The Sound of Music: Austria – Salzburg, Vienna

Salzburg

I  never watched The Sound of Music as a kid. I watched Snoopy (Charlie Brown) and Transformers. When I told my girlfriend online and Nathan at different times, I was met with the same outrage. WHAT??? And then instantly they would sing a song from the movie.

So after we got to the hostel in Salzburg from Ceske Budejovice, we put down our luggage, Nathan went off to talk to Michelle on his computer, and I went off to the TV room, sat myself down, and watched The Sound of Music.

Good movie/broadway show turned into movie with catchy songs, but definitely a little long.

Salzburg itself was definitely as pretty as the movie depicted it, even though the weather was no where as nice. Nathan and I decided to just stroll around the city for our first day, stopping in at the Dom, getting a good feel of the city, and ending our walk at Nathan and my first ever beer hall experience.

Statue of Mozart. He was plastered everywhere, on chocolate, on liquor, on postcards, etc.

That’s not a real person on that sphere – it’s “art”. Also behind is Salzburg Castle

You pick out a mug (we picked the 1L), clean it at a fountain, and they fill it up with beer. Awesome. Many of you have probably done it before, but I was impressed, OK?

On our 2nd day, despite Nathan’s protests, we went on a 2 hour hike on the hills of Salzburg. We got to explore Salzburg more and snap some nice photos. I’m going to go on the record and say that Nathan eventually appreciated my push to go on the hike.

With a background of the snow capped mountains of the Alps, Salzburg was damn nice.

The hike gave us some good views. And it was fun.

Vienna

I have to say I’m not the most musical person – meaning I’ve had a history of sleeping in operas, in broadway shows, concerts. However, even I have heard about Vienna and its musical tradition. So in our two nights in Vienna, Nathan and I got to see 2 shows – Swan Lake, and a concert with music composed by Schubert and others. For both of them, we got standing tickets since we weren’t baller enough to get sitting tickets. As I result of being forced to stand, I can happily report that I didn’t fall asleep.

As for the city itself, all I can say was that there sure were some rich people living here – the Hapsburg empire/dynasty that ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the 1920s was BALLER. Nathan and I got to see the apartments where they lived, as well as their summer palace. Extravagance at the maximum.

The whole block of the Hapsburg’s rich and extravagant buildings. 

This is their cutlery….CUTLERY! In contrast, I use plastic plates and cheap chopsticks.

Our standing tickets for Swan Lake – 4 Euros and I didn’t fall asleep, what a deal!

 

The sight of the music concert hall was already well worth the 5 Euros we spent on standing in the back.

Wiener Schnitzel…this place had some XL ones. We were so full we barely ate dinner.

 

Last but not least, two pictures dedicated to the apple strudel. Top one has nuts in it too. A half eaten one is here on the bottom. It’s basically like an apple pie but with much less of that sugary liquid in the typical American style apple pie.

From Vienna, we took a 3 hour train ride to Budapest. A tip to y’all who might travel in Austria: OBB, the train for Austria, offers Sparschiene, which are discounted tickets to international locations (which is weird, since international travel is more $$ usually). So for my 3 hr train ride from Salzburg to Vienna, it was 47.50 EUR. For my 3 hr train ride from Vienna to Budapest, it was 19.90 EUR (which I bought online). Insane.

Next up? Budapest!