The Sound of Spring Break

Oct 14, 20197 min read

Spring Break and the Sound of Music

Our classes in Italy are more exam based versus assignment based. Attendance is strict and exams are very important. We have spent the past couple of weekends were spent in Florence studying and hanging with friends. We planned to travel about half of the weekends and spent half of our weekends in Florence. I don’t want to leave in 4 months and have traveled everywhere but still be a stranger to my home - Florence. Our weekends at home are spend studying, shopping, having sushi with friends, and resting.

After studying for midterms, spring break felt well-deserved. I had my last midterm for my intensive Graphic Design course Thursday morning. After my presentation and exam, we hopped in a taxi and headed to the airport.

Once landing in Vienna, we headed to the hotel to find my mom in the lobby. We have had this trip planned for almost a year. Growing up, her favorite film was the Sound of Music. I grew up with Sound of Music on the TV and “My Favorite Things” being hummed in the kitchen. When I was 5 or so and my oldest sister was in high school, our local theatre chose the Sound of Music for their spring production. I was just in preschool so my mother would take me to my father;s tax office to practice my audition song for his secretary. I learned projection, singing, and confidence while preparing for my audition.

My sister was casted as the head nun and I received the role as the second the last Von Trapp child (Marta, the one with a birthday and a request for a pink parasol). My sister teenager sister toted me to practice, rehearsals, and costume fittings - I am forever grateful. A love of the Sound of Music has been ingrained in me from a very young age. My parents have even visited the Von Trapp lodge in Maine. When the Von Trapps came to America, they called Maine home. After touring as a singing group came to an end, they made their income from a resort and brewery. My father even met Johannes, the 10th Von Trapp child and Maria’s 3rd child at the Von Trapp Lodge a couple of years ago. It is was only natural that we would visit Salzburg, Austria to see the film sights and the Von Trapp’s home.

After landing in Vienna, we took the night to rest and let my momma and her good friend, Susan, recover from the jetlag. The next morning we set off West to Salzburg. Only naturally, I watched the Sound of Music on the way

We found our Airbnb, and we were taken by surprise. Most of the time, pictures on the internet can be deceiving - the bathroom too small, the room is tiny, or filter of the computer changed everything. Fortunately, we were deceived into thinking we had a more modest apartment. There was a home goods store below that owned the air bnb and furnished it with style. Once I saw the portrait of Grace Kelly, I knew I would have a hard time NOT moving in.

Most of the time, I try to avoid looking like a tourist - maps, backpacks, cameras, and yelling english. It was inevitable and I kinda didn't mind. It was pouring the rain, we were running to make the “hop on, hop off” bus stops with a map that was sopping wet from the rain.

After missing the bus by a few seconds 3 different times, we finally found our bus and got our introduction to Salzburg.

After drying off from the rain, we ran to Zum Eulenspiegel. Good friends from home had told us we had to get their pancakes - no question about it. We had to have Wienerschnitzel first. This sweet little restaurant was once Mozart’s father’s apartment, and it is across from Mozart’s birthplace.

The next morning we had pretzels for breakfast and then took a cable car to the fortress on top of the mountain. The views were wild - so was the wind.

Caleb LOVES to look up local foods, and I love that he loves to too. We found this actual hole in the wall called Balkan-Grill . They sell Bosna, which is bratwurst/hotdog thing. Just one woman is in this small kitchen cooking the meat, buns, and adding spices. I am usually not a meat fan but there were pretty good.

After we did Caleb’s search for local food, it was my time to shop. My mom had found a Floh Market (flea market). It was just a few racks of clothes outside. They had Barbour, Burberry, and all sorts. I hit the jackpot and found a Longchamp backpack for 15 Euros! My favorite types of souvenirs are vintage bargains! I’ll never forget finding that backpack in Salzburg.

Later that night, my mom planned for us to go to a concert. Salzburg is a music city - being the birthplace of Mozart. A small group of musicians played on period instruments - including the harpsichord. The program was both Mozart and Vivaldi. The room was so beautiful with the music that I almost was lulled to sleep.

The next morning, we were off for our Sound of Music tour! As previously explained, my mom and I LOVE Sound of Music. I have made Caleb a fan from the many times we’ve watched it.

They shared some secrets of the filming -

They shot the house scenes at two different houses . One was the perfect entrance and the other house had the perfect patio with a lake in the back. None of the scenes were shot inside the houses but in Hollywood.
The littlest girl almost ACTUALLY drowned when Maria and the kids flipped the boat in the backyard.
They built 3 glass gazebos. The one standing today is a replica.
The mountain the Von Trapps climbed over in the end of the movie actually borders Germany not Switzerland. They were going in the wrong way of the Nazis- yikes.

Later, we got to tour a Salt Mine!

Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden salt mine in Berchtesgaden, Germany offers tours of the mine that venture in hundreds of meters deep into the side of the the alps. Katie had discovered this place when she was looking at things to do in Salzburg and naturally thought it would be a very fun and different experience - and that it was. Katie, Susan, Mary Claire and I all quite literally hopped into a miners jumpsuit, so as to not dirty our own clothes, then hopped on a little rail cart and rode into the mines. Our tour guide was a handheld box that spoke our language, but the miner who was leading the trip did not. This salt mine is a fully-functional salt mine that produces many different forms of salt, primarily iodized table salt. It also happens to be the oldest actively working salt mine in all of Germany.

The mine was dark and very cold. The air was salty but not like the sea mist that hits you on the beach, this air was drier and cool and refreshing. Once we are into the mine we come to a point feels like an outlook, except it was underground. The big canyon like dip we were looking down into was an underground lake that once existed there. When they mine for salt they fill in areas with large amounts of water and leave it for a couple years. Eventually the water starts to extract the salt from the walls of the caves and creates an underground lake of a very salty brine. These lakes can grow to the size of a gymnasium. The brine is then pumped out and the salt is taken from the water.

Traditionally to get to the bottom of an empty lake the miners would ride on a wooden slide down to the bottom. Part of the tour consists of sliding down many of these slides, each dropping down about 30 feet. Today, the miners will ride a lift to take them up and down the mine, but the slide is clearly much more fun. We walked through many tight, barely lit tunnels. Eventually, we came to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake is the example of the brine lake I mentioned earlier. About the size of a backyard pond, the lake sits extremely still deep underground. When we first came to the lake we all thought that the water of the lake was shallow and we could see to the very bottom. In actuality, we were not staring at the bottom of the lake, but we were looking at a perfect reflection of the ceiling. We then hop into a small ferry and are shipped across the lake. On the other side is a fountain and the guide suggested that we taste the water of the lake. Obviously, I did not take a large gulp of briney salt water. But, I did let the water hit my hand and taste. I promise to you that the water tasted exactly like a fresh baked pretzel. It was actually very delicious.

After the lake we walked through a couple more tunnels and came to lift. We all hopped on the lift and rode up to another rail cart that would take us out of the mine. We rode the cart out of the mine and eventually saw the sun again. In the warm mountain sun we waited for our bus to arrive and take us to the town of Berchtesgaden. Here we did not do much exploring, instead we sat down at a little restaurant and had the most amazing french fries I have ever had. These beautiful fries were cooked with truffle oil, I still dream of eating these fries again. Then on the bus we traveled back to Salzburg.

The next day we headed to Vienna again.

My mom had our schedule jam packed, so we took a trip to Budapest Hungary. We learned that Budapest used to be two towns called Buda and the other Pest.The two towns were separated by the Danube river, the same river that runs right through Vienna.

Our last day in Vienna we rode Birds around town, ate lunch at the Naschmarket, toured the Schoenbrunn Palace. The Habsburgs were the family that ruled over the Austro-Hungarian empire. At times this uncluded Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Poland.

Our last night we finished with a Cirque Du Soleil which pretty much blew my mind.