the hills are alive with the sound of music.

So as stated previously this past weekend I went to Vienna (Wien) and Salzburg, Austria!

I traveled with my two friends Danielle and Brittany. We left Rome with 7 others on Thursday night at 5 and took a bus to Florence where we picked up 21 more. Altogether the trip took 15 hours! We arrived in Wien at 8 in the morning on Friday and took a quick power nap before heading out at 10. We walked through the museum quarter, stopped at a Starbucks and then took the ring-tram. The ring-tram is a tram that goes around the old city, thus allowing you to see many of the sights Wien has to offer. After that tour we went and got the famous Sacher Torte. It's a double layered chocolate cake with a center layer of apricot jam. Then it is all iced in dark chocolate. It was pretty much amazing. :]

After stuffing ourselves full we went and walked around St. Stephen's which is one of the most elaborate churches of the city. After that we did a little shopping and then met up with the group to do a tour of the schnaps museum. The tour was given by the great-grandson of the founder and was very entertaining! After the tour we got to taste test all the different kinds. I got to have schnaps with gold in it, and had my first shot of Absinth! Let me tell you, that stuff burns! :)

Me and Danielle looking happy before the green fairy!

As a side note, it is only a rumor that Absinth makes you hallucinate. Back when it was illegal people would boot leg it from dirty alcohol. The dirty alcohol would make people go blind and during the process they would hallucinate.

After the schanps museum we went to dinner. I got some authentic chicken schnitzel which was delicious. The motto of the weekend was no pasta, and with all the Austrian and German cuisines it wasn't hard to break! After that we went to a ballet in the Wien opera house. I had never seen a ballet before, so it was really cool to experience. We got restricted view tickets for 8 euro, but then were able to move to 32 euro seats after intermission! Take that overpriced establishments! :]

At the ballet! I stole this picture from Danielle.

That night me and Danielle just hung out in the bar at our hostel. We ended up talking to 3 Hungarians for at least an hour. It was interesting to see what their take on Americans and American culture was. Also I learned how to say cheers in Hungarian! Egészségedr!

The next day we went to the Schloss Schönbrunn, or the Schönbrunn palace. It was the summer palace of the Habsburgs, who once ruled Austria. We walked through all of the state rooms and saw the lavish decorations and furniture. We even saw the room where at 6 Mozart played for the court. After touring the inside we walked around the extensive gardens! The grounds are home to the oldest zoo in the world. It was founded in 1752. Sadly my good camera died right before we entered the zoo so I had to bust out my point and shoot. It was a very good zoo housing everything from pandas to koalas! It was definitely a good afternoon!

Thankfully Danielle did have a camera, thus I stole this from her...again!

We then said goodbye to Wien and started the three hour bus ride to Salzburg. On the way we watched the Sound of Music, thus it was a good trip filled with lots of singing! :)

We got into Salzburg around 6 at night and after checking into the hostel headed towards dinner. Along the way we got to see some of the gorgeous churches, landscapes, and architecture all with the Salzburg fortress in the background! Definitely breathtaking! For dinner we went to the Augustiner Bräu, which is the local beer garden. They had an almost cafeteria like setting where you went from little shops to get different food. The only difference is that after you got your food you walked through a huge smoky hall filled with at least 200 men, plus you got a stein of beer! A bit different from Eau Claire! The food at this place was amazing though, so get ready to drool! I had roasted chicken which was literally taken off the rack when I ordered. They cooked it with herbs and spices in the middle, and you could the flavoring in every bite! Definitely the best I'd ever had!! Then I had a traditional Austrian dumpling, though I opted for the vegetarian opposed to the liver! :) Lastly I had some roasted potatoes. It was definitely a good meal! The evening culminated with me, Danielle, and Brendan stealing our steins as a souvenir! :]

Me with my stein.

The next morning a group of us got up really early to walk around Salzburg. The Sound of Music tour was going to take up the rest of time in the city, and we wanted to get the chance to see it in daylight! We walked around for two hours seeing many of the sights including, Mozart's house, the glockenspiel, many churches, and the fortress by day. Despite being a little bleary eyed it was a lot of fun, and it was nice because the streets were pretty much deserted at that hour!

After our walking tour we met up with the group to do the Sound of Music tour! Considering I had been singing the songs all weekend (and still am for that matter!) I was super excited to do the tour. We started off by going to the outer facade of the Von Trapp's house. It's privately owned so you have to view it from across the lake (which is where the kids and Maria tip the boat), but it was definitely stunning! You could even see the terrace where the captain and Maria danced at the ball! :) Also right by the house was the road where all the kids are seen playing in the trees.

The facade of the Von Trapp house.

From there we went to go see the gazebo from the movie. It used to be at the house, but it got moved to a public park because so many people were coming to see it. The place where it was moved to was a huge palace. Sadly the gazebo is now locked because some women wanted to be Liesl and ended up breaking her hip!

After that we drove through Salzburg where things like the nunnery, the front exterior of the house, and a few others were pointed out. We then headed up into the hills to go to the small town of Mondsee. On the way we got breathtaking views of the mountains and countryside, along with seeing the huge lakes that are up there. I also saw the town where Red Bull was invented and another town where Mozart's mother was born.

St. Gilgen.

When we got into Mondsee we had about an hour to roam the city. The main highlight was the church where Maria and the captain were married in the film. Besides that we did a little bit of shopping and had some amazing apple strudel! Yum!

Church where Maria and the Captain were married.

Apple Strudel.

Sadly, we drove back to Salzburg and the tour was over! :( We got dropped off at our hostel and went from one bus to another! The drive back was 11 hours, but at least we drove home with the Alps surrounding us! I even had a frankfurter!

This has definitely been my favorite trip so far!! The only casualty is my umbrella got lost in transit, but those are never hard to find here! :D

All my pictures are posted to flickr and I'm going to try to get them up on facebook tonight!