the hills are alive with the sound of music

i just got back a few hours ago from salzburg, and i can say with complete confidence it is one of the most beautiful places i've ever been to. whenever i told anyone i was going there, they all told me it was amazing and i was going to love it, but i've heard that about so many places that it doesn't really mean anything to me anymore. i've gotten used to the natural beauty of hawaii and the beautiful city life of vegas, but salzburg was completely different. the architecture is different than that of vienna or prague or any other european city i've seen. it seems more genuine, it's as if the city was built with love and is still filled with a sense of goodness that seems to be missing from most other cities.

i went with five other girls and we were there for two nights, three days. when we first arrived we did the sound of music tour and although i hadn't seen the movie in years, i enjoyed going to see the gardens, the house, the gazebo, the church where they got married, etc. our tour guide was so sweet, dressed up and everything. when we were visiting the church in mondsee, we asked someone to take our picture and the girl was from vegas too - she graduated 2010 from durango; small world.

we saw a lot of guys wearing lederhosen, and i loved it. most places have traditional clothes, but it seems as if they're only worn on special occasions or for the tourists. we saw plenty of gentlemen, young and old, walking around the city in the traditional pants and it was golden.

we also took a tour of the salt mines that gave salzburg its name. on the way up there we made plenty of stops and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the snow filled mountains. our tour guides were incredible: andy and walter. the trip wouldn't have been the same without them - they let us stop and throw snowballs at each other in the mountains and put up with us for the entire day. they even wore lederhosen, so what more could you ask for? ;]

we saw the hotel where knight and day was filmed, walked on the mozart bridge, saw mozart's birthplace and one of his flats, and to be honest, i think i've had enough mozart for the rest of this semester. he's a great guy, but there's a lot more to austria than just mozart. although the mozart kuglen are some of the best chocolates i've ever tasted in my life..

the most beautiful part of the city was hands down the hohensalzburg fortress, which i wasn't expecting at all. it's in the middle of the city and was founded in 1077. from the outside it looks rather plain, no extravagant architecture or design, but with it being a fortress and all, it makes sense. i've walked through far too many castles, palaces, forts and museums to be able to remember one from the other, but i can't see myself confusing this one with anywhere else. it was enormous, very well designed and it contained so much history in it. we saw the torture rooms, the salt room, the archbishop's residence, etc., but the most amazing part of this entire trip was going to the observation deck. you can see the entire city - the snow covered mountains, the green fields, the pointed roofs, the bridges, the trees - everything. it was so serene, so unreal, it felt as if i was standing in a postcard. it didn't suddenly turn into desert and there wasn't an ocean to cut anything off.  you were able to see the life of the city, the life of nature, extending far into the distance.

all the famous places we went to and all the well known landmarks we saw were of course beautiful, but that's not what made salzburg so great. it's small - about 150,000 people - and has this sense of calmness that i haven't experienced in a city in a long time, if ever. it's different than the laid back island lifestyle of hawaii and doesn't even come close to comparing to vegas. people don't seem to be rushing to get anywhere. the weather was absolutely beautiful the last two days we were there and people had time to sit in the square and enjoy coffee. they had time to play a few games of chess, to walk around and let the sun dance on their skin. they had the time to ride their bikes by the river, to read a book, write in their journals. there wasn't the sound of cars honking and police sirens going off, there was no faint sound of people arguing, and that silence is something i haven't heard in a while.

it was an amazing trip with a group of amazing people - i wouldn't have wanted it any other way. walking through the city allowed me to reflect on things that i'm usually too busy for. not just self reflection, but i was able to really reflect on and connect with the history that thrives everywhere in europe. it has never been so clear to me that people walked on those streets hundreds of years ago, that they took protection in that fort, they danced on those fields and made it up those mountains.

i have no doubt i'll be returning to salzburg, hopefully in the very near future.

"the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-marcel proust