Studying Abroad in Austria: Salzburg

Hi everyone! Hope everything is going well back in the states & Australia. Weve had some pretty awesome weather here these last few days. Thursday it was so beautiful and warm I even went for a run! Saturday I went to Salzburg. I absolutely adored it. Linz is great but Salzburg was really something else! I am super obsessed with the sound of music so being there was like a dream come true to me! We did not see many things from the movie due our lack of time and budget but I will tell you what we did see. We first arrived there at 10:00 a.m. It was just slightly more than an hour train ride! When we got there we headed towards the main strip. On our way there we got to see two things. One awesome and one so romantic! The awesome thing was the garden where Julie Andrews and the seven children were running through when singing “Do a deer, a female deer.” I couldn’t believe it!!! We saw the romantic thing when we were crossing over a bridge that was enclosed by a fence. The fence was covered with thousands of locks. We had no idea what it meant but someone in our group knew. He explained to us that the idea originated from an Italian book. Lovers go to the fence, place their lock onto the fence and toss the key over into the river. There love is forever locked. This started in Italy but has made its way all over Europe. I guess its actually illegal on some bridges in places like Italy because the weight of all the locks was impacting the bridge structure. I couldn’t image how many locks were on those bridges. Seeing all those locks was such an amazing thing. Knowing that so many couples were there and locked their love together forever put such a smile on my face. One day Kyle and I can put our lock on the fence with all the others J On the main street we saw so many beautiful shops, where Mozart was born and got a chance to buy Mozartkugel (chocolate balls) from the original place! I bought one to bring home but still haven’t decided who the lucky recipient of it will be J After that we walked through a huge flea market and tasted meats, breads and cheeses! We then kept walking and saw the Salzburg dom Cathedral. It was huge and beautiful! Afterwards we kept walking towards the fortress. We could have paid 11 euro to take the train up to the top and walk around but we all decided were young fit adults and we could walk. TERRIBLE IDEA! I am so sore today! The incline was unbelievable. Once you made it up one incline youd turn the corner and be blessed with the sight of another huge incline. It was never ending. Also it was not paved. It was all gravel which made it very hard to walk well and very slippery on the way down. Although the hike was crazy the view was breathtaking. I could not believe how far and how much I could see. The pictures just don’t do it justice. It was very foggy there yesterday so in the pictures its hard to see the mountains but my goodness! They were gigantic. They had perfect snowcapped peaks and ahh just so beautiful! From one side of the fortress you could overlook the river and the entire downtown area. The second I saw the view I recognized it. It’s the picture on every Salzburg postcard and all the images on google. After the very dangerous hike down it was time for lunch. We went to an Italian restaurant (of course) and had the best lasagna ever! After lunch it was more walking around and exploring. We ended up sitting down by the river for about two hours just enjoying the view and weather. At 6:00 we hopped back on the train and dreadfully headed back home. It was the best thing Ive done yet. I cant wait to continue my travels and share it all with you!

Here is the Garden from the sound of music. The steps Im standing on when I took the picture are the ones they all kept jumping on at the end of the song :)