I'm Basically Julie Andrews Now

If you didn't already know this about me, I am a pretty big fan of "The Sound of Music." What's not to love? It's got great a love story, there's cute kids singing catchy tunes throughout, it ends with a thrilling getaway (spoiler alert), and, of course, it stars Julie Andrews.

So naturally, I was pretty excited to get to Salzburg, the city in which the movie was both set and filmed--which is rare for movies, I'm learning (to actually be filmed where they are supposed to take place, I mean). The soundtrack was playing on repeat in my brain for my entire train ride from Vienna.

I was also excited to get to Salzburg to see a familiar face: a friend from home, now studying abroad at the University of Salzburg, had graciously agreed to let me crash on his floor.

My friend met me at the train station and then we hopped on a bus to his dorm in South Salzburg. After dumping my stuff, we headed to a local café, where we partook of that wonderful Austrian tradition of afternoon coffee and cake. From our table on the second floor, we had a spectacular view of the mountains, which just made the cappucino and kirschtorte taste that much better.

Salzburg is gorgeous. #nofilter

We wandered somewhat aimlessly through the old town, with my friendly neighborhood tour guide pointing out the various noteworthy places along the way ("There's the McDonald's we all go to, late night..."). We then recalled that, unless we bought an air mattress before all the shops closed in 45 minutes, I'd be sleeping on the concrete floor that night. We scrambled from shop to shop, not being entirely sure what type of store might have what we were looking for, and finally found success at a sporting goods store that happened to be having a going-out-of-business sale.

That night, my head hit the improvised pillow (a bunch of t-shirts and sweaters stuffed into a pillowcase) feeling rather light-headed after manually inflating the air mattress. It was only after I woke up freezing in the middle of the night that I realized that we probably should also have invested in a blanket. I pulled some sweaters from under my head and layered up, managing to drop off again.

The next day began bright and early, because we had a train to Oktoberfest to catch! We met most of our group at the Salzburg Hauptbanhof at 8:00, and spent the next quarter of an hour betting whether or not we were going to make the 8:15 train, because one member of our group had to run back for his passport. We all made it, but it came down to literally the last second.

When we arrived in Munich 90 minutes later, it was pretty easy to find Oktoberfest. Not only were there arrows on the sidewalk pointing the way, but the dirndl-ed and lederhosen-ed crowd created a festival-bound tidal wave that was impossible to fight (not that we were trying very hard at all).

We snagged a table in the Augustiner hall and kicked off our Oktoberfest by Prost!-ing with our first liters at 11:00am. Over the course of the day, we managed to lose both each other and our table in the beer hall, but somehow hold onto souvenir steins. Hats were borrowed and never returned, giant pretzels were shared generously among all, and, thanks to an impressive group effort, we all got on the bus back to Salzburg that night.

The next day was a rather lazy one, as I'm sure you can imagine. I ate a bratwurst for breakfast at 12:30pm, and visited some of Salzburg's many beautiful graveyards. Among the noteworthy graves that I saw were those of Mozart's father and Mozart's wife (Mozart himself having been buried outside of Vienna).

Breakfast of champions

After realizing that we were locked out of the dorm (my friend having lost his key, possibly at Oktoberfest), we met up with the Oktoberfest crowd--at a beer hall, of course (the second-largest one in Austria, in fact). Only a few brave (or perhaps just quickly-recovering) souls actually ordered beers; I was among those who opted for lemonade and a pretzel while we engaged in several intense rounds of Uno.

On Sunday, I did a much-needed load of laundry, then struck out to explore the city on my own (my tour guide needed to get some homework done). In spite of the rain (I guess the good weather couldn't last forever), I hiked up to the fortress on the mountain above the old town. I would have gone on the guided tour of the inside, but €11 seemed a little steep, so I settled for wandering around the outside. On the south side of the fortress, I stumbled upon Nonnberg, the convent from "The Sound of Music." It was then that I decided to take myself on a tour of as many of the locations from the movie as I could find.

In the rain at Leopoldskron

I sloshed through the rain to Schloss Leopoldskron, the house in which the von Trapp family lived in the movie (only the outside of the house was used in the movie, inside scenes were shot at Hellbrunn Palace just outside of the city). I also visited Mirabelle Gardens, where the majority of the iconic "Do, a Deer" scene was filmed.

Mirabelle Gardens

To take a break from the rain, I headed to a café for a cappucino and some postcard-writing, humming "Maria" as I went.

My Salzburg Sunday ended in an Irish pub, watching NFL. (Because how else would I spend a Sunday evening with a bunch of American college students?)

On Monday, I visited the oldest bakery in Salzburg, Stiftsbäckerei St. Peter, which has been baking bread the same way since the 12th century. They use only rye flour, water, and salt to make the sourdough, which is then baked in a wood-fire oven. It was pretty darn delicious, in my humble opinion.

Other carbohydrates consumed that day include:
--a croissant from a different bakery
--a classic pretzel
--fettucine alfredo with shrimp and zucchini
--an apple pretzel
--rice (underneath the curry I had for dinner at 10:00pm)

On my last morning in Salzburg, I once again donned my raincoat and my backpack. With a bag of souvenirs on each arm, I headed to the post office to send my postcards. A successful interaction conducted entirely auf Deutsch deserved a reward, so my friend and I grabbed various pastries (accompanied by cappucinos, naturally) on the way to the train station.

Auf wiedersehen, Salzburg!

Up next, Munich!