A few of my favorite things

As I'm sitting at work in the library, doing absolutely nothing, I've realized that I haven't updated this with my most recent adventures. What better way to procrastinate from working on projects and papers than to update my blog?

On the 9th of October, I went to Salzburg for the day. I had already gone to Salzburg earlier in the semester, but it was with a fairly large group of people and, although we saw a lot of the city, I wasn't able to do absolutely everything that I wanted to: mostly, Sound of Music stuff. If you don't know by now, I am a Sound of Music fanatic. Seriously. I grew up listening to and singing along with the music and my sister and I watched the movie basically everyday after getting home from preschool and kindergarten. I remember running around and dancing to the music in my living room. I remember listening to the soundtrack during every road trip my family took. It was my life.
So, this time around, I went on The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg. Before the tour, I walked around The Mirabell Gardens (which I had already done last time) and explored more of the park than I had before.

I also stumbled upon the Mozarteum, a music school in Salzburg, and the Marionette Museum where the puppets used in the film are kept. The tour started at 2pm and lasted for almost 4 hours and included so many of the Sound of Music locations that I wasn't able to see the first time I went to Salzburg.
Our first stop was Schloss Leopoldskron. The palace is actually private property of Harvard now (say what?), so you can't actually go inside or on the property. But the most relevant part of the palace is the back, which is visible from across the lake, in terms of the film.

Next, we headed to Schloss Hellbrunn, which is the current location of the famous glass gazebo. Originally, the gazebo stood near the edge of the lake in the gardens of Schloss Leopoldskron, but was moved in 1991, I believe. Also, it has been permanently locked to the public - apparently a woman tried to hop across the benches like Liesl did during Sixteen Going on Seventeen and ended up falling and may or may not have broken a bone...

On our way to the next stop, we drove by Schloss Frohnburg, the palace that was used as the front of the Von Trapp house in the film. It is also the location of the long yellow wall that Maria skips down while singing I Have Confidence. Then, we headed for the hills of Vienna. Driving through the countryside was absolutely gorgeous. I was blown away by how beautiful and green everything was.

Also, Salzburg had just gotten its first snow the night before and all of the surrounding mountains were topped with snow. It was at this point that I began to really miss my sister. If you can't already tell, my sister and I are very close. We're less than 2 years apart in age and share many of the same interests. Throughout our entire lives, we've shared a passion for music and the arts. We grew up listening to and watching The Sound of Music (among many other musicals) and I really wished she could have been there with me to experience what I was experiencing. I really don't know anyone else my age who loves and appreciates this movie as much as my sister and I do. I just don't know what it is, but I think the music is absolutely brilliant and whenever I listen to it, I get so happy and have a deep longing to be with people who share the same love for this movie. I know my sister is the one person who does share this love and not having her around to talk to about it made me realize how much I've missed her.

During the drive, we saw the Fuschlsee and the Mondsee. We stopped along the road and had one of the most amazing views of the Austrian Alps surrounding the Mondsee and neighboring areas. The view was breathtaking and almost overwhelming. Not only is Mondsee a lake, but it is also a town. In this town is the Mondsee Church, the location used for the wedding scene of Maria and Captain Von Trapp. We also took a small break here and stopped in a cafe to drink some coffee and eat apfelstrudel! It was the perfect diversion in my busy day of sightseeing.

We got back to the starting point of the tour sometime around 5:45 and I decided to do some more exploring of Salzburg before taking a train back to Vienna (the leave Salzburg once every hour, so I wasn't really on a time schedule). I walked around the city some more and was able to see a few more Sound of Music sights and other things that I hadn't seen or noticed the first time around. The tour guide had also told us about a place called Augustiner Bräu. The Augustiner Brewery was founded by Augustinian monks back in the day and now the basement of this building is used as a large bar/brewery with a ton of traditional Austrian food. It was an awesome environment and I'm glad that I ended up finding it.
Then, I began my walk back to the train station and was able to see the city at night. I'm completely in love with Salzburg. I love everything about it and I have a feeling that I will force myself to go back, once again, later on in my life.

Wasted Money and Lost Jewelry

Tomorrow, we're going to Budapest. As I was checking things for our trip earlier today, I noticed something funny on my train ticket: it's valid from 14 September to 16 September 2011, not October. I freaked out, asked Rachael if hers is the same and it is. It's the same for Belle and Kelly, too. Cool, the guy at the station screwed up our ticket dates and they're no longer valid. Except, our seat reservation is for the correct date, so how the heck did they mess that up? Rachael and I went to the Wien Westbanhof station to exchange our tickets. Unfortunately, we can't do it for free. The tickets that we have (the wrong ones) were sold on a special and that special was only valid for those days and doesn't apply to this weekend. Now it's costing us 44 Euro to go (the initial tickets were only 29 Euro) and they can't give us a refund for our old tickets here. They give us a number to call so we can ask what to do for a refund, but it's not guaranteed that we'll even get our money back. So, now a trip that should have only cost 44 Euro is costing 73 Euro. Awesome.
Then, after all this drama and my frustration, we're on our way back home and I realize that my earring is no longer on my ear. Cool, I lost one of my favorite earrings on this wonderful day. This is the third piece of jewelry I've lost in Europe. First, it was my Peace Chain necklace that mysteriously disappeared in Greece. The only time I took it off was in our private hostel room in Paros. So I seriously have no idea what happened to that and how I lost it...Then, it was one of my rose earrings at a club. Whatever, both of those things were fairly cheap and I had had those rose earring for like 6 years; I definitely used them to their worth. But this earring that I just lost belonged to one of my favorite pairs. And I got it from the Oregon Country Fair and they were not cheap. They're hand made and just hippie enough for me. UGH. I know it's dumb to be so distraught over losing an earring, but after having just spent so much extra money, this sucks more than it should and I'm just not in the mood to deal with this.


I'll write a happy post in here soon enough...I went back to Salzburg to do The Sound of Music tour this past weekend, so that was definitely an awesome experience! And hopefully actually being in Budapest tomorrow will make me feel better about today. I promise, happy posts are coming!

10 million things to do and see in one city

Life in Vienna has been pretty crazy since I last wrote on here. I started classes on September 20th and they've all gone pretty smoothly so far. So what have I been doing over the past 3 weeks? Well, I have definitely been to a lot of museums...let's make a list: Leopold Museum (fo' FREE) Kaffee-Erlebnismuseum "Coffee Experience Museum" (got free coffee, wine, and bread) Haus der Musik (saw live music and had fun with the interactive exhibits) Kunst Haus Wien (oh my goodness, I love Hundertwasser's artwork and architecture! He has definitely become one of my favorite artists. Everything he does is so colorful and creative and wonderful. I just can't get over it.)

Albertina (They had a "From Monet to Picasso" exhibit going on) Wien Museum Mozarthaus (We only saw one floor of this one because we didn't realize that it wasn't part of the free Sunday thing for the Wien Museums until a woman told us that we needed to buy tickets....so, we just left after that happened...) Römermuseum Neidhart Fresken (the oldest secular mural paintings in Vienna) Beethoven Pasqualatihaus (Where he wrote his 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th symphonies, along with his opera "Fidelio") I think that list covers all of the ones I've seen over the past few weeks. I went to most of them for free, except for the Coffee, Music, Hundertwasser, ad Albertina ones. But, those were all part of Lange Nacht der Museen "Long Night of Museums," and we just had to pay for one 11-Euro ticket to get into all of them! That event went on from 6pm to 1am on the first Saturday of October and it was a lot of fun and completely worth it. If I had paid for each of those museums individually, it would have cost over 30 Euro! And then the next day was the free day for the Wien Museums. On September 30th, I went to the Zentralfriedhof, which is a beautiful cemetery in Vienna that has a huge church in the center of it. The grounds are gorgeous and it's the cemetery where several famous composers are buried, including Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, and Schubert. There is also a Mozart memorial there. Mozart was buried in a mass grave, so no one knows exactly where he is buried, but he definitely wasn't buried in Zentralfriedhof, they just made a memorial for him there because the cemetery has become famous because of all the composers (and other famous people) who have been buried there.

I also finally had the chance to ride the Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel)!! It was fun and we had an amazing view of the city. It's not a super thrilling thing to do, but I think it's something that everyone needs to do at some point while in Vienna. The Riesenrad is just so iconic and everyone knows what it is, you have to go on it eventually.

Over the course of 3 days (the 25th to the 27th), I saw 2 operas! Don Giovanni and Alcina. Surprisingly enough, I liked Alcina more than Don Giovanni. I think a lot of it had to do with the set for Alcina. Alcina's staging was much more elaborate than Don Giovanni's and just looked a lot fancier. Also, I realized that I actually sang one of the arias from Alcina for my jury last year - I felt kind of dumb for not remembering it before it was being performed in the opera, but oh well. Both of the operas were amazing and I can't believe that each of them only cost me 4 Euro - that's the price of a kebab box, guys! What else have I seen...Oh! I explored more of Schönbrunn and fell in love with it. Schönbrunn has beautiful gardens that go on forever, I feel like I haven't even seen half of the grounds. I can't wait to actually go inside one day soon!

I think one of the best things I've done in Vienna happened this past Thursday. It was the last warm and sunny day that we had in Vienna before the rain kicked in on Friday. A friend invited me and Rachael to hang out at the Danube, so we went. After laying out and walking around for a couple of hours, we walked over to the U-Bahn station on this bridge. Then, we all decided to jump into the river. I had said earlier that if they did it (again), I'd do it, too. But, all of a sudden, when the time actually came, I got nervous and was unsure. I knew I had to do it, though. When else was I going to get the chance to jump into the Danube from a bridge?! We climbed over the railing and I held onto the bar for my life. My friends counted down...they jump. I'm the last one to jump and it's one of the most invigorating feelings ever. I just can't imagine ever feeling that alive again, it was such a rush and I loved it. I did end up landing kind of funny and I now have a pretty gnarly bruise on my leg from it, but it was completely worth it and I'm really glad I jumped. The evening ended with us all hanging out, talking, and having fun in a bar across the street from my friend's apartment. It was the kind of afternoon/evening I really needed. I have to say, I've met some pretty cool people since I've been here. I'm glad I've been able to meet students from all over the United States (and some from other parts of the world, too) and I'm looking forward to getting to know them even better. That's one of the main reasons for studying abroad: meeting new, different people who have had different experiences than I have had and I really just love meeting new people. Although I've done quite a bit in Vienna, I still feel like there is so much that I need to see. But, at the same time, there is a lot of traveling I still need to do! I'm off to Salzburg in the morning, for the second time! I didn't get to do and see everything I wanted to the first time I went, so it's time for round two and this time I'm going on The Sound of Music Tour. I don't know if you guys know this, but I LOVE The Sound of Music. Like...a LOT. I literally grew up on the movie and music and have been obsessed with it since I was about 3 years old. My father told me that my sister and I used to watch it basically everyday after getting home from preschool/kindergarten. So, I knew that it was something that I needed to do while studying abroad in Austria; there was no way I was about to let that opportunity pass me by and if I had, I would have regretted it. So, I guess I shold get some sleep before the busy day ahead of me! Goodnight :]

Jumping off of bridges and going to museums...the usual

Today I jumped off of a bridge and into the Donau. Yea, I didn't jump completely straight and I'll probably have a massive bruise on my leg in the morning, but it was totally worth it. It was the biggest rush I've had in a while - such a high on life. I also need to write a longer post soon, because I've done a lot of things in Vienna over the past couple of weeks! Including going to 8 museums in a time span of 24 hours (for a total of 11 Euro). Things have been pretty exciting. I'm also hoping to make it to Salzburg for a second time this weekend to do the Sound of Music tour! I'll write soon - bye!