Wow it has been quite the weekend! This weekend a group of us decided to stay in Salzburg and explore the city. Here are just some of the shenanigans we got ourselves into.

Friday:

Well, Friday was the close of classes for this week. Things seem to be going pretty well for my classes. It’s very interesting in my classes because for Music History 2 I am pretty much doing an independent study. This has been nice because I always get everything in the notes seeing as he is only lecturing to me. I also can ask all of the questions that I want. However, we do a lot of listening and applying worksheets and it would be nice to have someone else to bounce ideas off of. That is one of the only things that I like about group work is that I get to hear other people’s opinion and be challenged.

After classes some of us went out to eat lunch and then decided to take a walk around the area. Well that walk led to us climbing a mountain. You see, Salzburg is set between two mountains and has several others surrounding it; you really can have your pick. At the top of this particular mountain, called Festungsberg, there was a fortress called Festung Hohensalzburg, which literally means Castle Houensalzburg. The construction started in 1077, under the Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein. It is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. It was really just an amazing sight to see. There was just so much history and since it was up so high there were just some absolutely breathtaking views of the city. We explored for a few hours and then we had dinner at a medieval restaurant.

Saturday:

Well Saturday, I went with a group of people and we shamelessly went on the official Sound of Music tour. While I felt like it was somewhat of good tour there were a few things that I think could have been better. I think that the tour guide was amazing, he had a great sense of humor and gave us a lot of information not only on the sites from the movie but also just about Salzburg in general. I do wish thought that we could have spent more time in and around the different sites. We only really got to go into the church that they got married in, in the movie as well as the gazebo they shot the exterior shots from the dance scenes. We just drove past the Von Trapp villa and some of the other places. Overall though, great trip. After the tour we went to lunch near the Mirabell Gardens at a little café. After we had lunch we decided to reserve our tickets for Paris!! I am so excited to visit Paris in a little over a week. I will be looking for some lovely travel suggestions from certain person who spent some time there… ;)

After eating lunch we walked around the city for a good 2 or 3 hours just to explore. We actually started with the idea of making it back to downtown but we got a little lost and then decided to just explore. The great thing about getting lost was that we learned so much about where things are and how to get around. We have almost gotten the buses down so we can go anywhere. We had fun taking pictures at different places and just really experiencing what is available in and around Salzburg!!




I really do hope that you are enjoying reading my blog; I know that I am enjoying sharing my experiences with you!!

Have a lovely day and,

Auf Wiedersehen!!

The first stamp in my passport!!

Wow, so much has happened I don’t even really know where to start… I guess from the very beginning, I’ve heard it’s a very good place to start!

I started my trip off at the airport, how novel! Things were going rather smoothly and then I went through security. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that my carry-on bag had to be scanned three times because I had too many books and they “couldn’t see through them.” I never thought in my life that having too many books would be detrimental. So anyway after that things started to go rather well. Both of the flights were very smooth and I was feeling pretty good. One of my favorite parts of the traveling was just sitting in the terminal people watching. There were people coming and going from so many places and it was fun to just think about what their stories were. I have also noticed while I have been here that when you people watch, they watch back at you, where we just pretend to not see them! And no, I am not creepy when I people watch I am very sneaky! ☺

Here is an airplane tidbit, a large airplane ( like the one I flew on from Atlanta to Munich) flies at 55 miles a gallon. I was rather impressed with that fact!

After finally landing in Munich, the jet lag was starting to really get to me because at that point I had been up and traveling for about 19 hours and it was still 7:30 in the morning in Munich! I promised myself though to not sleep until the sun went down. We then road a bus for a little over an hour and finally made it to Salzburg. Our hotel is a quaint little place and the woman running the place is just the sweetest! She speaks a little English but really helps us when we try to use German. For our first day in Salzburg we really just set up in our rooms and started to realize that our computers were not connecting to the Wifi that we were promised… That is when we started to realize that something was amiss. It turns out that we actually needed Ethernet cords to connect to the Internet. So I was not able to write and let people know that I was safe and sound. You know its funny; you don’t realize how much you miss something until you absolutely can’t have it. I don’t really miss not having a cell phone, it’s an adjustment but I am dealing just fine with it. However, not having Internet was just something that I didn’t know how to deal with. I just wanted to be able to connect with people in some way. So now here I am connecting! ☺ As you can probably tell, now everything is fine.

Well other than some wiener schnitzel and pom fritz at a local traditional restaurant, that was my first day in Salzburg!

Today I woke up feeling more rested and much better than the two days before. Seeing the city with more brain functionality was so wonderful! I loved that I could actually see how beautiful the city is. Today we also had our first classes. I will be starting the day at 8 with Form and Analysis and then having Music History 2 at 12. While it is quite early, I am very glad to be able to my classes taken care of so that I can enjoy the rest of the day! I think that classes will go pretty well. Tonight a group of friends and I went to explore the city by ourselves for the first time which actually went quite well! The local public bus system is very nice and easy to use. So refreshing!

Well I will have to leave you with this now and go do some reading for Music History. I hope that you enjoyed my blog and I hope to write again soonish.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The day has finally come!

Well today I will be leaving!! I have awoken bright and early at 5:00 a.m. (not necessarily by choice but I couldn't sleep!) to get ready to drive to the airport. I am so excited for what awaits me today! I have checked and both of my flights are on time... so far. I don't anticipate anything going wrong and I look for a smooth trip! (Knocks on wood...) I am looking forward to what is ahead and I hope to post when I get there to let you all know I am safe. Well I think this is going to be it for now, time to get ready!!

Thanks so much for following my blog and I hope to keep you interested... ;)

Auf Wiedersehen!!

One Week!

Well, its officially one week from when I will land on the soil of beautiful Salzburg, Austria. I am busy planning and getting ready for this big trip. I have read about the country and have made my lists of things that I would like to do. There are still many things that I am sure I am forgetting that I need to accomplish before next Monday. Today I finally recieved the last of my books that I will be taking with me for my classes. I tell you what, that was a great relief. The last thing I wanted to do was be in a foreign country and gasp, unprepared for class!! ;)

One definite goal for this week is to continue to plug away at learning my German. Here are a few phrases that I am mastering:

Grüß Gott -- Hello or God's Blessings

Ich heisse Caroline -- My name is Caroline.

Entschuldigung -- Excuse me.

Hilfe!! -- Help!! ( You never know, I might need it... I hope not!! ;) )

Or if all else fails...

Sprechen Sie Englisch? -- Do you speak English?

Well I hope that you have enjoyed my first blog entry!! I hope to provide a little humor and light to you day.

Until the next time...

Auf Wiedersehen!!