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Austria Day 2
We woke up the next morning to a nice breakfast made by Miri and her mother which we enjoyed outside. Miri's dad had offered to drive us to our first two destinations of the day. Our first stop was the garden which contained the Sound of Music Pavilion. I was really excited to see this because it's the site of one of my favorite scenes in the movie. The door to the pavilion was locked, but I was still able to walk up to it and look inside it. We then walked through the park a bit and to a mansion attached to the park before hopping back in the car and driving to Leopoldskron Palace. The rear of this palace was used as the back of the Von Trapp mansion in the film. It was used in the well-known scene where Maria and the children fall out of the boat and into the lake. Unfortunately, the palace is a hotel and it's blocked off by gates so there was no way to get to the backyard. Instead, we walked around the lake in the back of the hotel and were able to see it from the other side. Although we couldn't get close, it was still surreal to see that location in real life.
After attempting to find a way to the back of the hotel and failing, we started walking towards the castle that overlooks Salzburg from atop a hill. It was quite the hike to get to the top. The inclines of the walkways felt as if they were nearly vertical. However, once we got to the top and saw the view from the top, it was completely worth the hike. The view was a picture perfect image with Salzburg in the forefront surrounded by green grass and hills, and the majestic snow-covered mountains in the background. I could have stayed up there for days just staring at the beautiful view.
We eventually walked down the steep hills and headed toward Nonnberg Abbey, which is where the real life Maria presented herself as a candidate for the novitiate of the Benedictine Sisterhood, and also where she married Baron von Trapp. In the movie, the abbey was used in the beginning scenes of the film. We couldn't see much into the abbey sadly, but we were at least able to see the tall red steeple and walk around the outside a bit.
We then made our way back down to the center of Salzburg where we would meet up with Miri's sister, cousin, and cousin's girlfriend. They were really nice and spoke quite a bit of English so I was able to easily have conversations with them. We sat and waited out a brief period of rain while enjoying some frozen yogurt. Once the rain subsided after about 20 minutes, we started walking towards another abbey. On the way, we came across another scene used in the Sound of Music which was the Felsenreitschule which was the concert venue where the von Trapp family performed before escaping to Switzerland. Of course, there was no way to get in and actually see the venue, and sadly there had been a tour at 2pm that we didn't know about. I was starting to get a bit disappointed because I was getting so close to all of these locations, but couldn't quite get to them.
The abbey we walked to was St Peter's Abbey. The grounds around the abbey and the outside of the abbey were beautiful, but the inside of the main abbey was under construction so we couldn't see the inside. Miri had read that the catacombs of this abbey were used in the film, so we decided to pay the small fee to go up and explore them. We were very disappointed when we quickly discovered how small the catacombs were, and when we were unable to find the location in the movie. Later on I looked it up and learned that the abbey was actually used as inspiration for that particular scene in the movie, and that the location in the catacombs that I was looking for was in fact a Hollywood set. That made me feel a little better.
Before catching the bus back to Miri's house we stopped at a beer garden for a quick drink. I of course had wine because despite all my time in Ireland, I still hate beer. We said goodbye to Miri's cousin and his girlfriend and then took the bus back to Miri's for dinner. Miri's mom made soup with a bread dumpling, schnitzel, and ice cream crepes. It was so delicious and the schnitzel reminded me a bit of Thanksgiving dinner because the schnitzel itself was made of turkey and they dipped it in a cranberry jam.
While at dinner, Miri's family started talking about the word 'oida' which is constantly used in Vienna, and explaining to us it's meaning. Apparently oida basically means 'dude' and can be used in all sorts of contexts. We had a good laugh trying to practice using it. Miri's brother showed us a video to try and explain the different uses of the word, so here's the link if you're interested, it's pretty funny: https://youtu.be/iuXR53ex4iI
Later that night, I was in Miri's sister's room when I heard music coming from downstairs. I went to see what was going on and was surprised to find Miri's brother playing the accordion. Apparently he has been playing for about 10 years now and he is truly so talented! The music he was playing was beautiful and I could've listened to it all night.
