The hills are alive, with the sound of muuuuuuuuuuusic

Gack! I have been terrible at updating lately! To think I haven't updated since Grindelwald! Shocking. Anyway, I am in Vienna at the moment. Terrible weather, but the city is lovely. But before I go on about that, Salzburg!

I arrived in Salzburg at around 10 p.m. after ten (!) hours on the train, and five transfers. I don't know what it is about travelling, but it takes more out of me than a day of hiking did. I arrived at my hostel (the Yoho International Hostel) and I was tuckered out, so I took a shower and went to bed. I also finished my book (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha) and started the one I bought in Grindelwald. It's called The White Spider and it was the only English book I had seen in a while. I was also trying to use up my Swiss francs. Anyway, it is about the history of mountaineering on the North face of the Eiger mountain, and it's pretty intense. A lot of people have died trying to climb that part of the mountain, some of them in really agonizing ways. Not a typical Kristi book, but I'm getting quite into it.

Anyway, back to Salzburg. I really only had one full day there, but that was fine because I basically had one main objective in going there in the first place: The Sound of Music tour. I was warned of the kitsch and the cheese, and frankly I didn't care. I had my heart set on it and I wasn't disappointed. They took us to all the locations in and around Salzburg where the film was set. We saw the palace they used as the exterior front and back of the Von Trapp estate, as well as the exterior they used for the back yard of the estate (you remember, with the lake). We saw the park and bridge where they sang "Doe a Deer" and the church where they got married in the film. We also had a singalong on the bus. I think I can safely say it was the cheesiest thing I have done on this trip, but also one of the most magical. I also met three girls from my hostel on the tour, and we hung out for supper and then agreed to get together the next morning to go to the Mozart residence and the Mozart museum. Two of the girls were Australian flutists who were having a lesson with the lead flutist for the Vienna Philharmonic. Pretty cool. Anyway, I left that afternoon for Vienna and arrived (exhausted) in the rain.

More on Vienna later. I'm going to publish this now, but I will come back and edit once I have the pictures from the tour uploaded onto the computer.