"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

Family and Friends-

Sorry it has taken me so very long to update my site but my life, to say the least, has been a whirlwind lately...I won't bore you with any personal details, but to say...everything has changed... and as my mother would say "for the good, so close your eyes and jump feet first."

God has truly blessed me with amazing sisters, friends, and a close family. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart a million times over!

Now on to the blog!!!

Salzburg, Austria- home of Mozart, Sound of Music, and Beer Gardens

"The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music..."

I would like to start off by saying, Austria has stolen my heart and I'm okay with that.... I thought I was blown away by Italy, but Austria takes the cake.

The little town of Salzburg, is known for its amazing ability to seem extremly quaint yet at the same time amaze you with its grandeur. You can sit at a small cafe and eat and apple struddle with locals while being completly surrounded by mountains and huge glacier lakes.

We were only it Salzburg for 2 days, so we wanted to take every oppurtunity to see as much as we could....so we quickly decided on the "Sound of Music" tour (hehehe you know me so well). If you are every in Salzburg, I highly recommend this tour, and if you have the Rick Steve's tour book, you get 5 euros off.

For any nonfanatic S.O.M people...the movie was filmed mainly in Salzburg, and many of the iconic locations/sets are still there...(FYI the movie was based on a true story, all the better!)

We saw the VonTrapp house, the gazebo (I am 16 going on 17), the trees where the kids were playing in their curtain made outfits, the field where Maria sang the famous song, Maria's convent, and the church where they married. The tour leads your up a winding mountain while playing music from the movie, I have to admit my eyes were watering at some points.... great tour!

After our tour we bought a Salzburg card (best deal yet!! For 21 euros, this cards gets you into just about every museum/church/gallery, it paid for itself in about 15 minutes of touring)

The following day we shortly napped in the beautiful Mirabelle Gardens, went to Mozart's house, the Archbishop's castle, the Fortress overlooking the city, a marionette museum, a boat tour and ended every day at the beer gardens!

The beer gardens and not highly touristed, its hardly mentioned in any tour books/guides, and its definely a local hangout. If you want to eat, drink and be merry like the locals Austrians, this is your spot!

Oddly enough the buliding usef for the Beer Gardens use to be a church, but they turned it into a huge indoor/outdoor food and beer extraveganza! It opens at 3 and if you get their by 4 you may have a hard time finding a seat....locals bring their own food sometimes, but need not worry because they offer a huge array of authentic Austrian cusine to sample like...(my mouth is watering)

huge salty pretzels, any and all sausages, Goulash,"Steirisches Verhackert's" (Austrian cured ham) mixed with minced garlic and heavy flavored pumpkin seed oil) or "Steirisches Poulard" (roasted herb stuffed capon or chicken)"Serviettenknoedel mit Semmelkren" (baked bread loaf with saffron gravy) and "Gezogener Apfelstrudel" (an almost transparent roll of pastry dough filled with apples which has common culinary roots with oriental "baklava")....to name a few

The local beer is really full and strong, so the locals add a little lemonade to it and it becomes an amazing combination. (Wish we had learned that sooner)

I also recommend, going up to the fortress for sunset and having a slice of their homemade chocolate cake to end the day. And if you looking for any good hostels close to everything, we stayed at YoHo (19 euros a night) clean rooms, hot showers, full bar and restaurant...oh yeah and their co-ed hehehe good times!!

I made friends for a life time, memories to fill the pages of my life, and ate till my hearts content. Austria is amazing, and I hope to someday return and stay a little longer.

Auf Wiedersehen!
("Goodbye!")