The Hills are Alive

Hands down my favorite trip so far....hands down.  Today I just got back from a long weekend in Salzburg, Austria.  A town of only 105,000 but hosts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.  We started out our trip with a very rainy morning and headed to the Cathedral for a reflective and gorgeous visit along with a side trip down into the crypt.  After the cathedral we wandered for a bit through the streets shopping a little and eventually finding Mozart's house.  We crossed the bridge of locks, where people have written their love's name and locked it to the bridge and thrown away the key.  We tried to wait out the rain before going up to the fortress and eventually when the after noon rolled around we thought we should just go anyways.  On our way there we found a Christmas shop that has thousands of hand painted eggs.  Needless to say we spent almost and hour and dropped a lot of dough at that shop but who could resist this.

We made a pit stop at the hostel to drop off our bounty then took the funicular up the hill to the Fortress.  Each Prince Bishop of Salzburg added onto this fortress and it is one of the most well preserved of its kind in the world.  The view was the best part for us.  We stood up their for a long time just taking in the view, the colors, and the mountains.



After the fortress we shopped around a little more now that the sun had come out and it was a gorgeous day.  That night our hostel played Sound of Music in the lobby.  We watched all three hours, especially since Allie had never seen it and we were going on the Sound of Music tour the next morning.







The Sound of Music tour was the beginning to our day the next and it was worth every single penny.  We had a gorgeous day, wonderful tour guide, beautiful sights, and of course a lot of singing.  We saw the backyard the used in the movie as well as the abbey, gazebo, and church they were married in.  The church was actually in a town called Mondsee and we had a gorgeous drive out to this beautiful city.

After the tour the girls did the Salt Mines and I went exploring.  I found a cemetery with pretty gardens as well as some katacombs.  I also found a Monastery that had a beautiful church.  I also did some more shopping and a whole lot of walking.  When my feet started to protest I found the Mirabell Gardens and sat staring at the gardens leading up to the fortress and also watched a bride and groom take pictures in the gardens.
When the girls came back we really explored the gardens and got some great pictures.  I showed Allie the Harry Potted like maze and she was so happy.  Her and Amanda pretended to be dueling in the garden, what silly girls, but I loved how much fun we had.  After the gardens we found a tiny little Italian café that had great food and we said our goodbyes to Salzburg.

 

This trip was the changing point in my study abroad.  Before the tears had been because of missing friends, missing home, too much planning, and just pure frustration.  On this trip I stood at the altar of the monastery and held back tears because I didn't want to leave.  I want to see friends and family and all that good stuff, but I did not want to leave Austria.  I don't want to leave my international friends or wake up and not see the hills in front of me.  I want to take the castles and the churches with me and I especially want all the people I so truly and deeply love to see everything little thing that has made me laugh, smile and cry while I have been here.  This trip gave me some peace that I had not had in awhile.  It was a different kind of pure joy that filled me.  Not the kind you get from the adrenaline rush of seeing every single thing in a city in a few hours, but the kind that warms you from your toes to you nose even though you have been sitting in the cold for hours.  It is a joy that does not have a good explanation.  But, even through the stressful times that have come before and the ones that will come in the future I can always remember the peace and the joy that Salzburg brought and that I know I will find in more little nooks and crannies of the world that are yet to come.



Auf Wiedersehen,
Chels