The hills were alive today in Salzburg. I honestly think that my dad was more excited about this excursion than I was considering how much he loves the Sound of Music. Before this trip I never really had much desire to go to Salzburg. As Austria goes I’ve always been more interested in Vienna as a travel destination. This little side trip definitely sparked my interest in the city, as it was phenomenally gorgeous and full of history.
What I was excited about before leaving was that we would be in the Alps. I am a self-admitted mountain girl, outdoorsy as they come. The Alps have been on my bucket list for quite some time. Even though I didn’t get to do all that I would have liked to in them like hiking and skiing and such, it was nice just to be in the fresh mountain air for a while and surrounded by their beauty.
First, we were led on a walking tour through the city. We visited the garden are where one of the scenes of the Sound of Music was filmed. It was neat to see in person because I grew up watching that movie frequently. It was also absolutely beautiful, lush and intricately designed. In an interesting turn of events, horrible for the photographers in the group, there was a man fishing around in one of the fountains for coins people had thrown in. That is something I always find noteworthy to remember when traveling. We tend to always think the grass is greener on the other side but even in these idealized tourist destinations there is poverty and hunger. To me, that is always sobering and eye opening.
We then continued our tour through the old section of the city. Although it was rainy and cold outside, it was still pretty cool to walk through such an old and historic city with such an interesting perspective on events like World War I and II. It was very similar to Germany in some aspects, the language obviously and some of the food. The one thing I noticed to be the most different was that the people have more of a laid-back mountain attitude than Germans do in Berlin and Munich. They seem to be much more go-with-the-flow and easy going, which was somewhat of a relief from the more hard-nosed, serious Germans.
We finished our trip to Austria off with a meal that was equally relieving: chicken. I haven’t seen chicken for as long as we have been in Europe and I have never been more excited to have a piece of poultry set on my plate before. I don’t eat a lot of meat typically so Germany has been a shock to my system. Even when I do eat meat it is only ever fish and poultry, never red meat, which the Germans are very fond of. This meal was a welcome change to my hearty diet as of the last few weeks.
Austria was good to us and I can definitely see the draw to this beautiful mountainous country. It certainly has a lot to offer to any traveller.
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