I am 26 going on 27

Me (as in 'me, a name I call myself') paying tribute to the greatest movie-musical of all time


So last weekend, I finally made my triumphant return to Salzburg, Austria after several weeks of debate. My main point of hesitation was, of course, the currency and affordability of said venture. The Czech crown (and the American dollar, for that matter) doesn't hold up so strong against the Euro, which is (by far) the most annoying foreign currency I've ever encountered. This tends to limit how much Western European travel an English teacher earning a modest Czech salary can accomplish. Sigh, how I long for those days when Germany had its marks and Austria had its schillings!

So I decided some time ago that I was going to limit my travels in Western Europe to countries where I either had family (i.e. Germany) or places that I REALLY wanted to visit. Austria happened to top the list of those places and, unfortunately, those Salzburg hills were alive and well with the sound of Euros! So, it was decided, Curtis was going to be a BUDGET if it killed him. Heck, I lived in NYC for four years, so I'd been through tighter financial circumstances. Hence, I found a cheap hostel and made my highly-anticipated Salzburg pilgrimage. And I'm happy to say that I certainly didn't regret it!

I boarded a 6:00 a.m. train out of Prague on Saturday. One of the best parts of the trip was the train ride itself. Once we got outside the Prague boundaries and into the southern parts of Bohemia, the train sped through flower-filled valleys, dense forests and picturesque mountain villages. I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep a wink! Once I arrived in Salzburg, my first stop was Schloss Mirabell and its beautiful gardens, which were in spectacular full bloom.


On Sunday, I acheived my lifetime goal of taking the official "Sound of Music" tour! We started off bright and early, at 9:00 a.m., first visiting both of the 2 locations that were used as the Von Trapp home in the movie and Liesl and Rolf's "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo. After that, we went to two small towns outside of the city, Mondsee and Wolfgangsee, which feature the heart-stopping vistas as seen in the opening and closing scenes. Mondsee is also home to the cathedral where the wedding of Captain Von Trapp and Maria was filmed. These were by far two of the most incredibly beautiful places I'd ever visited...flowering meadows, ice-blue lakes and sweeping views of the Alps above. Our guide also pointed out miscelleanous sites along the way, some of which I tracked down on my own afterward (Nonnberg Abbey, for example, where scenes for "I Have Confidence" and "Maria" were shot, and where the real Maria served as a postulant nun before her post as governess to the seven Von Trapp children).

A few little-known facts: for example, the real-life events of 13 years are condensed into the musical, which is set over the course of a single year. Christopher Plummer HATES the movie and now refers to it as "The Sound of Mucus." The actress who played Gretl Von Trapp almost drowned during the filming. And the real Von Trapp family didn't actually climb through the Alps to flee Nazi-occupied Austria, they simply boarded an Italy-bound train! (I was SO sad to learn that one...sigh, the magic of Hollywood!)

All striking of iconic Julie Andrews poses aside, I have to say that Salzburg is officially one of my favorite European cities. It's like a little Valentine tucked into the snow-covered Alps. Of course I also took some time to explore the city and enjoy the other sites, too. The baroque architecture is just amazing. And the best part was that the weather was perfect! I wore a T-shirt and shorts for the whole weekend. I had some initial reservations about travelling alone, but I found that I was able to meet a lot of interesting people at the hostel. My roommate was an Australian backpacker and the place was swarming with Brits. I gave them all my contact info in case they come to Prague as well.