Climbing EVERY mountain in Salzburg

Sound of Music gazebo
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We are on the train to Salzburg in Harry Potter train car! JUST like the Hogwarts Express! (Except in Austria, not England.) We even got on at Platform 10, which is super close to Platform 9 and 3/4. Right now, Yoonju, Matt, Lindsay, and I are reviewing our spells.

Yesterday I got my hair cut FINALLY. It was getting really triangly. Krissy got hers dyed too and now all the other girls want to go back and get it done too. Apparently it’s cheap here. I don’t really want highlights though. I’m happy with my hair. We went to a place called Cut and Coffee where you can get just that.

The train car with seats folded out
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So, the plan to not bring a lot of clothes to Europe and then buy a bunch there is not going so hot. I still have zero skirts and shorts, and it’s finally getting hot. All I’ve bought is shirts and I don’t really need those!

Krissy, Lindsay, Yoonju, Matt, Pete, and I went to Alte Donau (Old Danube) yesterday, which is a beach. FABULOUS. After some initial confusion finding the place, we got sun and swam around, even though the river was seaweed filled.

That night, Lindsay, Matt, and I went to see the Da Vinci Code auf English. It was nice to sit in a theatre and pretend we were in America for 3 hours. After that, off to 1516 to drink Radler, a delicious concoction of lemonade and light beer.

Alte Donau Beach
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TODAY- Salzburg and the Sound of Music tour. I am glad that I went with fellow musical theatre nerds, except for our buddy Pete from Harvard who had never seen it. It was amazing; we got to see the houses and sites at which they filmed the outside shots. All the inside shots were on a sound stage. We saw the park from "Do-Re-Mi," the lake in the backyard of their house, the church where they got married in the movie, and some beautiful Alpine vistas from the opening. We travelled just a little outside the city and everything was gorgeous- verdant valleys, forested mountains, glassy lakes. We went to St. Gilgan, birthplace of Mozart’s mother and where Nannerl (his sister) lived for 17 years, right by the Wolfgangsee. We also saw the Mondsee, near St. Michael’s, where the movie marriage was.

Curtain for The Magic Flute
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We are riding back in the train now, where we made a giant bed out of the reclining seats. Good idea, Lindsay. It’s like a harem in here. The sun has completely set, so we cannot see the wonderful countryside. Oh well. We got a good three hours of it this morning.

I have to write a paper on Mahler for my professor who literally wrote the book on it.

I ate the original Mozart Kugeln today. Not as good as the Mirabell kind. We did buy them from the shop that invented the Mozart Kugelm, though. For those of you not "in the know," Mozart Balls or Mozart Kugeln are balls of layered nougat, ground pistachio.

I saw three operas last week three nights in a row. The first was Così Fan Tutte at the Theatre an der Wien. It was a pretty good production. We got there way early because I had misunderstood the poster. We waited in line for about an hour and Lindsay and Yoonju left to go get a cookie. Unfortunately, they were gone for almost an hour and by the time they got back couldn’t get back into the line. So, standing room tickets that no one picked up 15 minutes before the performance and got to sit in the 3^rd row, while Josh and Melissa were stuck up in the nosebleed standing room section. Fortunately there were seats next to Yoonju and Lindsay, so we snuck down during intermission. Joah and Melissa got caught, but I was safe and saw rhe second act from one of the best seats in the house. Later that week I found out that Theatre an der Wien is where Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, and possibly Fidelio premiered. That’s major opera history! Anyway, a cool place to go. Not as opulent or pretentious as the Staatsoper, and less security (wink!).

The next night, a bunch of us went to see The Magic Flute or Die Zauberflöte. I have to admit that before I saw it, I had done and seen scenes and read he synopsis, but I still didn’t understand the Masonic elements in the plot. And after... I still didn’t get it. A lot of things were stitched together for me, but that whole "secret order" thing was still befuddling. I’ve been wanting to read a book on Masonic symbology in The Magic Flute for a while, and I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled, but to no avail.

Anyway, the set was cool, although some of the Masonic stuff looked like a Tears for Fears or Devo music video. There was great contrast between man-made things and nature in the way the designer used color. I LOVED the Queen of the Night and Papageno. The rest of the cast was very entertaining. I could definitely see why it’s targeted at kids so much. Sigh. Speaking of which, the Children’s Opera Program at the Staatsoper is doing Bastien und Bastienne on the roof of the Staatsoper tomorrow (there’s an amphitheater up there,) but my professor told me that it’s been sold out for weeks. I guess I can’t do everything. The opera closes its season on June 30, so I’ve gotta squeeze in a lot in these next 2 weeks.

This program is so fun. It’s hard to imagine that three weeks ago I was scared that I wasn’t going to make any friends. Now I’m worried about how I’ll stay in touch with them all.