salzburg!

Friday, May 24, 2013

I was very, very excited for class to get out today. Very excited. We were finally going to Salzburg. I have been looking forward to this since I saw the Sound of Music for the first time when I was less than 5. So I might have been a little excited.

Turns out Spar (the grocery store, Billa is it’s competitor) has a great selection of fruit parfaits, so after making that wonderful discovery, it was time to load the bus! 

We drove for a few hours when we stopped for a tour of Melk Abbey. It was beautiful! (I say that about a lot of places here...but there really is no other word to describe everything I’m seeing!) We wandered through the old guest rooms with priceless artifacts & exhibits, then moved onto the Marble Hall, balcony (GORGEOUS views of the country side!), and library. It really feels like being in a fairy tale book. Then we found the church...I literally had to sit down in awe. I am constantly blown away by these places. They are such a surprise on the inside...absolutely love.

The courtyard with the Dome behind

The town

Hello beautiful country side

We are so blessed

Loving these stairs! 

For another 3 hours we were back on the bus. And with horrible sleeping conditions, this was a very long 3 hours. But we made it to the hotel and had a chance to unwind and unpack before dinner. Since there is just so many of us in our group, we were split into two different rooms. There was a group of 14 of us in the smaller of the two rooms, and we enjoyed a delicious meal with completely random and quality conversations all together. Pokémon & dinosaurs. Enough said.

We are actually staying in a small town just outside of Salzburg called Hallien & we heard there was a wonderful little gelato shop in the “downtown” a few blocks from our hotel. So obviously this sounds like a great idea and we went out to explore the town. I guess there was an event where everything was open late & a bar was set up with live music in the square. It was so cute & so much fun! We danced, we laughed, we ate gelato. You can’t beat a night like that! 

Adorbs.

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Yuck! Rain! The gloomy clouds kept rolling in as we made the 20 minute drive to Salzburg after breakfast. But we persevered and met our guides a short distance from the Mirabell Gardens, where we started our walking tour. We again had to split into two groups on account of our size and explored the gardens & old town. The whole while we kept passing Sound of Music filming locations. I kept thinking -- Ahhh! Stop! Let me get pictures! We also saw the birthplace of Mozart on our way to the older parts of the city & stopped into a bakery that had the best smelling bread! We went through a beautiful old cathedral before we met with our other half to go up to the old fortress.

Nonnburg Abbey

Look familiar?

Mirabell Gardens! 

I'm just so happy right now 

Doe, a deer, a female deer...

Gah! So pleased! 

Holy cow. This climb was intense. I now have calves of steel. I was freezing before the hike, and how I was dying of heat. However, even though the climb was tough the views from the top were stunning and picturesque. Just absolutely gorgeous. I could have stayed there all day! The fortress is to Salzburg what Schönbrunn is to Vienna - if you want to meet your fellow Americans...this is it. I don’t think I heard one person speaking another language while I was there.

Hiked that...and then some.

Hello Salzburg!

Afterwards we had our free time, and we didn’t actually have a lot of time to roam the city like most of us wanted to. We grabbed quick lunches at stands & ridiculously big & delicious pretzels in the market so that we could continue to explore. We found a lot of cute little shops and pathways. Soon it was time to meet back in the gardens to get on the bus again. In the afternoon we went to Germany! We were going to a Nazi documentation site that is located on the grounds of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. If the weather hadn’t been so crummy and foggy, we might have had a chance to actually go to the Eagle’s Nest, but the views of probably would not have been worth it. During the tour that we did go on, we went into Hitler’s bunkers located in the mountain. They have opened up the guest and hospital bunkers for the public to see. It was definitely an eerie feeling down there! 

Nazi Documentation Site

We got back to the hotel early & took much needed naps before dinner. Again dinner held great conversation with the girls before we went out to celebrate my birthday. Since my day falls on a travel day, and my host mom has dinner plans for us when we get back, so tonight was the only night that worked for us to celebrate all together. We went for drinks & later found ourselves going back for more gelato. Typical.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Ah...today was such fun! It started with a trip down into the salt mines. Something I thought I would never do...but now can say that I did! 

You ride straight into the mountain on these cute little trains in your goofy white pants and coats & travel through a bunch of tunnels before you get off to continue on foot. We stopped at several open caverns for more information on the mine & a video. What these story videos were trying to tell me, I’ll never know. I just laughed at them the entire time. But then we had to slide down these massive slides in groups of two to three to go even deeper into the mine. So. much. fun. You go slower than you expect and your tushie is warm afterwards, but you can’t stop laughing the entire way down. I loved it!

They taught us how the salt was mined, had us taste salt water that was 9x saltier than the ocean, and took us for a boat ride on an underground lake...so cool. The cheesy music and light show (there’s always a light show!) was perfectly timed for our ride. During our trek underground we crossed into Germany and back again & got to see original equipment used in the mines during the 12th century. Crazy! On our way back to the surface, we got little packs of salt from the mine to take home with us & rode out on the trains again.

Afterwards it was time to get back on the bus...and for a few hours until we stopped for lunch. Since everyone was together and awake, Doc had the bus sing Happy Birthday to me and Kara, whose birthday is tomorrow. I never know what to do with myself during this song, but it does make me smile :) 

Our group stopped at the Rosenburger for lunch, where I made sure to get myself a piece of chocolate cake. If only we had candles! 

Next stop: Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Most certainly a gloomy place to think about visiting, but I was very excited to go. When we got there, we were free to explore the camp on our own. In the main part, we could see & go into the old barracks, wander the graveyard where those who died after libration are buried, explore the old infirmary which has been recently (as of this month) been converted into an artifact & history museum/memorial. In the basement of this building was an exhibit of the treatment of the prisoners and their deaths. After walking through this, you could see the larger crematorium & gas chamber. These rooms were not what I had at all been expecting & it was a really a moving experience. 

On the way back to the main gate to see the other half of the camp, I passed the old jailhouse with research rooms and another crematorium and the first barrack that has been converted into a chapel. I poked around a bit, but I was by myself and felt extremely unsettled to try and look around these buildings by myself. So I kept walking. 

The path took me to the quarry where the prisoners worked in all weather conditions and to the “Death Stairs.” The climb of 187 steps is hard enough without anything to carry on my back. I can’t even imagine the horrors that happened here. For them to climb that in the heat with granite rock on their backs... it is absolutely awful.

Mauthausen

This book is filled with the names of those who lost their lives here

The quarry

The Death Stairs

This place was a time capsule. It was very emotional, but I am so thankful that I had the chance to go. Too often we forget that these are actual places, and not just images from a film.

Okay... let’s turn the happy back on! 

 When we got back to Vienna, my housemates and I headed straight home. Our house mom was making us a good-bye dinner that was also a birthday dinner for me. She made us courses of traditional Austrian dishes that were just too good. Soup, salad, chicken with vegetables, and chocolate for dessert. Let’s not forget the Prosecco! We sat with Lilo for hours talking. She is such a wonderful lady & I am so grateful to her for taking us into her home! 

This has definitely been one of the best birthday’s ever. I am so blessed to have been able to spend it in Europe! Thank you to everyone at home and in Austria who have made it extra-special! Bring on the 20s!