The Von Trapp Family vs. The Mozarts

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Would you rather the sounds of silence or the sounds of music? Well...in Salzburg you really don't have a choice...there are two distinctive sounds of music...one is just that: THE Sound of Music...ahh yes...the classic (partially/very modified) story of the Von Trapp family, made memorable across the world by hollywood (with help from rogers and hammersteins catchy tunes). who doesn't like that movie??! well...simple answer...austrians...especially from salzburg. The other sound of music is the sound of good ol' Mozart and all of the hoopla surrounding his birthtown, the story of his entire family's musical history and their extensive touring travels. But before i get too into any of that can i just mention the amazing scenery that backdrops Salzburg?? the Austrain alps...need i say more. so incredible. and while i was there it began to snow! completely abnomral and unexpected for this time of year but wow was it beautiful. unfortunately the cloud cover slowly began to move in and block the views of the mountians but the snow atop the cityscape made me stop about every 20 steps, sacrifice any sort of hand warmth and take a picture...multiple pictures. couldn't help it! Though mozart felt stifled by this city (and i guess how i could see being a 17 year old music genius in such a small place might cause frustration) but i was completely captured and memorized by the views and artsy vibes i was getting from all around. those views alone were enough to spark a song or dance or some sort of performance in me. i may have gone skipping through a park at one point. because salzburg does oddly market it's two tourist trades quite well i figured i should just dive right in. i went to both of the mozart residences in the city and loved it (of course!)...i think i stood in front of mozart's orginal piano for longer than is normal...the guard lady was probably getting suspicious. and seeing that it is so frigid my holed jeans have gone to the bottom of my bag and my patched, zippered, plaid punk pants have given me warmth but also about 200 more stares a day). And of couse i took full adventage of the Sound of Music tour! i grew up on this movie and the whole thing was filmed right in salzburg!! the tour was well worth the money...we went all over the place to visit sights from the film and were also treated to a drive further out into the incredible snowy mountains while listening to the sound track...how surreal. i embraced the nerdy musical fan inside and let those sounds of music fill me! (i also probably annoyed my neighboring busriders as i filled their ears with my own sounds of music...i had to sing! and honestly was a little dissappionted with the lack of participation...who are these people?...they take a sound of music tour...the most toursity, kitschy tour and don't sing? not cool. well i loved it and it really was great to see all the places that already felt so familiar right in person! it was like living a childhood dream! everytime i had to walk across town i purposely would walk through the Mirabell Gardens where they filmed most of the Do Re Mi song...haha...i caught a few people singing/whistling/humming as well...i had to laugh. the hostel actually plays the movie about 3 times a day so you can't get away from it! i got sucked into watching more than is healthy and by the end of my stay i started to twitch every time one of those songs came into my head (which as you could guess was about every 5 minutes...).  while in salzburg i also saw the premeir of a ballet about Scott Joplin's life...awesome dancing...some bizarre choices though (i can never stop analyzing when i watch theatre now...this is what college does to you) but i had an amazing seat, sat next to a supporter of the theatre who bought me wine at intermission and introduced me to the director! (i was still wearing my punk pants mind you...oy veh)made it to another Mozart concert. this one was all piano concertos and i was happy to hear songs that i wasn't familiar with...it was so crazy to sit there listening to the music and think about mozart writing this music right in this very place. i was just so giddy to be there! i'll have to return just to hear more concerts, see more theatre, and come during a season where i can hike up to that familiar mountain and run around with my arms out...truly as happy as julie andrews looked to be in that opening shot.  the hills will always be alive for me in salzburg ...