Abnormal Tourism Hours: Salzburg
Kelvin determined that we experienced Salzburg in12 phases… just go with it, I’ll explain.
1. The overnight: We wanted to stop in Salzburg and we wanted to take an overnight train to save time/money sooooo that meant that we trained from Zurich to Salzburg Haupbanhof (train station, get used to it, I find German endlessly amusing) from 11:00pm to 4:12 am. Sweet! My compartment-mates included an incredibly earnest Chinese guy who spoke English and German and a Macedonian man who thought I understood German. No matter of blank stares and “no sphreichens” could convince him otherwise. Then he chugged red bull just before we turned to lights off.
2. Delirious Indecision: We get off the train at 4:12. We follow signs for the Salzburg Congress thinking it might be pretty and lit up at night. It is an average office building. We proceed to pathetically meander through a park scouting nap spots. Eventually we decide that before we give in and sleep in public we should catch a peak at the river. I call our hostel and determine that check-in time is 5 hours in the future….”See you THEN!!!” I tell the tired Austrian man, a little too enthusiastically.
3. Church Nap Time and the Creepiest Graveyard Ever: We found the river! And all the pretty buildings. Danika had the bright idea to try to get into the massive cathedral called Erzabtei St. Peter and lo and behold it was open! Awe-inspiring in the pre-dawn darkness. If you know much about me you know that I LOVE hanging out in beautiful cathedrals so I was having a grand old time. Everyone else slept. Kelvin reported some of his most vivid dreams in months! We then decided to head up the hill to get a view of Salzburg for sunrise. This decision took us through one of the creepier places any of us had ever seen. I recognized it right away! The graveyard that inspired graveyard where the Von Trapp family hid from the Nazis and Rolf saw them. So I guess seeing it 6:30 am in complete darkness was true to form… On the right you'll find Kelvin deep in slee - I mean prayer.
4. The Largest Fortress in Europe: Clearly no one was at the ticket counter so we just stumbled into the largest fortress in Europe, up quite a solid hill… turns out it was one of the best views I’ve ever seen! ALPS. Adorable Austrian Salzburg in the foreground and ALPS ALPS ALPS in the background. It was frigid so we swaddled ourselves in every available article of clothing and huddled penguin style… of course Kelvin and I sang the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music. Except, problem – those are not HILLS, excuse me. They are ALPS.
5. Church nap 2 and Horse pictures: Another round of napping in a (different) epic cathedral. We then started to try to move towards breakfast but literally made it no further than ten yards at a time without getting distracted – mostly by taking pictures of horses from various angles but also of Austrian cow bells on sale, a sculpture of a man standing on a giant gold ball and a man who insisted on giving Kelvin a mystery morning pick-me-up beverage.
6. Breakfast: After collapsing into the first breakfast establishment we found we began to systematically terrorize the wait staff and other patrons. No intentionally! We could hardly be help responsible for our actions at that point. It took a REALLY long time to feed ourselves… we composed some rather revealing poems:
Two hours I slept
Before the hills were alive
Kelvin and I sang
Macedonia
Fell asleep in my breakfast
As cold as penguins
Walk ten steps then stop
Lost control of our fingers
Pictures of horses
For a complete compilation, inquire to the artist! (me….)
7. Nap time! Finally got into the hostel, glorious sleep (except Kelvin, weirdo). Sadly things got a little less funny after this since we weren’t delirious. But it was also nice that I no longer felt like a shell of a human wandering the dark streets of Salzburg.
8. Sound of music musical recreations: Normal tourism hours! How dull. Just kidding, I skipped through the trellis where Maria and the children run around singing “Do a Deer” and squealing with delight. Kelvin and I had plenty more musical reenacting to do… Stay tuned for a compilation video.
9. Mozart! Highly recommended Mozart museum – his adolescent household filled with artifacts, pianos he played on, lots of music on the audio guide, and – as seems to be the case all over Europe – an interactive audiovisual spectacular.
10. Trespassing on Sound of Music Properties: We saw the nunnery! Didn’t actually trespass there but stood at the gate and wandered around the outside, sang a little How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria and looked at some more Alps. The Sound of Music family compound in the movie is actually a compilation of two houses in Salzburg – we saw the one that includes the house and the lake: We then realized we weren’t strictly speaking welcome there (the gate had been so pleasantly open!) so we hid behind some bushes and watched the sunset over the lake. I’m fairly certain I saw Maria’s room from the outside! I certainly saw the place from which Rolf threw rocks at the window J
11. Bach concert: Impressive Cello concert. Very well attended by locals…. We learned about it while hanging out in the first nap-cathedral of the day. Kelvin's friend who was traveling with us knows a lot about classical music so offered some colored commentary before and after.
12. Dinner: Weiner Schnitzel and a traditional Austrian Beer! Our roommates were fairly confused by our schedule:
Tourism 4am – noon
Sleep 12 – 2:30
Tourism 2:30 – 10:30 pm
Sleep 10:30 pm – 6:30 am (up for another train…to Vienna! Stay tuned)
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