After staying a few nights in Munich with my cousin I decided to head to Salzburg in Austria. The bus fare was only six euro which is crazy cheap. I can still not get over the fact that just a two hour bus trip can take you to another country. As soon as I arrived in Salzburg I noticed how clean and quiet it was. I was looking forward to getting away from crazy cities. The hostel I was staying at is recognised as a famous hostel- it is the Sound of Music hostel. They play the movie every night, the walls are decorated in posters and even the wifi password is The Sound of Music. Some (me) would call it heaven but for those who don't like The Sound of Music you would be hating life.
I spent the day visiting Mirabellgarten- a beautiful garden where the famous Do Re Mi scene was filmed. Salzburg old town, which is full of cobblestone paths and old coloured buildings. The shops were filled with Mozart souvenirs- even Mozart perfume. There were food markets everywhere and every type of pretzel you could imagine. I tried the cream pretzel and it was amazing- I'll seriously be rolling back to Australia. I also visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress which is centuries old but has free wifi? So many historical places have free wifi now which completely ruins the whole point of the attraction. The fortress had incredible views of Salzburg and I was pretty happy eating my pretzel with this view.
The next was the happiest day ever- The Sound of Music tour! I was picked up in a Sound of Music bus by an overly enthusiastic singing tour guide. The bus driver was not your typical fat and grumpy bus driver. He was wearing a pink sweater, had perfectly gelled hair and seriously looked like he was a member of the Von Trapp family. Two Aussie girls on the tour befriended me as well an American family. On the way to the first filming spot the bus driver hit another car with the bus. He got out of the bus, argued with her in German, ran back to the bus, fixed his hair and said 'sorry about that' and kept driving. The bus driver along with the tour guide were the craiziest and funniest characters ever.
Our first stop was the Von Trapp house. We only got to see the house from a distance but it was amazing to see it in real life. The tour guide told us all the facts about the movie as we went along. The only scene that was actually filmed at the Von Trapp house was the river scene where the children fell out the boat. All the inside scenes were recreated and filmed in Hollywood. We then visited the Gazebo where '16 going on 17' was filmed. The gazebo is a lot smaller in real life. The tour guide also told us that no one can go into the gazebo because an 80 year old lady attempted to do the Maria scene and fell and broke her hip. We only had about ten minutes at this stop, two asian girls must have misunderstood this and didn't make it to the bus in time. Everyone thought the tour guide would wait or go and look for them- but he literally said 'oops to bad' and continued on the tour leaving them behind at the gazebo. These two guys were insane.
So two people down we all headed to the Austrian Countryside. It was a perfectly blue sky and the views were stunning. Along the way they played the Sound of Music soundtrack and most people sang along. The lady next to me apologised and told me she would be singing her heart out (no judgement from me). We arrived at a small Austrian town called Mondsee. They gave us an hour to explore the town. The church where the wedding scene was filmed is in the heart of the town. Surrounding it are souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes. The Aussie girls and I went to a cafe and tried the famous apple strudel-amazing. We headed back to Salzburg singing all the tunes along the way and admiring the beautiful countryside.
After the tour the Aussie girls and I decided to go catch a bus to Kehlsteinhaus- also known as Hitlers holiday house. After around 40 minutes we arrived to the town of Mitterbach, we headed to the information centre only to find out that Kehlsteinhaus was closed for the season. It would have been nice if our tour guide told us this before we hitched a bus there. Nevertheless there was another cable car open for the next hour or so. The twenty minute ride overlooked the mountains and had an incredible view of the sunset over the mountains. At the top there was a restaurant and bar so I decided to try a traditional Austrian beer at 1730m feet with amazing views. A pretty good day I would say.
Thanks for the memories Austria you were fantastic! And I'm sure will be back again to see my brother perform here!
