Day 1: Twas an early day- we were told to be at the bus at 6:45 and the bus would leave at 7. Something I have learned and am trying to deal with on this trip is we NEVER leave on time, for anything! We left late.
On our way to Salzburg we made a few stops. Our first stop was at Mouthouse Concentration Camp. It was the only extermination camp in Austria. It was pretty ... um ... eye opening. Hitler used the camp as a source of stone for his extensive building escapades. Men would go down to the quarry, chizzle out a huge rock and walk up over 1,000 steps, then walk up a hill to the camp. What the SS soldiers hoped would happen is that someone would loose their step or stumble because they were so weak and fall backwards causing a domino effect where everyone would tumble down the stairs and be crushed by the rocks on their backs.
If you were too sick or old to work you were in a separate part of the camp and fed 5 spoon fulls every 3 days. Along with no food you were forced outside no matter the weather conditions. If it was raining and an SS soldier came, you were forced to lie down in the mud to make a rug for him to stand on, so he wouldn’t get his boot dirty.
A survivor said that everyday men would be tangled up, dead, in the barbed wire because they tried to escape (commit suicide) during the night. One way of exterminating was; they took men to a cliff, made them stand in a line and forced them to push each other off.
While this was going on, the town had no idea. The SS guards didn’t use guns and the concentration camp was set on a hill, so no one knew what was going on. If you delivered supplies to the camp you were forced to sign a sheet swearing to keep secret what you saw, even though it was never much, if you didn’t sign- you were shot.
We all were doing fine until we watched a movie on it. Picture 32 American Mormon girls being silence for a good 20 minutes because of a film. It was intense. American soldiers liberated the camp in May 1945. The first day they buried 1200 people.
Depressing huh? It was a bitter sweet visit. Honestly, I was just depressed pretty much the whole time I was there. It was really quiet and solemn, obviously. But let me tell ya, I won’t forget it anytime soon.
Alright, moving on to brighter things. The other stop we made was to a monastery. Beautiful church, it was old yadda yadda yadda ( I am SO churched out!). The best part... there was a library and it was Beauty and the Beasts library! She didn’t say for a fact, but I am telling you- it was the library Beast gave Belle. So I have personally been in a library of a cartoon!
Finally we rolled into our hotel. I am telling ya, we were dead tired. We stayed at the oldest hotel in Austria. It opened in 1454 and I slept on a bed to prove it:-) But it was cozy. That night at dinner, I had the best Italian food ever and had the best time with the girls I was sitting with. I think I actually made friends! They thought I was funny- which is good, rare, but good. I told them the story of when I was chasing Brett and he shut the door and I ran into the door. Do you remember that Shmon? Anyway, that got them hooked.
Oh yeah, and that day we went and saw the Sound of Music Gazebo- you know, "I am 16 going on 17" gazebo. That was fun. It is in a beautiful park called Hellbrun where a bishop made a water palace just because he was bored and had money. We got wet.
Day 2: I didn’t sleep that night, so 7am was just a glorious sight on the clock. Actually, day 2 was the funnest day ever! We went to a salt mine. Salz means.... salt and burg means like a town with a wall, so Salzburg was founded based on a salt mine discovered.
We got on HOT white suits that made us look like Oompa Loompas! It was attractive. We rode on boards with wheels down into the mine. The reason it was so fun was because we got to ride on these wooden slides down really far and fast. You were going so fast that the friction made my butt burn. It was 10 degrees celsius- no idea what that is in your degrees, but it was chilly. The mine went into Germany and Switzerland. So I went to 3 countries that day.
The deepest we were was about 240 meters, again don’t know the conversion right off the top of my head, but it was deep. We had a group of little American kids and they were the entertainment of the day. There also was an underground lake we crossed on boat. Anyway- it was so much fun.
That afternoon we had a walking tour of Salzburg. Most boring thing I have ever been on. We were all so tired and bored, none of us paid attention- felt bad, but it really wasn’t fun. We saw the Abbey were Maria (Sound of Music) went. Saw Mozart’s birth place...whoopie. Plus we had been on our feet the entire day! And we saw the park where Fl. Maria does the "Do, Re, Mi" song, at the end when they are in the park. Yup, saw the horse fountain and the stairs they jumped up and down on.
The Austrians don’t care a lot about Sound of Music. They are more interested in the fact that Mozart was born there. So it wasn’t a big deal- there weren’t any plaques or anything commemorating the musical.
That night we got to do a unique thing, even for Salzburg. We saw a marionette/puppet show. It was amazing how they could move hunks of wood. I tell ya what, if I didn’t see the strings, I would have a hard time believing it myself. However, the opera they sang was in Italian. So for 2 ½ hours I watched hunks of wood belt opera in what was essentially gibberish.
Day 3: How are the paragraphs going for ya Brett? I know it’s long, this is the last full day and it’s short. Ok this day was left for us. We were let loose, but not after just arriving and not in a country where we didn’t speak the language. What did my ‘group’ do? Shopping! Europeans always smell good, always. So I wanted perfume and that’s what I got. There were cute little shops all over the place. That took up the morning.
Churches and Mozart were visited more thoroughly... again, yippee. You see one church you see them all. I mean there were like 20 churches in Salzburg and all of them were other bishops or Emperors trying to out do the other. Lame!
That afternoon Lindsay, Elizabeth, Anne and I sat in the Sound of Music park for about 3 ½ hours and just talked. It was so fun. It rained, we still sat on out little bench in a little courtyard of the park. After and entire day and a half of walking and virtually no sleep, it was good to relax.
A celebration of a Saint day was going on while we were there. So we saw all the Austrians dressed up in their little Lederhosen and Drindles. Day 4 I tried a Drindle on. I looked so pretty:-) Haha- I wanted to get one for Anna (They were SO cute) but I didn’t know her size.
I have always been a die hard supporter and fan of the Colorado Mountains... they have been booted to 2nd place. The Alps are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. They shoot up and are quite jagged, but blue and dark green. Every morning the sun would come up and shine on the tops of them. Oh my- pictures do not do them justice. People live on these things, so there are patches of bright green where they cleared the area and mow it. With their little European houses with their little flower boxes... yeah, they are beautiful!
We went to a few lakes on the way home. It was way weird- they were full of swans. What kind of gigantic lake has like random wild swans swimming around? They wanted food- and we chased one into the lake. Poor guy actually fell face first into the water and couldn’t get back up...
Now I am home- I missed my train to church... only 1 hour late, but Sunday school was in English! Then I got beat up by a stupid Austrian. He totally went out of his way to elbow me really hard in the arm. I seriously turned around to kick him or punch him or something, but he was huge and there were only girls with me. I figured if he didn’t care that he hit me once, why would he care if he hit me again. But know the thoughts were there!
Sorry this was so long, but 4 days in the most beautiful city on earth deserves thorough descriptions. It was fun, but I am glad to be back in my ‘native’ Vienna.
