Salzburg

Here is the play by play of my weekend:

Friday

12:50-Left Friday

After class where we just sat in the classroom and actually learned some basics about architecture, we left for Salzburg. We grabbed a very quick vender lunch and finished it off with Zanoni and Zanoni, the best gelatto in Wien.

2:20-Melk Abbey

This beautiful abby absolutely left me breathless. It had an entire exhibit showing pieces of artwork starting hundreds of years ago. The dining room was extensive and had beautiful paintings on the ceiling. The terrace gave us a picturesque background. The two best things, however, were the library and the church. The library was the one that you only see in movies. It was filled from top to bottom with huge, gilded books. There were two levels and a spiraled staircase connecting the two. Then the church! The church at Melk Abbey was drastically different than any church I had see thus far. This church shone; it was full of colors and many gold pieces. It was nice to just sit down and look around. Like most churches, there was so much for me to look at. I could have spent hours just sitting and looking around.

6:30-Arrived in Hallein

This little town was slightly outside of Salzburg which I was a little sad about. I wish that it was closer because I would have liked to spend my free time walking around Salzburg instead of Hallein.

7:30-Dinner

Dinner was delicious. We started off with a delicious cream based soup. Alex and I really want to find the recipe because it was that good. Either that or we were just that hungry. The sad part of the dinner came with dessert. If you know me at all, you would know that I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. My teeth are still angry at me for eating so man sweets. Unfortunately I’ve had a new discovery in the last semester. I am mildly lactose intolerant. Talk about the worst thing to be while traveling to the best gelatto kiosks ever. Thank goodness for lactate pills. :)

Saturday

8:40-Bus leaves for Salzburg

Breakfasts in Austria have always been AMAZING. Talk about a huge selection. The buffet table had about 4 cereals, 5 different breads, a sweet pastry, yogurt, cheese, meat, nutella, honey, fruit, vegetables, and more. I usually would nab a roll to take with because I am just one of those people would have to eat about every 2-3 hours.

9:30-Walking tours through Salzburg

This walking tour went all through the city. I will just name a few things that we saw. We started at the Mirabell Gardens which were lush with flowers and greenery. Then we saw the birthplace and apartment of Mozart. We saw graveyards which were what they copied for filming the Sound of Music and we saw the Festspielhaus or the place where the VanTrap family performed.

Our tour ended with us walking up to see Hohensalzburg which is a fortress overlooking the city. The walk was pretty rough because it was a steep uphill, but then again I am slightly out of shape. After this trip, though, I will be in the best shape of my life...all this walking!

11-Free time/lunch

Lunch was quick because we had spent most of our free time seeing the actual church where Maria from the Sound of Music was married. It was more plain than I remember. After lunch, we were back on the bus.

2:30-Nazi Documentation Center

We reached our destination and immediately everyone became somber. It is strange how everyone became less talkative and loud college students and instead became silent and could only look and read. A audio tour took us through the entire Holocaust, from Hitler’s beginnings to the end. At the very end of the tour, we saw a bunker that Hitler used. It was pretty strange to see and to think that Hitler and many other of his guests were walking in the path that I was walking. This also would prepare us for the concentration camp that we would see the next day.

7:00-Dinner at Hotel

Again we were back at the hotel for dinner and were given free time afterwards. Dinner was chili, which I typically don’t like, but for some reason, I couldn’t get enough of it. We wanted to go to a disco that Dr. Hemenway told us about, but apparently some people from our group already tried to go and it was a high school prom and they still couldn’t get in. So we opted to just walk around town and see the river running through town.

Sunday

8:30-Bus leaves for salt mines

The salt mines were the funnest part of the trip. They almost acted like comic relief between our two events about the WWII and the like.

9:00-Tour of mines

Our tour guide seemed to really like Alex, Trevor and me. It was probably because Trevor came up with idea to parkor through the mines. This involved us (mostly just Trevor) jumping off walls and trying to do 360s and grabbing his feet while our tour guide just laughed at us. He was actually a very funny guide and even let us ride down the slides several times.

1:15-Stop for lunch

Unfortunately we gave in for lunch and ate McCafe (aka McDonalds). To be fair, though, we stopped at a rest stop and there were very limited options. It was either an overwhelming buffet of over priced food or MacCafe. So being the poor college students that we are, McCafe was our only option.

2:30-Mauthausen concentration camp

Again, everyone was silent as we made our way into the concentration camp. It was strange to me, however, that another group of students was taking it so lightly. While I was practically in tears, they were laughing and making jokes. This place was more real to me than anything I have seen in Europe so far. This building and the events that happened within didn’t happen hundreds of years ago. It happened recently and things like it are still happening today. I just couldn’t understand how they could be laughing while I was fighting back tears. We didn’t see just pictures. The most thing that impacted me the most was the stairs. The people held in the camp had to work 12 hours per day in a quary. The stone from the quary was used to pave roads and do other things for Hitler. They walked up and down these at least 4 or 5 times a day. I could hardly make it up the stairs without pausing to rest. I can’t imagine doing it while carrying a 50 lb. stone on my back or without having enough nourishment. It made me tear up a lot. The walk was both physically and emotionally painful. As I looked out to the surrounding countryside, I was also was struck by the beauty of it. When I looked at it, the view was the definition of rolling meadows. This is what I imagine I think about Sound of Music, when they are escaping from the Nazis.

5:00-Leave for home

When we left I was grateful to get on the bus and make our voyage home. “Home.” It is funny that I already look forward to going back to our apartment after a weekend away. I can’t imagine what getting back to my real home will feel like. I can’t think about that right now that right now. I just need to love where I am at and enjoy my time here as I am already doing.

7:30-Arrive home

After we arrived home, we were dead tired. After hours of trying to fall asleep and failing miserably, we were all ready to get to bed. Our intense hunger was more of a driving force than the need to sleep. We settled for the cheap route again. I spent 2 Euros on a piece of ham and corn pizza and also a odd tasting Fanta.

The rest of the night I starting writing my blog, unpacked, did homework, did laundry and then gladly passed out.

Just think, next weekend, I will be in Prague. :)