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.