Salzburg Part 1

Hello everyone!

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, I haven't had time to breath since I got back to campus!

So, Friday morning we headed off to Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music. When we arrived we, of course, went straight to Mass at Franziscuse Kirche (I probably butchered the spelling on that) which means St. Francis Church. I was exhausted to the point that my friend thought I fell asleep during the homily, but I didn't! I couldn't have fallen asleep during that homily because the auxiliary bishop saying the Mass went up to the pulpit and said "Usually during the homily the priest talks about the Gospel but today I'm going to talk about the Gospel of Life." And so, despite my closed eyes, I was paying close attention for the next 10 minutes (well for the rest of the Mass too, obviously, but my eyes were only closed during the homily). And at the end of the Mass we were informed that the Bishop is well known throughout Austria for his pro-life work! Which is interesting because before I left the U.S. I had been informed that "the Austrian Church is in complete disarray" and to be careful when going to Mass outside the Kartause. But Franciscan seems to have discovered all the orthodox priests and bishops in Austria and gotten them to say Mass for us! Cuz that's just what Franciscan does :-)

After Mass we headed to lunch at the restaurant Sternbrau. I sat with my friends Amy and Ari and with Sr. Jean Paul. We had a lovely meal and conversation during which we discovered that the neck warmer I had made also makes a lovely ear warmer.

Once we finished lunch we headed off on our tour of old Salzburg. We first saw Mozart's house which is on this really cool street where every shop has to have a sign hanging from their store with the name of the store or a picture of what they sell because in the middle ages a lot of people couldn't read and so shops would hang out signs with, for example, a shoe if it was a shoe store, or some sort of picture of the kind of items that the shop sold. And so, it is now law in Austria that, to preserve this cultural symbol, all the shops on this one street have to have these cool signs hanging on their shops. It even made McDonald's look classy. We also saw the smallest house in Austria and several cool statues, although, due to the nasty weather, all the statues are covered with giant translucent cones during the winter because they are hundreds of years old and after a couple years of snow, sleet, and rain they would be seriously damaged. It's ok though cuz I'm going back to Salzburg in the spring when they'll all be uncovered. One sight that I was very sorry was covered was the fountain that Maria splashes in The Sound of Music. The very top of it was uncovered but the bottom with the horses and everything was under a big wooden covering.

We then headed to Mozartplatz where there is a big statue of Mozart across from Cafe Demel where Mozart ate, numerous literary societies were formed, and which is the home of Empress Maria Theresa's favorite dessert. We then saw the Cathedral next to Mozartplatz which Mozart composed several of his compositions for. In front of the Cathedral is a statue of the Blessed Mother. The position of this statue allows it to appear that Our Lady is wearing a crown that is placed on the Cathedral.

When looking to the right of the Cathedral one sees a large hill on top of which is an old fortress. This fortress has never been captured. The closest it came was when the Turks attacked (as they often do) and all the people of Salzburg fled to the fortress. Unfortunately their entire supply of provisions consisted of one cow. So they took the cow outside one day and paraded him around the fortress. They then painted the cow red so that it looked like a red bull and paraded it around again. They then took it back and painted it brown. Then black, then white, etc. So the Turks, who had already completely taken over the town, saw all these cows parading around the fortress and said wow, they've got tons of provisions, there's no way we can starve them out, so they packed up and went home. They had already won and they just forfeited!

We also saw the oldest statue in Salzburg. It's a small statue of a lion and it's survived all kinds of invasions and bombing raids.

We then visited a smaller Church where St. Rupert is buried. We then walked through the Salzburg cemetery and saw the spot where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps. Except it's not really where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps because they made a replica of it in Hollywood which is where it was filmed.

After our tour we checked in to the hostel. Amy, Ari, and I were rooming together. After we put our stuff in our room we headed out for our own Salzburg excursion. We first stopped at an outdoor display where they had elephant hats which naturally reminded me of the Republican party. So I of course took some pictures with it.

We then headed over to the Salzburg outdoor market. We saw lots of cool stuff in the market most exciting of which were the real Austrian clocks - like the ones in Pinocchio with the people dancing and chopping wood and all that. I really wanted to buy one but they were kind of expensive. Maybe if I have any money left at the end of the semester I'll splurge.

We then passed some shops, one of which was a hat shop. I love hats. So Ari and I dragged Amy with us into the shop where we proceeded to try on all the hats we could get our hands on. Ari purchased a beautiful beret which looks incredibly adorable on her! I discovered a beautiful cloche hat which I was seriously considering buying. The lady who owned the shop then pulled down a 1920's inspired hat which I tried on. The first hat caught 25 euro. When I asked the lady how much the second hat was she said "I can give you both for 30." So naturally I bought both and Ari and I left in terrible happiness with our new hats. Interestingly enough one of the few German phrases I know is "Ich haben einen hutte" (I'm not sure about the spelling) which means "I have a hat."

We then headed back to the hostel and picked up dinner on the way. In Austria kabobs are a delicious and inexpensive meal. Now kabobs, contrary to popular belief, are not shish-kabobs. They're kind of like gyros but better. Except I don't really know cuz I've never had a gyro but kabobs are delicious!

We then stopped back at the hostel before heading out for a lovely little concert. The concert was held in a palace that I can't remember the name of but it was beautiful. The Twins Quartet played some beautiful music and I kind of felt like a princess cuz I was in a beautiful palace listening to classical music.

We then headed back to the hostel and collapsed from exhaustion :-)