Salzburg

So we spent this past weekend in Salzburg. Well, actually it wasn't really a weekend in Salzburg, even though that's what we were told. It should have been called "A Weekend Away from Vienna with About Five Hours Spent in Salzburg", because we really didn't spend much time in Salzburg. While we were driving Friday night we stopped in the town of Melk and took a tour of the beautiful Melk Abbey. The abbey has been in existence since the 12th century and there have been monks there ever since. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen with a seriously nice view and an amazing chapel covered in gold. We drove a few more hours until we got to Hallein, about 20 minutes from Salzburg. That was where our hotel was and we didn't have anything scheduled after dinner so we wandered to the downtown area. They were having some sort of festival so there was a live band playing and a lot of outdoor bars open. We walked around a bit, got some gelato, and went back to the hotel and had some drinks at the restaurant.
Saturday we had to leave the hotel by 8:45 am to be on time for our tour of Salzburg! Our tour guide was this great lady who made sure we knew what places were in the Sound of Music and pointed out anything we might have seen from the movie, which was obviously exactly what I wanted. We saw the fountain that Maria runs around, the stage where they perform before they hide from the Nazis, the church where Maria and the father get married, the hill that Maria and the kids sing on, and many many more. It was so great. She also showed us many historical places important to Salzburg as well, like Mozart's birthplace and the palace of the Archbishop. There were also a lot of stands around that sell Bretzls, which are a famous dessert from Salzburg that look like a pretzel but come with lots of different toppings. I got one that was glazed and had poppyseeds and nuts on top, and it was so delicious. She also pointed out the Salzburg fortress, and after the tour we walked up the steep hill to the fortress. It was a hard climb, but it was a spectacular view from the top. After we left the fortress we had less than two hours of free time, so Kelsey, Bekah, and I got lunch from a cafe that Mozart ate at regularly. We just got simple food like sausages, tea, and dessert, but man was it good. And I was imagining Mozart eating there the whole time!
After our free time was over when left Salzburg for Germany to visit a Nazi Documentation Center. It was more informative about Hitler and the war than anything else, but it was actually really interesting to be more informed. There was also a bunker that was built by the Nazis towards the end of the war, and that was a little creepy and sad. We spent about two hours at the documentation center and then we headed back to Austria. We went back to Hallein and spent the rest of the night celebrating my friend Audrey's 20th birthday with drinks and dessert at a restaurant.
On Sunday we had to get up even earlier than the day before because we had a big day ahead of us. In the morning we went to the Hallein salt mine, which I was nervous about at first because I can get a little claustrophobic. They also told us there are big slides that you go down to continue the tour, and you're not supposed to try to brake on the slides which made me really nervous. Kelsey was also nervous as well, but we conquered the slides together and they were actually pretty fun! The tour itself was really cool and we learned a lot about the history of the salt from the mine being one of the oldest in the world and how the mine was started centuries ago. The salt is sold all over the world and is some of the purest there is. It was a really fun experience and it made it a great morning. In the afternoon it was a much different feeling because we went to Mauthausen, a concentration camp between Salzburg and Vienna. Mauthausen is the second best preserved camp after Auschwitz, so it is in a very similar state to the time when it was running. It was so sad and really humbling to see the conditions the people there had to endure.We saw the bunk beds that they slept in and all the beds would have three people in each of them. We heard about so many horrible thing that the Nazis would do to the people there. This camp was a labor camp, instead of an extermination camp like Auschwitz was, so they sent people there to do work for the Nazis instead of just killing them, but there was still a huge amount of murders there. The people would work in the granite quarry and have to carry up huge rocks up 186 steps, nicknamed the "stairs of death". It was so sad but really opened my eyes to the horrible things that took place.
We went back to Vienna after that, and everyone was pretty depressed, but it was nice to be back home. this week is the last week of the first session, so a lot of homework and tests coming up. More blogs later! Tschuss!