I Have Confidence...I Will Get Out of Germany

Hi everyone. Make sure you go to the bathroom, get a snack, or get anything else you might need because this is going to be a long one...

I haven't updated this a week because of crazy amounts of work and my first big adventure outside of The Netherlands. However, lets go back to Thursday...

The day started with some frantic packing for Austria as well as last minute reading for World Drama. I went to class where we had a pop quiz (Honestly...Since when does Emerson give pop quizzes?? Actually since when does Emerson give quizzes period??). After the quiz we watched a video of a Dutch version of the play "Ajax." Our professor Emille then used the wonderful phrase "And then Ajax suicided himself..." I love the language barrier for exactly those reasons.

After class, Blake and I ran to the bus stop to catch the 6:30 bus from Well to Venlo. The night before we had talked to Sun ah (One of the women who works here) about how to get from Venlo to Salzburg. She told us we did not need to book a reservation for the overnight train because no one is going to be traveling on a Thursday night. So we were supposed to take the train from Venlo to Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf to Munich. Munich to Salzburg. We got the train from Venlo to Dusseldorf and then tried to book the overnight from Dusseldorf to Munich once we were there. However, the woman at the counter told us that we had to book the train 24 hours in advance, but we might be able to get on if we wait at the platform and ask the conductor. We waited for the train and asked the conductor if there was anymore room. He literally laughed in our faces and told us, very rudely, that the train has been booked for a while because Oktoberfest is going on in Munich (PS since when does something called Oktoberfest take place in September...Please explain that to me). So basically we were screwed...We went back into the station and tried to figure something out. We figured out we could get get a train from Dusseldorf to Koln and then Koln to Munich and Munich to Salzburg. We reserved seats for those trains, but the problem was once we were in Koln, we had 4 hours before the train for Munich came...So basically we spent our entire night in various train stations in Germany. But when we arrived in Koln, we looked up, and could see one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. We walked around Koln, Germany for about 20 minutes and then went back to the McDonalds in the train station because it was the only place we could find with seats that were not disgusting looking.

When we sat down, we started to notice something odd about the couple across the way from us. They were probably in their 40s and when I say they were making out, I mean they were MAKING OUT. It was disgusting...

After a while, we realized that we needed to use the bathroom, however Europe is horrible and makes you pay money EVERYWHERE if you want to pee. Basically we just held it in until we got on a train because we are too poor to waste 1 Euro on a gross bathroom.

We finally got on a train to Munich which took about 6 hours (I forget exactly how long it was but somewhere around that long). I was PASSED out on the train. Apparently all these people kept coming up to us and telling us we were in the wrong seats, but I did not hear any of them. Blake had a really long conversation with this man on the train and I think I saw him for about two minutes before I passed out again. After some sleep on the train we arrived in Munich where we hopped on the next train for Salzburg. Once we arrived in Salzburg, everything was worth it. It started out by getting the kids menu at some place in Salzburg for 2.50 Euro. That included a sandwich, croissant and apple juice.

Then we hopped on this local train for a 4 minute ride to Haus Christine, our hostel. Now when I say hostel...I mean gorgeous bed and breakfast. We found it on hostelworld.com, but it was anything but a hostel. We had our own private room with its own shower, free breakfast in the morning, and a window that looked out onto the Swiss Alps and the city of Salzburg. All for only 18 Euros a night (Thats about...$27). The only bad part was we had to walk up this ENORMOUS hill to get there...But it was worth it.

After taking showers, we decided to wander around the city for a little bit. We found this theatre that had some show going on that night and we went inside to ask about tickets. The woman working there said if we got there a half hour before the show we could get tickets for 4 euro (About $6). There was still a few hours before then, but we told he would would come back and try and get tickets then. As we continued walking around, we kept seeing different places that we recognized from the opening of The Sound of Music. One of them was this huge fortress on top of a hill overlooking the city. We decided to try and find a way to get up there. After walking in that direction for about 10 or 15 minutes we found these stairs that looked like they went up there. We climbed up them (Later on we found out there are about 140 stairs or something like that). After climbing the stairs we found this church at the top. I started thinking "Hmm...I think I have seen this before...Wait a minute...THIS IS THE ABBEY!" I started freaking out and could not believe that I was actually there. We never made it to the fortress, but we walked down the hill by going through a really nice residential neighborhood.

By the time got to the bottom we were getting hungry, so we looked for a place to eat. We ended up at this little cafe called Balthazars. It was pretty cheap and had these incredible sandwiches. It was honestly one of the most delicious sandwiches I have ever had in my life. On top of that the waiter/owner of this place was so nice. We started talking to him for a little bit, and then somehow we started talking to this man who lived in the apartment building next door.

His name is Lyman and he is from California originally. He used to be a teacher at UCLA. He married an Austrian woman and moved to Austria 20 some odd years ago. While we were talking to him he said that Salzburg used to be a big tourist spot because of Mozart's birthplace, but over the past few decades it has thousands and thousands of tourists coming there for The Sound of Music (Which incidentally was never shown in Austria until recently). We told him that that was the reason we were there and he told us that he knows where all thirty something filming locations are, and told us he would show some of them to us. Although we really wanted to see that show, we decided to skip it so he could show us around. Not gonna lie, at first I was a little nervous because people always tell you not to trust people in Europe because they might kill you, but we were talking to him for a while before hand, and he is completely harmless and turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.

We started off by walking to one of three von Trapp houses. There is the real von Trapp house (Never seen in the movie) which is not located in Salzburg but actually in one of the suburbs. Then there is the house they used for the backyard (The gazebo was built there, the place the kids play ball with the Barrenness, the yard the kids run through when Maria comes back from the Abby and the lake they all fall into), and then there is the house they used for all the exterior shots of the house (The driveway she walks down while singing "I Have Confidence" the back of the house, etc). That was our first stop. It is now used as housing for students in the Mozarteum (One of the most elite music schools in world, right behind Julliard). We got to walk down the driveway, and even go inside.

After the first house, we started on our way to go to the second house used for filming. We saw the lake the children fell in, the spot where gazebo used to be (It was built for the movie, and left behind as a gift. But after the movie was released the owners of the house got annoyed at people coming and trespassing on their property to take pictures of it, so it was moved to another area of Salzburg. In front of the gates to house was a big sign that said PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING. However, Lyman told us that he was a fellow of the school that currently owns the property and took us in. We walked around the grounds and then went inside. There was a wedding reception going on inside, so we didn't get a great view, but we could see the room that the ballroom was based off of. This room was too small to film in, so they made it 3 times as big on a Hollywood sound stage, but the design was almost identical. By the time we were done with that it was getting late and we were both very tired. But we told Lyman we wanted to take him out for a drink the next day to thank him for everything. We said goodbye and then went back to our "hostel" and went to sleep.

We woke up around 7:30 the next morning, showered, ate breakfast and then a van picked us up to take the Sound of Music bus tour. I have to explain just how hokey and cheesy this was. The bus was covered in an enormous painting of Julie Andrews and the children. The tour guide was this overly enthusiastic British woman, and the entire time they played various songs from the soundtrack or the bonus features on the 40th anniversary DVD (Which by the way kept skipping...I think they are making enough money from stupid tourists like us that they can afford a new DVD). The thing that took the cake though was when they played "16 going on 17" the line "You wait little girl on an empty stage for fate to turn the light on" they literally turned all the lights on the bus during that line...

Even though I am glad we took the tour because we got to see things we wouldn't have been able to see on our own, I am even more glad that we met Lyman the night before. The bus started off by taking you to the lake the children and Maria fall into. The tour guide told everyone that there is no way to get inside the house because it is private property. Blake and I just sort of glanced over at each other and gave each other a smile that said "Ha ha we got to go in." Then they went to take us to the yellow house they used for the exterior shots. When I say they took you to the house, I mean there is the house, and then a road, and then a corn field and then another road. The bus drove down that second road where you could see the house for maybe 10 seconds and it was the size of a quarter. Again, we laughed because we got to see it.

Then the bus took us to where the gazebo is now. It is just in some random spot of Salzburg, and the doors are locked because a few years ago an 80 year old woman tried to recreate the choreography from 16 going on 17 by jumping from bench to bench, and broke her hip...After the gazebo, we drove past the hill where the Abbey is, but not even go close to it. Then we drove about 40 minutes outside the city to go to another village called Mondsee. This is where the church is that Maria and the Captain get married in the movie (In real life they got married at the abbey but it was too small to film in). It was a very cute village and a gorgeous church.

After Mondsee we drove back into Salzburg and ended up at Mirabell Gardens which is where they shot a lot of Do Re Mi (The stairs, that big fountain, etc). After the tour was over Blake and I wanted to find the spot from Do Re Mi where the kids and Maria are standing on those steps overlooking Salzburg. We asked the tour guide where it was and she pointed us in the direction. It is next to the Modern Art Museum on top of yet another cliff. There was an elevator that could take you up there, but you had to pay 3 or 4 euro to get up there. We said screw that, and found the stairs instead. Now when I say stairs, I mean STAIRS. I don't know how many exactly, but there had to be at least 200 or 250 stairs. We were sweating by the time we got up there, but we found the spot and looked at the gorgeous view.

We then booked it back to Balthazars to meet Lyman. When we got there, he gave us each a candy bar and a map of Vienna. We left there at around 3 to catch our train at 3:24. We looked at the time and we had about 5 minutes to get to our train, and we were about 10 minutes away. We started running to the train station. Our bags were really heavy and I felt like I was going to pass out by the time we got there. Luckily the train was delayed 5 minutes so we were able to get it.

We went from Salzburg to Vienna. It took a few hours but everything went smoothly. We found our hostel, which was a legit hostel. 8 people in one room. It was kind of gross, but not too bad. We found somewhere to eat, and then went to bed early. Sunday morning we woke up early and walked around Vienna for a few hours. We started off in a really trashy part of the city that left us very unimpressed. But then we kept walking and found the Vienna that everyone always talks about it. Everything was really pretty, but we only had a few hours to walk around. At noon we had to catch our train back home. We were supposed to go from Vienna to Numberg, Numberg to Duseldorf, Dusseldorf to Venlo. Venlo to Well. Everything went fine until we got to Numberg. We found out the last train from Dusseldorf to Venlo left one minute before we got to Dusseldorf. However there was nothing we could do and we figured our train might be early and the train to Venlo might be late and can still make it. However our train was 10 minutes late, so we were stuck in Dusseldorf. We called the castle and Sun Ah gave us the name of this hostel for 25 euros a night that two girls stayed at the night before when the same thing happened to them. We got to the hostel and passed out, woke up about 4 hours later, ran over to the train station and caught the first train back to Venlo and the bus back to Well. We didn't get back here until 8am on Monday morning, but I was just glad we were back. I wanted to fall asleep, but I had to finish some work for my class later in the day. I ended up taking about a 10 minute nap and then went to class from 2:30-9. It was really hard staying awake, but it ended up being a really great class, so it was fine.

Overall the weekend was incredible and I am glad we went. I just really exhausted and hate German train stations. Oh well, I live in a castle.