Salzburg

Salzburg was a lovely city - just as lovely as I expected it to be from years of watching The Sound of Music. We happened to go see it over the All Saint's Day weekend which meant every shop in town was closed from the moment we got there to the moment we left. This actually turned out to be a good thing because it forced us to see more of the city and its monuments. I got to see Mozart's house and the church where he was baptized. He was also the organist at the same church for a period of time. On Saturday, we climbed the side of a very steep hill for half an hour, looking for Salzburg's fortress castle, only to find that you have to pay to get into the fortress these days. So we looked at the view for a minute, took a few pictures, then turned around and walked right back down the hill.
There is a great story about that fortress. Salzburg was under seige at one point so the citizens all retreated into their massive fortress. They were running very low on supplies but they knew that their enemies were low as well. So the Salzburgers painted their very last bull a different color every day and walked him back and forth across the fortress wall, where their enemies would be sure to see. Their attackers saw the seemingly endless number of bulls and figured there was no use holding the seige if the Salzburgers had so much livestock left; so they gave up and went home and Salzburg was freed!
We also visited the Mirabella Gardens, where most of the song Do-Re-Mi was filmed in The Sound of Music. It was so much fun to be there in person and see the fountains, stairs, and paths that I know from one of my all time favorite movies. We looked everywhere for the cemetery that was used as a model for the last scene in the movie, with the tombs behind bars. But it was not until we climbed the mountain to the fortress and looked down the other side that we finally saw the famous graveyard. It was nestled in a corner of the city, up against the old city wall, behind a small chapel. I took pictures of everything and it was a beautiful day - 75 degrees the first weekend in November! I loved the short trip and I want to go back someday to take the real Sound of Music tour, to see the houses and abbeys from the film. I did get some great souvenirs on Sunday too; mittens with Edelweiss on them, a new apron, cheerful things like that. Then it was back to Imst for a day and Tuesday was my loooong trip home. I took the train all the way back to Angers, a 12 hour journey!
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I finally got paid today for the three hours I worked in the market that Wednesday a few weeks back, and I got my first pay check deposited into my account for teaching. The only problem is, my bank is giving me lots of trouble about paperwork; I still don't have my debit card and it's been a month since I opened the account. They keep telling me to come back in one week and then I just got a letter in the mail saying they will close my account if I don't bring proof of residency in. It has been very frustrating but everything else is running pretty smoothly so I'm trying not to stress out too much. I want to start planning my next trip and I am getting excited for all the Christmas markets that will be opening up soon. I'll have to tell you all about them when I finally get to experience one for myself. I am thinking about going to a German or Austrian market one weekend with Jonna. But I will definitely hit up the Paris markets and, of course, the one in Angers.