The hills are alive...

Whew! What a weekend!
 This weekend I experienced a wide range of things – all very new to me!

 We left Wednesday morning for Salzburg, Austria. It was hard to contain myself as our train pulled up and the snow-capped mountains greeted us in the distance! I have been to Salzburg before, so I was extremely excited to return. We were only going to be there for one day, so I knew I had to pack it all in (which seems to be my general style of life!:) ). We first climbed up to the fortress. The whole group that I was with wanted to go inside, but I didn’t want to dish out the money for it – so I ended up wandering by myself for two hours. It was invigorating and a wonderful time to gather my thoughts! I found these beautiful, wooded trails up above the city that would have occasional views of the city. It was breath taking and I could have wandered forever! I came down from the mountain eventually and relived some memories – the graveyard from a scene in the Sound of Music, the cathedral we gave a concert in last time we were there, etc. It was fun to reminisce by myself for awhile! Things in old town Salzburg shut down pretty early, so that night a few of us played an intense game of phase 10 in our awesome hostel (really!) and called it a night. The next morning I enjoyed a long run around the river of Salzburg, all the while catching glimpses of the mountains and the fortress *sigh*…

 The next day we all took a tour of Mozart’s birth house. I have been here before, but last time did not go inside. It was really need to see his tiny apartment, some instruments, and other things. We had about an hour and ½ before we had to catch our train, so a couple of girls and I set off to find the gardens from the sound of Music (Mirabelle Gardens). We soon did, and they were beautiful! But shortly, our time in Salzburg was over, and we were off to Vienna!

 My time in Vienna is really a blur. That city contains SO much, it’s hard to take it all in. But some of the highlights included seeing the Vienna Symphony play in the Vienna Opera House, visiting another, much more in depth Mozart house museum (3 floors with a guided audio tour), the Haydn house, the cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Strauss, and Mozart were buried, attending another flea market where I found another collection item (again – check out the pictures to find out what this treasure was!), a tour of the State’s Opera house, a crazy night of museum-hopping (where I discovered there actually IS some art that I enjoy. Who would have thought!), and a lot of quality time with my wonderful friends. Another fun fact is that on the way home we had about an hour and 15 minutes layover in Munich! My friend Rachel and I decided that we wanted to quickly run out and see what we could! We ventured out a little ways and found one big area of the Oktoberfest still going on. It was the last day of the HUGE festival. There were people EVERYWHERE in their liederhosen, funny hats, and overall just lots of chaos. We ran around the area for about 20 minutes before booking it back to the train station. But I'm glad to say I experienced it for a bit! After that, we were home bound! I could go into so much detail about it the whole trip , but hopefully the pictures will help you get a bigger picture of things I saw and did, and will probably be more fun than my words ☺

 The trip was a blast, but I am learning that travel truly is tiring. We got home pretty late Sunday night, and had to completely move all of our belongings that we stored in a closet back into our rooms. But now, we are here for good – any long travel weekends that we do from here on out is on our own, so we aren’t forced to pack up everything again. Although the trip was quite tiring, I don’t really have time to be tired, because I am leaving in a day and ½ for another 5 days! But this trip I am EXTREMELLY excited about. I am off to see the other European Grove girl! It’s a quick turn around (I didn’t realize that when I originally booked my flight! Oh well!), but I can not wait to see Sarah and have some adventures TOGETHER!

 Although I am loving living in the moment here, I often find myself wondering how life is 7 (or 9 for the Californian's) hours behind me, so thanks to those of you that have taken time to email. It is so comforting to know that I am being thought of even when far away, and love seeing something personal in my inbox! Oh! And a special thanks to my wonderful friend Holly for sending a POSTCARD! I’m pretty sure I was radiant for a few hours after seeing mail with my name on it! Thanks Holls :) 

 Well I am off again...until next time!

PICTURES!