The next morning, we all had breakfast together, and that is where I met Eden. Eden is such a joke; I love this man. He is a 33-year-old British actor, who doesn’t necessarily define himself as an actor. He does a lot of acting/ teaching work, more community based than anything. He is a gem. So breakfast ends at 9:30am at the JUFA hostel, and Eden walks in at 9:20am and is astounded that almost all the food is gone already. He and Nauri had met the night before when he checked in, and since we were all traveling alone we decided why not go exploring together. Since Brenna had lived in Salzburg and still had friends here, she was off on her own, but the other 2 and I went off. Eden and I had plans to go see a show at the Marionette theatre downtown, so we started off by walking there first. On the way, we ended up at the Mirabell-Garden, where Maria and the children sing “Do-Rei-Mi.” We played/ wandered around there for a while before we found the theatre. Then Eden and I bought our tickets to see the Nutcracker that night. We walked over the bridge toward the hostel, passing by Mozart’s birthplace, a Sound of Music gallery place, found the main square where we ate ice cream and played the game, “guess the nationality.” By the time I looked at the time, I realized I needed to book it back to the hostel if I wanted to do the Sound of Music sights tour. So I quickly ran/ jogged back to the hostel just on time to have a van pick me up only to drop me back off downtown where I had just ran from. Oh well.
Once I got dropped off downtown, I got on a coach tour bus and we were off. First stop on the tour was the Pavilion where Lisle and Ralph sing, “I am 16 going on 17.” This was at Hellbourne. Here we also got to see the trees that the children and Maria hang from when Captain Von Trapp returns home with the Baroness. Next stop, was the lake where the children are seen canoeing in when they are reunited with Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness. This lake is not actually behind the site that they used for the Von Trapp house, that house is on the other side of the city. From the lake, we set out to the mountains and got to go summer tobogganing. Basically, we sat on this little carts and were tow-roped up the mountain, and then we got to racetrack down the hill. It was so much fun! The scariest part was going up backwards up the mountain. Since Nauri had already done the tour and Eden had never seen the movie, I was flying solo and ended up meeting this American family who were seeing all the famous battlefields in Europe. Somehow, we bonded and they ended the tour by the youngest guy (still not young, early 30s giving me his email address, lovely).
I’m digressing again, sorry. After tobogganing, we saw the Moon Lake and the mountains where at the end of the film the Von Trapp family hikes through to get to freedom. What’s funny are these mountains are the mountains leading to Germany, not Switzerland like the movie portrays, and clearly the Von Trapps would not be fleeing Austria to go to Germany! We also passed by the real Von Trapp house, which today is a bed and breakfast and traditional Austrian clothing store. Additionally, we passed by the Convent where Maria was, but you aren’t allowed to tour inside, so we just saw the outside; still impressive. Our final stop on the four-hour tour was the cathedral where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are married. After we saw that, we had a half hour break until we returned to Salzburg, so I tried some of the traditional Austrian chocolate cake. It was so delicious. It really hit the spot.
Next, we returned to Salzburg, and passed by the Red Bull Factory Headquarters. Luke, I thought of you! By now it had started to rain, so none of us were anxious to get off the bus by the time we got back to town. Since I was supposed to be meeting up with Eden to walk to the show, I braved the rain and took the city bus to our hostel. Quickly got changed and we were off. The marionette theatre did a superb job of the Nutcracker. Literally, there were times when I thought the puppets were real people! It was that good. There was a scene where they had baby-flying cupid shooting arrows at the lovers, and neither Eden nor I could figure out how they had accomplished such a cool trick.
After the show, we returned to the hostel. Now online the hostel claims that they show the Sound of Music each night at 8pm, so I was hoping to watch it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t playing so I thought we had missed it. Turns out, they only play it if people are interested, so Eden and I watched it. I was excited to see the sites I had seen earlier that day, and it was his first time seeing it ever.
Now keep in mind The Sound of Music isn’t a short film and we started after the puppet show, so by now it was one something in the morning, the film was over, and we went to sleep.
By now, its Friday, May 20th, 2011 and I had originally planned on leaving Salzburg, but since I had made such lovely friends and had yet to finish seeing the city I stayed another night. Once again, Eden showed up late for breakfast and today we decided we were going to go see the trick fountain at Hellbourne. Nauri, Eden, and I set off and first did the Trick Fountain tour. The Trick fountains were set up by masons from Salzburg and Italy, the best craftsmen of their time, under the guidance of Santino Solari. The most famous features are the Neptunfountain by H. C. Asper, built in the early 17th century and the so-called Roman Theatre with a marble table with seats that are part of a hidden fountain. If the Prince Archbishop hosted a dinner in Hellbrunn Palace, nobody was supposed to get up from his or her seat as long as the Prince Archbishop was still seated - which explains why his chair is the only one not targeted by the fountain. The machinery underlying this mechanism is based on five automatic water pumps that are part of the original ensemble. They were supplemented with waterpower driven mechanical theatre between 1749 and 1752. This theatre of Hellbrunn contains 138 moving, wooden figures.
Pretty much, they are great fun and you get wet, more specifically you constantly get splashed and spayed with water. But its awesome, so go if you ever get the chance. Once we were all wet, we decided to sit in the sun for a while to dry off before we went into the Hellbourne Palace. Once we dried off, we went back to take pictures of the Pavillon from the film, then back to Hellbourne Palace. Inside the palace we got to hear about the nobles who lived there and their enjoyment in practical jokes. When we finished with the palace, Nauri left to meet up with a friend, so Eden and I climbed a mountain to get to the Folk Museum. It was cool, and had a lovely view of the city. What intrigued me the most was how many costumes and masks the museum housed, pretty swanky! Once we were already on top of the hill, we decided we might as well find the theatre up there, so we walked around for a while before we saw something that looked like s stone stage. We played on the stage envisioning shows we would like to put on there, then we went back down the other side of the mountain to realize that was in fact the theatre we had been looking for. Good for us! But now we were on the other side of the mountain and didn’t really know how to get back, so we kept asking people, who pointed us all over, but eventually we found our way back to the palace to the bus back to the hostel.
As it was our last night together in Salzburg, we decided to go out for traditional Austrian food at a place called the Augustiner Bar. Before the left the hostel, we met a girl named Grace, who was spending her summer nannying in Gratz, and was just in Salzburg for the next day. At the Augustiner, I had a sausage, a cheese dumpling in a chicken-type broth, a pretzel, and a home-brewed Augustiner beer. At this place, we met a group of guys from Germany who were studying music who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night.
When the Augustiner turned off their lights, we knew it was closing time, so we headed back toward downtown to Nauri’s favorite bar in Salzburg, the Irish Pub called Shamrocks. Shamrocks was such a fun place. I had a creepy old man try to dance with me, then I had another creepy old man dance with me, and finally I had one of the German guys dance with me; finally someone my own age, opposed to all these older men! After Shamrocks, we walked back to the hostel and called it a night.
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