finally walked through Bernie's front door and put dry socks on my feet. We had about an hour of down time and then Bernie took us to his friend's apartment. This friend was getting ready to go to Chicago for the next three months, so Bernie wanted to see him before he left. Emily and I had a pretty good time playing poker and drinking some Austrian beer, Stiegl. I'm pretty sure Bernie's friends were probably laughing at how bad we were at poker, but since the majority of them only spoke German, I guess we'll never know for sure. We returned to Bernie's at around 1AM because Emily and I planned to catch the 8 AM train to Vienna.

I'm going to skip over the Vienna part of the trip in this post because it's getting to be way too long! I'll just say that we went there on Sunday morning and got back to Salzburg at around 7 PM on Monday. Monday night was the most relaxing part of the whole trip. Bernie, Emily and I stayed in and cooked Kasnochren (not sure of the spelling), another traditional Austrian food, for dinner. Basically, we made gnocchi from scratch, mixed in lots and lots of special cheese and onions and then baked the mixture with chives and fried onions on the top. We didn't actually eat until around 9 PM and went straight to bed afterward.

Tuesday was our last day in Austria, and believe it or not we still had a couple things left to do. Bernie's mom drove us to Mozart's house early Tuesday morning. Mozart was born in Salzburg and is therefore a celebrated figure there. The museum set up in his house wasn't the best, but we did learn a lot about him and his family. For example, did you know he had a sister who was also a gifted musician, but she gave it up so her brother could have his fame? From his house we walked to the main shopping street in Salzburg. It's really cute because all the shops are required to have signs that resemble those in the 19th century. The only store I really wanted to stop in was a Christmas shop I had spotted our first night in the city so that I could buy a Christmas ornament for myself and for mom. Emily and I also stopped at a cafe and a bakery to buy some Prosecco and chocolates for Bernie's parents to thank them for their hospitality. We caught a bus back to Bernie's, had a quick lunch, packed up our things and then Bernie drove us back to the airport for our flight home. Only about two hours before our flight did it finally stop snowing. Oh well!

Salzburg is a relatively big city - at least compared to the "city" I come from, but it still has a small town feel and there is so much history within its walls. I definitely recommend making a visit there some day. Thanks for being such a great host Bernie!