The Hills Are Alive

Maria is definitely in the air. Within minutes of arriving in Salzburg, I felt the presence of Maria and the Sound of Music. I’m not being dramatic either, well maybe a little, but in all seriousness, the church bells were ringing and it just felt like the Sound of Music. Salzburg is small and quaint. My mission today was to stay up. At present I have been up for 27 ½ hours with only a couple hours of poor sleep on the plane. I remember 11 years ago dragging really bad, but this time it hasn’t been too bad. I’m super tired, but I managed to stay up. I’m going to call it quits in a few but am hoping to stay up for 28 hours so that tomorrow I’ll be on European time.

While trying to stay awake, I nearly walked the entire city. I went to get my tickets for the Sound of Music tour and the salt mines. Then I headed to the train to get my overnight ticket to Lake Como. That is going to be a hell of a trip. It is 13 hours with two transfers. I hope Lake Como is worth it because getting there is hell. After I had my ticket I went to the Mirabell Gardens, which is where they filmed part of “Do-Re-Me” in The Sound of Music. I sat there for a while and then just walked around. I found where Mozart lived as a kid. During my day I thought I had a Wynonna sighting but when I broke out “Love Can Build a Bridge” (a Judd classic) and she didn’t flinch I knew it wasn’t her. Damn!

For lunch I happened upon this place called Sternbrau, a place I had marked in my book. I will definitely return in the next couple of days. I looked at what they had and picked from the counter. I saw a sausage that looked good, a pretzel, and some potato pancakes. What an Austrian meal, right? I cut into the sausage and this gooy liquid came out. At first I was going to be grossed out but like bugs in Thailand and guinea pig in Peru, I must try the local delicacy. I bit in and it wasn’t bad so I took another bite and discovered the gooey deliciousness was CHEESE!!! These Austrians know how to do it. You know those hotdogs you can get infused with cheese? Yeah, these are like that but authentic and 100 times better. Dinner wasn’t nearly as good. I had cheese that smelled like butt, but it was good. I then had goulash. This is totally different than what my mom used to make up. There were no noodles and big chucks of meat, not hamburger.. I didn’t much care for it, but again, it was very Austrian.

After dinner I walked around trying to stay up, which is where I am right now, typing, trying to stay up. Tomorrow is the Sound of Music tour and I hope to “solve a problem like Maria” believe me.

p.s. 1 year ago today Michael Jackson died. They are having a tribute on the television right now. His celebrity spanned the world over.
p.p.s. I've been looking for internet all over this place. I followed signs for "WIFI" and it was a young, hit bar with the college kids, but internet. They looked at me as if a foreigner when I asked. (insert laughter) Then I saw a sign for "Mode Am" and thought it would work, alas, a clothing store.