Mozart, Maria, and Munich!

From kindergarten through 12th grade, whenever I came home from school after taking a test, my parents would always ask how it went. Whenever I said, "It was so easy!" they would always say, "It wasn't easy, you were just well prepared."

I never believed those wise words would apply to my weekend away in Salzburg and Munich, and yet they most definitely did. Everything went perfectly! Honestly, it was the smoothest four days of traveling I have ever experienced. Every plane and train was right on schedule, the tours were amazingly colorful and informative, and the hostels were absolutely perfect. My traveling companions Kristin and Anne and I went through the whole weekend raving about how perfectly everything was going. It wasn't until I landed back in Cork that it dawned on me. After planning weekends like this one for the past few months, I have gone through my fair share of mishaps. 150 euro cab ride to Shannon airport, waking up late and rushing to the Paris airport, train rides through Brussels in the middle of the night. My friends and I are certainly no strangers to dealing with adverse circumstances. Throughout this trip, I realized that it wasn't that we were getting lucky with how everything was going. Rather, things were going smoothly and everything was so enjoyable because we did a good job planning it! Practice certainly makes perfect in the planning department, and I'm sure we will only get better at it from here!

Onto the trip itself. Salzburg was absolutely beautiful! I will let my photos speak for themselves. The mountains, the shops, the bridges all added to its charm. It was clear to us right away we had planned our trip during their off season, because the streets were definitely emptier than we expected. Our tour guide the next day told us Salzburg is bustling with people during the summer months because of their music festival, but winter is much quieter.

Friday afternoon we explored the city a little, hiked up to the fortress on the top of the hill, and booked tickets for Saturday's big event - the Original Sound of Music Tour! We woke up Saturday morning, had a lovely breakfast at our beautiful hotel (I can't say enough good things about this weekend!) and headed to the tour. Our tour guide was an absolute riot. You could tell a lot of what she was saying was scripted, but that didn't stop us from laughing! We hit tons of the sites where they filmed the movie, such as:

 - Mirabell Palace and Gardens (final scene of "Do-Re-Mi")

 - The house where they filmed many of the exterior scenes of the von Trapp family villa

 - The gazebo for "16 Going On 17" and "Something Good"

 - The path Maria skips down singing "I Have Confidence"

 - The church where Maria and Captain von Trapp were married

 - We also drove by Nomberg Abbey, where Maria was a nun and the real Maria and Captain got married

Of course, as we drove to each site the Sound of Music soundtrack played on the bus! It was such a great morning. The church where they filmed the wedding is in a town called Mondsee outside of Salzburg where we had an afternoon treat - Apple Strudel. So good! I think I had three strudels in 4 days. Excessive? Never.

The weather was absolutely perfect throughout our entire trip, but Saturday afternoon we got some real, no-joke sunshine! I could actually take my jacket off! I tried not to comment on the beautiful weather because I was afraid the sun would hear me and disappear again. True highlight of Study Abroad '10-'11? Sitting in the square by the beautiful Salzburg Cathedral and statue of Mozart, sunshine reigning down on us, eating gigantic chocolate covered pretzels, and listening to a street guitarist play. It is moments like these when I think about what I would be doing at that exact moment had I not gone abroad. Saturday afternoon? Probably sitting at a table in Dinand Library, tackling the million and one items on my to do list. Salzburg Square or the library? That's a tough one.

Sunday night after dinner, we found a little piece of home while abroad - an Irish pub! It was so cool walking into the pub and feeling a little bit of pride. The bartender was from Dublin and I think he definitely appreciated that some true Irish lassies were there!

Sunday we packed up, said Auf Wiedersehen to Salzburg, and took the train to Munich. The train ride was so pretty! And, luckily, that's the only time it decided to rain all weekend. We passed the snow-covered Alps and many small towns along the way. Thanks to Kristin's great planning, our German hostel was literally right across the street from the Munich train station, so barely any effort or confusion was necessary in finding it. We realized there were at least 3 or 4 substantial, time-consuming things we wanted to do while in Munich, though with only about 36 hours to do them, we needed to prioritize. We decided to explore the city that afternoon, and then the next day we'd take a Third Reich tour in the morning, and then a free (our favorite word!) walking tour of the city in the afternoon. Unfortunately, this meant we would not be able to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle (King Ludwig III's castle that inspired the castle at the Magic Kingdom) or Dachau Concentration Camp, but Kristin, Anne, and I decided we would have been a lot more disappointed if we didn't get to see as much of actual Munich as possible. Excuses #1 and #2 to come back!

I have never considered myself a history buff, but I was incredibly excited about taking the Third Reich tour Monday morning. We met our guide at the Munich train station and headed off from there. I must interject here with an important point - MUNICH HAS STARBUCKS! As a truly authentic European city, Cork doesn't have Starbucks and I have surely been missing out on my routine Skinny Grande Chai Tea Lattes. Not only do they taste delicious, but they are warm and definitely get me going in the morning! Kristin and I certainly had our share of Starbucks this weekend. So good!

Our tour guide, originally from Providence, RI, has been living in Munich for about 7 years and was able to give us a very thorough history lesson on Munich and the role it played during World War II. We saw buildings such as:

 - The Hofbrauhaus, a very famous beer hall where Hitler delivered his first speech. Only in Germany would beer and national history coincide

 - The street where the Beer Hall Putsch occurred

 - The old Nazi headquarters (now a university music building)

 - Hitler's office

I was honestly mystified throughout the entire tour. I think one of the most amazing parts was understanding that all of this history did not take place entirely that long ago. Munich was essentially leveled 70 years ago, and now it has been built back up to a beautiful European city. It blows my mind that while it is all historical, it is still quite recent in the minds of so many Germans and it is a piece of their history which they are continually coming to terms with.

We took another tour right after this one ended. One lesson I learned while in Munich was to not steer away from tours simply because it's the 'touristy' thing to do. My wonderful experience in Munich was what it was because of both of the tours we took. Had we aimlessly walked around the city ourselves, taking photos and looking into different shops, I would not have this great appreciation and love of Munich that I now do.

Because this particular tour company does free tours, the tour guides only work on tips, so they have a lot of incentive to be fun, entertaining, and give a great tour. Our tour guide, Sonya, did just that! We walked through so much of the city; we heard entertaining tales about the devil's footprint in a church, peeing in beer halls, and stealing May Poles, as well as somber pieces of Munich history. It was clear that Germany's history is important to Sonya. Her parents were born in Norway and Germany in the 1940s, so World War II directly impacted her family in big ways, which is one of the main reasons she gives these tours. There was some repeated information from our morning tour, and it was really interesting seeing where their facts differed and hearing it from very different perspectives.

Monday night in Munich was quite the event! We ate dinner at a cute cafe in Marienplatz, and then headed to Hofbrauhaus for drinks and lively entertainment. The beer hall was hopping! The oomph band hadn't even started yet and the place was packed, but luckily we found a table. For anyone who hasn't been to Munich, there is no such thing as a "small" beer. It's a "one size fits all" deal, and that one size is a liter! These mugs are huge! It's quite the experience drinking one of these. But as they say, When in Rome (or Cork, or Munich)! The music was exceptional, too. We had great seats and enjoyed very authentic German music.

If you can't tell, I LOVED LAST WEEKEND! Every moment, every single moment, was absolutely perfect. And I can't believe it not only didn't rain, but it was actually sunny at one point! It got pretty cold in Munich on Monday, but luckily I was prepared with my hefty black jacket (thanks Mom!) that can handle harsh temperatures, so I was able to enjoy the whole day of touring.

Expect another post tomorrow about these past few days that I spent at the Ring of Kerry on a heritage trip. We just never stop, do we?!

Slan!