AUSTRIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We arrived in Salzburg, Austria at lunch time on Friday, and had a full day planned. We were able to check in as soon as we arrived, so we didn't have to carry our backpacks everywhere. The first place we went was Mirabell Palace and Gardens. We only walked through the gardens the first day, and they were beautiful and I loved the way they were layed out. Right across the street from the gardens, is Mozart's House, and we went and took a tour of that. It was cool, being in the place that he wrote a lot of his music, and being able to see some of the original transcripts of his. We also tried one of the famous Mozart Krugals, which was pretty good. It's a chocolate candy, with nuget and pastachio inside.
Our next stop was the Museum of Modern Art, which was located on the top of a hill, and it also had a great panarama view of the city. I thought the exhibit was interesting, but it was quite weird at the same time, and Sarah and Rebecca didn't quite like it. One of the exhibits featured lots of pickles on stands that were all different shapes and sizes, and it was supposed to represent our true identity, how no one person is like another. There was some really abstract things going on in those exhibits. One was also all about skirts, and different ways to wear pieces of clothing. We didn't all agree about the art, but we did all love the view from the top.
Afterwards we walked down the main street and saw all the shops, and the best thing about it was that all of the shops had the old time signs hanging from them, even McDonalds.
We were going to see Mozart's Birthplace but we got there 2 minutes too late, and they weren't letting anyone else in for the day so instead we went to see some of the famous churches in the area. We saw the Franziskaner Kirche, Kollegienkirche, and the Dom. The only one we actually got to go into was the Franziskaner Kirche, which was really nice, and you can still see the original paintings on most of the columns, and the ceiling work was also amazing. The Kollegienkirche was closed because of construction going around near it, and the Dom was having some kind of event, but we were able to see inside of it, we just couldn't go in.
The rest of the night we did some more shopping and looking around, and that night we went to The Sounds of Salzburg Dinner Show. We got a three course traditional Austrian meal, and listened to live performances of songs from The Sound of Music, Mozart, and Traiditional Sazlburg Folk Songs. It was fun, slightly cheesey, but we all had fun.
Saturday morning we headed over to the Fortress, which is located at the center of town, but up on a big hill. We took a short cable car ride to the top of the hill and then went exploring, and once again, we had a great view. The castle had many rooms that we got to see, and it also had a Marionette Museum, featuring a lot of the ones they used during that time. We also got to go out on the top lookout point during part of the tour.
Afterwards we went back to Mozart's Birthplace since we missed it the day before. It was cool as well, and we saw more of his original work.
The most exciting part of the day had to be when we went to Hellbrunn and saw the Trick Fountains. We took a boat cruise to get there, which would have been fun, except for the fact that it was so hot and the tide was weird, so we had to go super slow, and got no wind in the boat. It took about 50minutes to get there, which was 20minutes longer than it should have. Anyway when we got there and started the tour the man asked who spoke english, and only a few people raised their hands, so he decided to conduct the tour in german. The fact that he knew who was english speaking, i felt like that was a trap, becasue the three of us were asked to sit on these chairs, while he explained in german what it was all about. All he said to us was that it was the kings table and chairs and he would sit out here to enjoy the day. While speaking in German he proceeded to turn on the fountain, which was actually the chairs and table, and we all got wet. It was not fun. But we knew not to volunteer for anything else, and enjoyed the rest of the trick fountains. Then we walked up a hill to the Folk Museum and walked the grounds, and we even went to the gazeebo, where the Sound of Music was filmed.
The rest of the night we walked along the river and down the street where there was a huge festival.
The last day was the best! We took a cable car up the mountain and it was amazing!
Special Thanks to Mr. Puljak who sent us a list of things to see and do, we couldn't do them all, but what we did do was amazing and we had a great time.
