The Amazing Race - Day 7 / Mes Rêves #17

 #17: Visit a significant movie site of a movie filmed in Europe (I'm not really sure what this means, but I think I'll know it when I see it) ✓

I originally made this goal with The Sound of Music in mind, but I didn't imagine I would have the chance to make it over to Salzburg. And now here I am.

First of all, some sad news about The Sound of Music - the hill and lake scenes were not filmed in Salzburg, they were filmed 28 km away. So get rid of any ideas you had about singing The Hills Are Alive as you run around the hills. Other than that, it is very easy to get to the sites around Salzburg.

1. Mirabell Gardens: these are found in the city center near Mirabellplatz. This is where parts of Do-Re-Mi were filmed. Highlights include the tunnel they run through and the Pegasus fountain.

2. Catch Bus 25 from Mirabellplatz to Schloss Hellbrunn. (Cost: €2.30)

Schloss Hellbrunn is the current home of the pavilion where Sixteen Going On Seventeen happened, as well as Something Good. Unfortunately they locked it a couple of years ago because someone got hurt trying to recreate The Sound of Music, so now all you can do is see the gazebo in a place that wasn't even in the movie. But it's still pretty cool.

3. Walk to Schloss Frohnburg (about 50 minutes)

Schloss Frohnburg was used as the front of the Von Trapp house because the front of the other house is completely obstructed by trees. The path leading up the the house is also the one where Maria sings part of I Have Confidence.

4. Walk to Schloss Leopoldskron (about one hour)

This was used as the back of the Von Trapp house - this is where the kids fell off the boat and where Uncle Max ate schnitzel, among other things.

5. Walk back to the city center and up to Nonnberg Abbey (50 minutes if you don't get lost, 1 hour 15 if you do)

This was the basis for the abbey in the movie, but in reality they filmed most of these scenes in a studio. One of the only things this site was used for is when the kids come to the gate to try and visit Maria.

6. Walk to Residenzplatz (15 minutes)

This is where Maria sings the other part of I Have Confidence, most importantly when she splashes the horse fountain thing.

And there you have it - my own Sound of Music tour around Salzburg. I have headphones in most of the pictures because I was listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack on repeat the whole day. I finished the day by watching The Sound of Music... again.

The Amazing Race - Day 6

"The Hangover"

I don't know how drunk people do it. After my night at the bar and three hours of sleep, I felt like death, and all I had been drinking was apple juice. I can't even imagine what a real hangover feels like.

Lucky for me, today was another travel day. I made my way from Vienna to Salzburg via Grunau.

You've never heard of Grunau? Me neither, which is why I completely ignored it as a potential stopping point on my trip. My guide was determined to try and convince the three of us on the bus (yep, same three from my first trip) to change our plans and stay in Grunau. At first I thought she was crazy. But then we started driving through Grunau. And then we stopped at the hostel for lunch. And then I found out you can rent horses from the hostel. They hand you a horse and send you on your way to explore the area.

Why am I not staying in Grunau? Especially when this is backyard of the hostel:

                          

Yet another place I have to add to my "Need to Visit" list. It seems that the more places I go, the longer that list gets.

Anyway, I eventually made it to Salzburg. I wandered through the countryside, ate a dinner of chocolate, and then watched The Sound of Music - the hostel plays it every night at 7:00.

Nothing prepares you for a day in Salzburg like watching three hours of people singing around the city.

The Amazing Race - Day 5

"Schnitzel & Strudel"

I spent most of Sunday doing nothing. I justified it by telling myself I was just trying to be a good person by resting on Sunday, but in fact I was just being lazy. Consequently, I had a lot to get done today.

At breakfast I met some fellow travelers and joined one for a walking tour. There were so many people that I didn't get to hear much about the sites, but I did get to see them, so that was cool. We also tried Sacher Torte, which is a Viennese speciality. It's essentially chocolate cake, except it's better than chocolate cake. We then wandered over to the Hapsburg's summer palace. It's about a five minute walk from their winter palace - must be nice to be royalty.

This evening I finally got to go on the walking tour I had missed on my first night in Vienna. This walking tour was much smaller than the morning one, so I could actually hear the stories behind all the buildings. The city is also much more quiet in the early evening - probably because everyone is at the opera.

At the end of the tour, I got to try schnitzel and apple strudel. I still don't know what schnitzel is, but I do know that it is huge. One piece took up almost an entire plate and came with a side of fries. After all of this, I still had to try apple strudel. After dinner we sat at the restaurant sharing travel stories as a group. I think that is one of my favorite things about traveling Europe - getting to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories.

I ended the night with some friends at the hostel bar drinking apple juice, laughing at drunk people, and singing Don't Stop Believing until 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm going to miss Vienna.

The Amazing Race - Day 3

"All's Well That Ends Well"

For the next month I will be traveling around Europe with Busabout. Busabout has a bunch of different trips you can do from sailing around the Greek islands to touring around Eastern Europe, but the one I'm doing is their hop-on, hop-off pass. Starting wherever I want I can travel all over their North, South and West loops.

Today I hopped on my first Busabout bus leaving from Prague to Vienna, with a quick stop in Česky Krumlov. Vienna is one of the mandatory overnight stops, otherwise I probably would have skipped over it.

Because it was the first bus of the season leaving Prague (Busabout only runs during the summer months) our bus was pretty empty. There were a total of three passengers and four crew members. At first I was worried that it would be weird to be in such a small group, but it ended up being a great day of travel.

The guide and driver are so helpful. Before coming into a new city they give you a quick history lesson and tell you what there is to do around the city - this is perfect for a girl who knows nothing.

The more I learned about Vienna, the more excited I was to spend some time here. I booked a walking tour for my first night so that I could get familiar with the city before having two days to explore.

At 5:40 I started walking to the meeting spot, without a map. Not my best idea. But my guide had said that it was about 400 meters down the street on my right. How hard could it be?

It turns out it can be very hard. I can't even estimate standard measurement and here I was trying to guess how far 400 meters is.

I turned right at what I thought had been 400 meters at a place that looked like it could be the opera house and just started wandering. The meeting time came and went, and still I couldn't find the opera house. Eventually I found a map at the bus station, but after staring at it for 5 minutes, I couldn't even find where I was, let alone the opera house. Finally, some guys on bikes helped me find my location, and from there I found the opera house. It was about 100 meters north of me. (Probably. Like I said, I don't do estimates, especially metric ones.)

I finally made it to the meeting point 15 minutes late, but of course the group had already left. I walked around the opera house hoping to run into them, but I didn't even know who or what I was looking for, so it was a wasted effort.

I sat down on a fountain outside the opera house and tried to keep myself from crying. This probably seems really embarrassing, but you need to know two things. 1) I had already paid for this walking tour and 2) The price included dinner. Dinner of schnitzel and apple strudel. Now, I don't know what schnitzel is, but I know it's one of Maria's favorite things, so it must be good. And I'm fairly certain apple strudel is just apple pie - which I do not like - but I wanted it anyway. I felt like a five year old who didn't get a pony for Christmas. I wanted to sit on the side of the road and throw a temper tantrum until someone bought me schnitzel and apple strudel.

But I didn't. Instead I started making my way back to the hostel so I could spend my night in misery. On the way I was stopped by a man dressed in a costume who was selling something. My first instinct was to ignore him and walk away, but something stopped me and I decided to hear him out. He was selling tickets to the opera. Now, I like the opera about as much as I like apple pie, but I was in Vienna, and going to the opera is mandatory.

I bought a ticket and then wandered for an hour before the show started. As I started making my way to the opera - still without a map - I got lost, again. Luckily, I ran into the guy who had sold me the ticket. I told him I was lost, he laughed at me, and pointed me in the right direction. I started walking that way, but somehow managed to miss it. As I started turning in circles, trying to figure out where to go, I heard a whistle and looked over to see the guy laughing at me and once again pointing me in the right direction. He ended up walking me all the way to the door to make sure I didn't get lost, and finally I was at the opera.

The opera was amazing. I didn't go to the real Opera House, just a little side palace, and the orchestra was only made of six people, but they were all so talented. I even got to hear Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in the room where he had first performed it. Vienna turned me into a fan of the opera. It was even worth missing schnitzel and strudel.

The Amazing Race - Day 2

My Adventures in Prague Continue.

On my second, and only full, day in Prague it rained. And I got lost - a few times, so I had to make a decision between going to the park and going to the castle.

Obviously, I chose the castle.

The gardens/parks surrounding Prague Castle are not only beautiful, they are huge. This meant there were a lot of muddy hills to climb. I did a lot of sliding around the hills, but luckily no falling.

There was also a ghost tunnel in the gardens, which was really cool. (I don't think it was really a ghost tunnel, but if I were a ghost, that's where I would hang out.)

I even got to explore the Lobkowicz's Palace, which was the setting of the weird book I read. Even though it was weird (I know that that is the third time I've used that word to describe this book, but if you had read it, you would feel that it was justified) it was still really cool to be transported into the setting of the book. Plus, one of the Lobkowicz Princes had been a patron of Beethoven, so not only did they have original compositions by him, he had actually played and been in the rooms I was walking through. It was such a cool experience, and I wasn't even on any drugs. (That was the whole premise of the book - taking drugs to feel Beethoven's presence.)

In conclusion, Prague is awesome.

The Amazing Race - Day 1

I've been debating about when my amazing race actually started. Was it when I sent my luggage home and was living out of a backpack? When I left Lyon? Or when I left France?

I've decided it all started when I left for Prague because a) this is my first time taking a flight since getting to Lyon and b) this is my first time in a country where I literally know none of the language.

This is what I knew about Prague before I got there:

• There is a clock that does something cool every hour.
  
• There is an important bridge or something.
  
• There is a castle

I only knew about the castle because I read a fictional book that occasionally had true facts, such as there is a castle in Prague. The rest of the book was about taking a drug to travel through time. It was a weird book.

Anyway, since going to Prague I've learned:

• The clock show is not that cool. The only really cool thing is a skeleton that raises his glass up and down.

• The important bridge is kind of lame. It is essentially a very crowded tourist trap with silly souvenirs.
 

• The language they speak in Prague is Czech.
 

• Ahoj means hello (informal) in Czech. This is the only word I could remember because it looks like ahoy. I never got to use it, though, because I didn't know if it was rude to use an informal hello to people I didn't know, so instead I was much more polite and played charades with everyone.
 

• The Lennon Wall is in Prague.
 

• There are also some dancing houses that do not look like they're dancing.
 

• And finally: the Prague castle is stunning.

Let's Talk Bread: Mes Rêves #6

#6: Try 5 different types of bread at 5 different boulangeries in one day ✓

I love bread. In fact, that was one of my main reasons for coming to France. When I told people at church how much bread I planned on eating, they warned me that I would get fat.

But I don't care, because I love bread.

It's surprising, then, that it took me so long to make it to five different boulangeries. I didn't even make my first attempt until last Saturday, but only ended up making it to four on account of rain and Iron Man 3.

So Tuesday when I had a full day in Paris, it was essential that I finish this goal. Being the genius that I am, I started off with a 250g Fougasse à la Fleur d'Oranger. For those of you who don't speak metric food measurement, 250g is the same as 2 1/2 baguettes. Plus, the bread wasn't even that good. It was dry and there was not even a hint of orange to it. But I ate the whole thing anyway. All 2 1/2 baguettes of it.

I then had to eat four more types of bread, and I wasn't even hungry. Consequently, my next four choices were all about getting the smallest thing the boulangerie sold.

My second choice was pain au chocolat. It wasn't very good. Pain au chocolat from the bakery is always dry and flaky and not very chocolate-y. If you want some really good pain au chocolat, you should pick it up from a grocery store. It's much better.

Next I got a mini beignet framboise and a mini viennoiserie. The beignet was really good. The viennoiserie, on the other hand, was not. I thought it was going to be a mini viennois with glaze on the top, but it ended up just being a gross croissant.

I then took a break, because quite honestly I was full and didn't know if I could eat any more bread. In fact, I was so full that I only got a petit gelato. I never get petit, it's always a debate between medium and large, so this is a big deal.

Finally at the end of the night I made it to a fifth boulangerie, where I finally tried a Madeleine. It was pretty good, even though I was full, and tasted strangely familiar. I still haven't figured out what it tasted like.

It was a lot of fun to see Paris through its bakeries, and I got to try a lot of new breads/pastries.