By far, one of my favorite experiences so far has been my trip to Salzburg. I went with my four apartment-mates and two other girls from our program. Arriving there was a great achievement in and of itself as my roommates and I found ourselves sprinting through the bus station at 5:30 am :) Not the best way to start a trip but we made it and my first real train ride was gorgeous! The Austrian countryside is especially beautiful at sunrise and we also got a private compartment and pretended we were on the Hogwart's Express for 3 hours. It was awesome.
We arrived around 9 am and first up was the sound of music tour! The movie we all know and love was filmed in Salzburg (and hollywood studios of course) and we were more than ecstatic to reenact some of the scenes ourselves on the tour!
On the tour bus ready to go!
Just as I was saying 'I really hope we have a fun tour guide that doesn't mind our singing all day long,' the tour guide introduced himself. His name was Peter and he was perfect! Wacky, cheezy, told some great jokes, and let us sing on the bus whenever we wanted.
First stop: The back of the house where the children and Maria fall off the boat
Fun fact: they actually used two different houses/locations for the front and the back of the house
Peter singing I am 16 going on 17 for us
Second stop: Thee Gazebo
This was one of the things I was most excited for. The Gazebo used to be located where they filmed the scenes in the back of the house but the tourists were too loud and an old lady (at the ripe old age of at least 80) fell off the benches trying to be Liesel jumping from bench to bench! So they had to relocate it to a castle... Yikes!
The castle gardens were stunning even on a foggy day!
Our tour bus complete with a bar
(Maria's supposed to be singing but actually looks like she's sneezing)
3rd Stop:
The Wedding Scene
Next, we drove up to the Lakes and Regions Mountains (where there are: you guessed it! gorgeous lakes and gigantic mountains) to get to the town and church where they filmed the wedding scene. On the way up we got to sing along to the soundtrack and as my friends and I entertained the whole bus, we got to see some stunning sights. Unfortunately it was too foggy to see the Mountain where they filmed the opening scene and we were quite disappointed (the one thing I told myself I had to do was run around on that very mountain) but I plan on making another trip soon! We made a stop and got to look around at one of lakes for a few minutes and it was absolutely amazing how the mountain air hit me. It was the most incredible smell I've ever experienced. Becoming a professional Austrian yodeler and living in the mountains has now moved to my #2 goal in life :)
Anyway, we continued on to the town where the church was and got to spend some time there as well. The church was beautiful inside and just as we were eating lunch (and getting viciously attacked by bees..I've never been so scared of bees until now. They somehow swarmed and I had to run away from the restaurant, soup bowl in hand) a brass quintet started playing! They were so fun and I noticed a ton of big beer mugs on their table...They were waiting for the wedding ceremony to be over in the church so they could resume their gig at the reception. Typical brass players...(hehe)
4th stop:
The Gardens where Maria and the Children sing "Do Re Mi"
My roommates and I as such cultivated Austrians now like to think that we're above being touristy but we just couldn't help ourselves when we got to the gardens. We reenacted as best we could every part of the song filmed at the gardens singing loud for all to hear! (We got some great looks as we were skipping through)
Here Maria and the children skip and sing
The famous steps where they learn how to sing solfege!
I also got some great video footage of the reenactments that will definitely be made into a mini music video when I return
After the tour ended we headed for the old town square and searched for some food. We saw the house Mozart was born in and then stumbled upon this awesome authentic and cozy restaurant. It looked exactly like the one in Beauty and the Beast where Gaston struts around singing about his manliness.
Pickles??
Old Town Square
After some great souvenir shopping, we stumbled upon this Christmas store. It was way too cute to handle. It's a Christmas store year round that sells beautiful egg ornaments. I guess decorated eggs are typical European or at least Austrian ornaments. There were cartons upon cartons in there and every egg was beautifully hand crafted. I was unfortunately dragged out of there by my friends but I'll hopefully go back when it's time for the big Christmas markets!
For the last few hours of our trip, we decided to go this chic little cafe on top of a hotel that has a great view of the city. It was a perfect way to end the day.
(up on the top of the hill is the fortress)
I have to say I think Salzburg was one of the most fun experiences I will have on this trip. I had such an awesome day with my friends and even though I didn't really get to see those big mountains it was a fantastic trip and I hope to go back soon!!
If you've never seen Anastasia and the scene where she goes to Paris... a. you should because it's great and I've posted it here and b. it's exactly what I've always envisioned when dreaming about Paris.
And I'm thrilled to say that I was not disappointed! Paris really was like living in this scene: there were accordion players/rose sellers/ridiculously high fashion/romance (even more than vienna)/smoking (sooo much. yuck!)/ bonjours everywhere!/ cobblestone streets/ unfortunately no dancing on top of the eiffel tower or L'arc de Triomphe but hey I came pretty close to doing it all!
Day 1: I joyfully sprang out of bed at 3:45 am to get up/get ready and take my taxi to the airport. Luckily my driver had great taste in music so I was pumped for the day. My flights took me from Wien to Zürich, Switzerland to Paris. I boarded the plane outside as the sun was rising and it was a gorgeous start to the trip. Swiss airlines was fantastic: muffins, croissants, and videos of public pranks on the rides there.
I stayed with my friend Lin who just graduated from Ithaca and is now studying music performance at the University in Paris! She lives at the international campus which is really cool. Unfortunately as soon as we came out of the metro station it started pouring (I always bring rain...it's a Pittsburgh thing) so we took cover in a nice little cafe, had lunch, and watched the french. As soon as it stopped, we immediately got to sight seeing and went to Notre Dame first. It was amazing and much bigger than I thought it would be, especially on the inside. The detail and stained glass windows were just stunning.
Unfortunately we couldn't spend more time there and I was slightly disappointed to not see any hunchbacks. But we then headed through the city toward the Louvre! On the way we saw some absurdly enormous government buildings, two french police officers posed and made faces while I took pictures and then continued to stand there quite seriously. Next was the bridge of love and the Louvre. This bridge thing is popular now all over the world where you go with your spouse/significant other and put a lock on the bridge with your names engraved on it to symbolize your everlasting love. Pretty cute and this bridge was totally covered with locks as you can see.
There's no better way to act like a European than dining like one! So after walking through the city a bit and seeing the sights, we went out for my first authentic French dinner. And like a true frenchman, I ate snails with wine whilst wearing a beret and a fancy scarf. And mmm it was delicious! I was a little hesitant about trying escargo but had to do it. I was even more hesitant when it came out looking just like snails with green sauce coming out. yuck. but luckily it smelled delicious and to my delight tasted fantastic!
They were also quite slippery and difficult to eat. You get a special set of tongs for them and have to dig out the 'meat' inside. Revolting but it was worth it!
Day 2: The Louvre, L'Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, fantastic fancy french dinner #2
Lin had some stuff to do so I headed to the Louvre on my own (again quite proud of my independent traveling skills. go me.)
I was absolutely blown away and hope to go back some day. I couldn't believe how monstrous it was in size I mean you have to physically turn almost in a full circle to be able to look at it from one end to the other. Walking through every room in it would probably take a few days. The museums inside were incredible but in 3 hours I only saw a tiny tiny portion of the artwork.
Some of my favorite things were the french sculptures- absolutely stunning, ancient egyptian, iranian, and middle eastern exhibits: really cool stuff like real hieroglyphics and documents from ancient egyptians, ancient greek pottery and houseware, real crowns from some coronation ceremonies, and of course thee Mona Lisa.
Ancient greek pottery. Fascinating art and I definitely sang Hercules to myself throughout the entire exhibit.
This wasn't a typical sculpture, but more of a 3-d painting. It was hung on the wall and the sculptures stuck out from the flat surface to create the scene. Really really cool.
And below, the crowns! Sparkling, bejeweled, and saweet! I think the small one would look pretty funny on a real king but the crystals or diamonds totally made up for size. And the red one's jewels actually looked fake like they were from Pretty Pretty Princess when you looked at it closely. (maybe that's why the french kings were so sissy)
I have at least hundred and fifty photos from the Louvre and will be excited to show and tell when I get back to the states!
Of course, no trip to France is complete without CREPES. Oh so many crepes! Crepe stands are everywhere in France and I was ecstatic to discover that nutella crepes are the normal way to go. I have to say, the french know whats up. This one here is a nutella and banana crepe with whipped cream piled on top. (also known as heaven on earth)
After digesting that crepe (I still drool when I think of it), we hiked for ages down the Champs Elysees to the L'Arc de Triomphe! It took way longer than I thought but it's pretty neat and a straight shot from the Louvre. The Champs Elysees had some wonderful stores including Tiffany's and The original Louis Vuitton complete with gold dinosaurs in the windows holding purses. No idea what that's all about..
And then, my first real view of the Eiffel Tower! I couldn't wait to see it and it was just as exciting as I had hoped.
After all of this excitement it was time for a well deserved nap and another fancy french dinner. This time, we went to a little town called Monmartre where there is a beautiful church, Sacre Coeur. It's a really great area at night with little cafe's and restaurants all light up.
And sound the trumpets!
Day 3: THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES
We meant to spend an afternoon there but instead stayed for 8 hours! Versailles was absolutely incredible. It's not quite as big as the Louvre but holy cow this is probably one of the fanciest palaces ever built. A grand total of 4,000 people used to live in the palace!! Yes that is a true fact. This number made up the royal family and the servants. Can you imagine 4,000 people living at your house? And most of them are your servants? If I were King Louis, I totally would have ordered all of my servants to play a capture the flag every day. Luckily it's so enormous that I don't think it would be crowded one bit.
Flaky bread with ratatouille and shrimp on top with a side salad (before the ravaging)
The 'public' eating room. Here the King and Queen used to eat in front of people. Not sure why it was such an event to watch them eat but I'm sure it was grand if it required a special room. I have to say that is one thing I probably wouldn't like about being a Queen. I wouldn't want to watch me eat either!
The famous Hall of Mirrors. I've seen this many times in history textbooks but it was absolutely phenomenal to walk through it in real life! I thought about counting the number of chandeliers in there but after I saw more on the floor lining the walls I realized I would be there for a while. I couldn't imagine how cool it would be to walk through alone when tourists aren't there.
And my favorite part, the grounds. I couldn't tell you how many acres but you couldn't walk through them in a day. The central part of the grounds consists of gigantic ponds, fountains and large water strips that are big enough to have a dock and paddle boats. In the below picture the big strip of water does look pretty big but there's an even bigger strip that wraps around to the right. I'd have to be in a helicopter to photograph it all in one picture.
Seeing as the king had four thousand people living in his palace it only makes sense that he built another two palaces on the grounds! One for Marie Antoinette and one for special guests. Below is the Grand Trianon which was built for the lucky guests. Pink marble, it's own set of gardens, and color themed rooms. It was adorable and all of the furniture was hand stitched with beautiful flower patterns and such.
For my last French dinner, we went Funky. There's a bar/restaurant called Ave Maria that is located in the young/hip part of town. It's one of Lin's favorite places and now one of mine too. It's one of those fun hodge-podge type places with crazy lights, pinatas, random posters on the walls, and a really fun atmosphere. The food of course was also incredible and I had no shame finishing my giant dinner bowl while the two women sitting next two us couldn't even finish sharing one.
Day 4: My last day and finally The Eiffel Tower!
Luckily, on the ride there, there were accordion players singing "What a wonderful world" and other great hits. It was too perfect. When I finally saw the great thigh bone (I believe it was modeled after the thigh bone) up close, I let out a little gasp and was blown away. It was a gorgeous day and since we clearly hadn't walked enough over the last 3 days while exploring the entire city, we decided to take the stairs. Unfortunately the line was insanely long for the ride to go up to the tippy top so we sucked it up, started singing "Be a Man" from Mulan, and hiked up 360 something steps to the first tier. But that wasn't enough for me so I went up to the second tier for a grand total of 669 steps!
I think the views speak for themselves. It was such a fun experience!
That definitely deserved a nice big coffee ice cream as we strolled through the park (top left picture)
Last stop: Sacre Couer once more
Lin took me back to the Montmartre where we had dinner the second night to see the town during the day. I'm so glad she did because it was the perfect way to end my trip to France. The gothic church (although located on top of more steps...) is another beauty and Montmartre is by far the most lovely town I've seen with the winding cobble stone streets, little pastry shops everywhere, beautiful scenery, little fountains in between the trees, street musicians performing, and artists selling their work. There were lots of people around and I felt wonderfully french as I had my chocolate eclaire and enjoyed the perfect day.
Fin
And so concludes my trip to Paris! It was a fantastic experience that I'll never forget and I'm so glad it was everything I hoped it would be and more! Now back to those ugly German accents...
As we say here at IES, I have been squeezing the sweet juice of life!
Since the last blog I've...
biked along the Danube. pretty awesome. some day I'll have to bike the rest of it or at least some more of it. It's quite large, as it runs through the entire country. Fun fact: The austrians chopped it in half so part of it is the natural Danube and the other part is filtered water so clean you can drink it! It did look refreshing. Along the canal there is a random man-made beach (apparently a nude beach as my roommate unfortunately discovered as she almost crashed into naked men on her bike tour) clubs and bars on the water, a beach themed club with a swimming pool on top of the river (unnecessary?), and a section of graffiti artwork.
went to a cafe and the Nashmarkt (the biggest supermarket in Vienna) with my German class to practice what we were learning. I love learning languages because any time you have hands-on learning, it usually involves food. After the market, we came back and ate everything we were instructed to buy. It was heavenly. Bread, prosciutto, fresh squeezed orange juice, french brie (which I tried and unfortunately discovered that brie is awful), and LIPTAUER. Liptauer is a buttery spread you but on bread or crackers and amazing.
gone to two very different bars. The first was a bar called 'feelings'. We decided that was an appropriate place to go after auditions. It was something. We were the only ones there on a friday night and the workers (50 + year old women in neon tube tops and tanned to a lovely orange color) played darts all night and put on Beyonce after Beyonce video on the screen. And then around an hour after we were there a black light comes on all of sudden and a man comes in selling flowers?? I don't believe this is a typical Austrian bar but I will hopefully soon find out! The other bar was on the other end of the spectrum and very swanky. It's at the top of a really funky hotel called the 25 hours hotel and has a great view of the city. I would love to go back but it's quite expensive for this college kid that finds herself buying mostly the 'Budget' brand food items at the supermarket.
started classes! And I have to admit, I have never been so excited about classes in my life! I'm taking a class on my favorite composer Gustav Mahler and we're studying his 3rd symphony. Go check it out if you don't know it. It's an incredible class and the director of IES Vienna is teaching it. He's a Mahler expert and the class is absolutely fascinating! We're learning all about philosophy and Viennese history so that we can understand Mahler's thinking which is so interesting. I'm also taking Austrian Art and Architecture, Arts Criticism, Deutsch, Music Performance Workshop (music ensembles), Private Lessons, and that's it! Hopefully the workload won't be anything straining but I really don't mind doing the work at all. (Did I really just say that??)
taken my first lesson with a trumpet legend. this woman is probably getting close to 70 years old and one of the first female trumpet players to have a solo career and be a principal trumpet player in an orchestra. Pretty awesome. She's plays like a beast, and I can't wait to learn from her!
Spent hours and hours finally booking a flight Paris. I was definitely scammed and didn't realize until the very end so friends, don't ever use Govolo!!
1) They don't yodel...sad. I have yet to hear yodeling. I don't understand why people don't yodel in the city.
2) Men really wear liederhosen and it's completely acceptable! There is actually grand ball called the Hunter's Ball once a year where everyone wears traditional Austrian clothing, i.e. Liederhosen and Dirndls (the cute sheep herding dresses for girls). Yes I will be going dirndl shopping.
3) It seems that all Austrian men wear speedos, no matter their size. scarring.
4) The Kebap. So instead of hot dog stands, in Austria they have Kebap stands. Kebap is I guess the type of meat (lamb I believe?) cooked (on a giant spit, we're talking like 4ft here) and used to make falafels and sandwhiches. They're on almost every street and taaasty! I will be a regular at the Kebap stand next to school.
I don't really have any good pictures of the kebap yet because i've been to excited/busy when eating them
5) Incredible Churches are Everywhere! 70% of Austria is Roman Catholic and hundreds of churches are scattered all throughout the city. There are often organ recitals that take place in the churches and on most sundays you can find a church with an orchestra and choir that performs a mass written by handel, bach, etc. during the actual service. Pretty cool!
St. Stephen's Cathedral. Located in the heart of Vienna. The entire city was built in a circle around this church and no building in Vienna is allowed to be taller than it. It's absolutely breath taking.
The organ inside St. Stephen's
Below is St. Peter's. Very close to the center of the city and has the most ornate alter I have ever seen. Even more gold than St. Stephen's inside.
6) Just like Ithaca, Vienna is gorgeous! Instead of waterfalls there are fountains and parks everywhere! This is a park close to school that I like walk through when it's nice outside.
7) There are often horse carriages in the middle of the street just about every day. And the drivers are always wearing top hats and traditional clothing. Mr. Collins would approve!
8) The quality of food and water is in general way better than in the U.S. The whole city of Vienna has extremely clean water that comes straight from the Alps! You can drink it right out of the fountain or sink and it's very good for you. The food is just incredible. They use less preservatives so everything tastes better. Especially when you eat out. Which I have done a fair bit of :)
9) The air however is not so nice. Everyone young and old smokes so I am unfortunately a second hand smoker now :(
10) Das Kaffeehaus. As I mentioned before, the coffee house is just a part of daily life. They are abundant and wonderful. It's where everyone goes to socialize. And of course any cafe you walk into has incredible looking dessert. I will have dedicate an entire blog to just food at some point. It's even a bigger part of my life here (if that is possible) than in the states. yikes?
One of the most well-known Cafe's in Vienna. Very touristy but just lovely. My apartment went out the first weekend for our first real Cafe experience. So classy.
I got Apfel Strudel of course!
My Liebhartsgasse apartment-mates!
11) Beautiful people. Living in an expensive of course yields lots of nice looking people however, I have noticed that the true Austrians are naturally gorgeous. Lots of times blonde haired and blue eyed and are dress ever so fashionably. I have some work to do and dearly miss my sweat pants.
12) There are tons of streets/cafes/buildings/younameit named after famous composers!
13) PDA is acceptable to a disgusting degree. Dear fifteen year old couples, I don't want to see you making out anymore! Actually even older couples make out while waiting to cross the street too :p
14) There are either very tiny dogs or super super fat (I mean barely able to walk) dogs. I saw two golden retrievers the other day that probably weighed more than I do.
15) The public transportation is so efficient and so easy. I actually have confidence that I will not get lost!
16) Austrians love their shoes. Everyone has fantastic footwear and the heels well...I think these pictures speak for themselves...
To my high- heel wearing aunts, let's see you wear these!
