Austria

     I'm just finishing up my week in Austria and thought for a change I'd not procrastinate on my blog. I'll admit my real reason for coming to Austria was to fulfill my childhood dream of going on The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg. My camino friend Steffi took the weekend off to come spend the weekend with me in Salzburg! Though Salzburg is small, it's super nice and got lots to do. We visited the Hohensalzburg (a medieval fortress), Mozart's birth house museum, Mozart's living house museum, some cathedral, some gardens, some grocery stores. On the Sound of Music Tour we saw the setting for the backyard of the Trapp family house, the house they used as the exterior of the house, the church for the wedding seen, and of course the gazebo. Afterwards, we ate Kaiserschmarn for dinner. I thought this was a dinner food... turns out it's a dessert, but we were both entirely content each ordering it as our main dish. Kaiserschmarrn is a traditional Austrian food that is sort of like chopped up french toast/biscuit with a plum jam sauce, which makes for a fabulous dessert or dinner! 

     After Salzburg, I headed up to Linz for one night. I didn't know much about Linz before I went, and I still don't know much about Linz, but they have a famous tart called Linzer Torte that comes from there. So, naturally, I found the original Linzer Torte café and ordered myself some Linzer Torte and managed to do so in German (mind you some menu pointing was involved). Next, I went to Graz, the second biggest city... which really is not that big. Austria is mostly smaller villages and even though Graz is the second biggest city, Vienna is about six times bigger than Graz. Graz widened my ice cream horizons as I tried both Pumpkin Seed Ice Cream and Poppy Seed Ice Cream. Both amazing! It's a shame Ben & Jerry's has not realized this yet, especially considering they've already resorted to putting potato chips in ice cream to create new flavors. 

     Vienna!!!!!!! Yesterday I arrived by bus and found my pension only to be slightly frustrated that no one was there, so I went for a wander to the grocery store. When I came back a lovely old man answered and showed me around in a very funny mix of German and English. He introduced me multiple times to Berry, Bibbi and Bubbi. Berry is a dog (the kind that are long and short with big floppy ears and lots of fur) and Bibbi and Bubbi are birds. Berry just likes to bark at strangers, so we haven't bonded yet. Today was "see everything you possibly can in Vienna" day. I walked around the whole entire historic downtown. Every other building is some architecturally impressive statue, park, church, palace, library, museum, etc. Most things I just enjoyed from the outside, but I did go inside the National Library and the Opera House, which were interesting. Following Viennese tradition, in the Opera House they have a different show each day of the week, so one performer may have to be simultaneously remembering and performing 3 shows. They also have to rebuild the stage each day for that night's show! After seeing the Opera House, I made the long trek to the Schönbrunn Palace, which was the summer home for many emperors. It seems like it would take them an entire summer just to find their way around the enormous palace! 

    Tomorrow I'm off to Hungary to visit my camino friend Timi. Auf wiedersehen Austria! 

Kaiserschmarrn 

Gazebo from The Sound of Music