The Hills are Alive...

I went to Salzburg, Austria this past weekend. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! Lindsay and I took a taxi into Galway at midnight on Wednesday, left on a bus for Dublin at 1:15am, got on an airplane to Munich at 6:40am, took the S-Bahn from the Munich airport to the Munich train station, and then got on a train to Salzburg and arrived in the city at 3pm Thursday. We literally took planes, trains, and automobiles! We went to visit our friends Chris and Teresa who are studying abroad there for the semester. The train ride was one of my favorite parts - the whole countryside between Germany and Austria looks like it could be a jigsaw puzzle! Salzburg is one of the cutest and quaintest cities little cities.

The main things we did on this trip were eat and see "The Sound of Music" sites. We indulged (a couple of times!) in the famous Mozart balls (this being Mozart's hometown, and all), which are chocolate balls filled with marzipan. They are delicious! There are knock-offs all over the city, so we sought out the only three stores that sell the "originals," which is a place called Fürst. We also sampled weinerschnitzel (which is breaded pork) and apfelstrudel (apple strudel) with vanilla sauce.

One afternoon, we took a bus to a little village outside the city called Mondsee. This is the location of the church where the wedding scene from "The Sound of Music" took place. It was such a neat little town, and seeing the church was completely surreal. We also walked by the front of the von Trapp house, danced around the gazebo, channeled Maria in the ivy-covered tunnel where they go biking, imitated their imitations of the large statues in Mirabell gardens, and had "confidence" down the dirt path Maria did. It was so much fun to see all these places in real life! If you get the chance, go to Salzburg. It is one of the greatest and most picturesquce cities, and besides, isn't everyone's favorite movie "The Sound of Music"?

Aside from all of the sightseeing, it was so much fun to just hang out with Chris and Teresa again. It felt like we were back at St. Ben's (especially because they had homework, and as you know, I never really do...). As some of you may know, we also had a little bit of an accident and I broke my ankle in Salzburg. So far, everything is working out just fine, seeing as how I am kind of a pro at this whole broken bone thing. I have terrific friends who have been helping me a lot and I am not letting this slow me down too much. I still had a great weekend and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Bonus: We got to see real fall colors in Salzburg! They just don't have them in Ireland like they do back home, so I got a little taste of Minnesota in Austria.

This weekend: Cork!