The Hills are Alive...

This past weekend, Katie, Robin, and I went to Salzburg--the salt castle. This trip was by far the most relaxing of all our trips, but it may have been the most expensive. We bought the Salzburg card, which allowed us to see most of the tourist sites for free and have free public transportation. So, of course we tried to get our money's worth by seeing every site possible without rushing. We went up to see the fortress and went to a cool marionette museum up there. We really wanted to go see a marionette play, but there were none going on while we were there. We also saw the residence of the prince-bishops, the Dom cathedral, the Mirabell Gardens, Motzart's two houses (his birth house and the one he lived in after he was born), and St. Peter's cemetary and catacombs. When we went up to the fortress we took the funicular up because the walk would have been horrible. On the way down, however, we decided to walk across the mountain to the modern art museum and go down its elevator. The walk over there was really pretty and a lot of fun!! I really enjoyed the mirabell gardens also, especially the gnome garden!! The gnomes were funny looking, but what was even stranger was this bunch of guys having a picnic in drag!! They were weird!!

The thing I was most looking forward to on this trip was the Sound of Music tour! We went on Saturday morning after watching the movie Friday night at our hostel. The tour was so good and our tour guide was really funny! We all sang along to the songs in the movie while we were on the bus! The day we went, however, it was raining, but we managed to stay dry and still enjoyed ourselves! We got to see many different locations that were used in the movie and some that were made into hollywood sets. It will be so exciting now when I watch the movie because I will recognize places and be able to say that I was there!

The Salzburg festival was going on while we were there, and we decided to buy tickets to a concert in the fortress. The quartet played pieces by Motzart and Dvorak and the concert was wonderful!! I was so angry after I had to pay to take the funicular up to go to a concert I already paid for, but after the concert I didn't care any more because it was well worth it! Also while we were down in town we stopped and listened to this quartet of boys playing pieces by Motzart out in Motzart Platz. The other day, there was also a Canadian marching band out in the platz. Their uniforms consisted of cowboy hats, huge beltbuckles, and cowboy boots, but they were not from Texas! Listening to them play made me remember my highschool band years when I used to play the same songs they were playing! It made me miss those fun times!!

Another fun part of this trip was the hostel. We stayed in an 8 bed all girls dorm room, and we had the coolest roomates ever! It was funny because we all spoke English, but with different accents. There was a girl from Canada who was really nice, but was only there for a little bit. The people we talked to the most were these two girls from Australia, who went on the tour with us, and another two girls from England. They were all so nice and I had a great time talking with all of them and learning about where they are from. From a conversation we had, I had to figure out that a boot is the trunk of a car and an areial is an antennae! Also fannypack is not a good word in England!! We also talked to another girl from Australia who was living in England. Her name was Gabby and that name suited her so well! She loved to talk and she would talk so fast that it made it so much fun just to listen to her talk! She was hilarious in a sarcastic sort of way, and it was funny to hear her use the f word so casually in her conversations--it actually made them even more entertaining!! Anyways, I had a great time in Salzburg-it was definitely a good trip to save for last!!