seekingmygreaterperhaps

Believe it or not, Salzburg is actually home to another famous character in relation to music other than the Sound of Music…. that would be Mozart. The child prodigy himself was born here. I decided to pay my respects and visit his birthplace.I stood in the actual room where he was born… I know that because they painted it on the wall. Also, I saw the violin he played on. Other than that… I was kind of underwhelmed by the museum. If you visit Salzburg, maybe go look at the outside, it’s a pretty yellow building that announces that it’s the birthplace of Mozart… with a supermarket on the ground floor. But I would save the 8 euro and go buy some weiner schnitzel instead. Regardless, Mozart is a very important figure in music history, so when in Salzburg?

Ooh, I also saw some locks of his hair… and got yelled at for taking this picture. NO PHOTOS.

Salzburg is also home to RedBull, the energy drink that gives you wiings. On the Sound of Music tour we drove past their headquarters. It’s a cool glass building with a fountain of stampeding bulls in front. Oh the kicker? It’s not water in the fountain, it’s RedBull.

Also, there is the RedBull World store in Old Town, which is the only store of its kind in the world. I stopped in to see what the fuss was, and it’s cool inside. They’ve got racecars and motorcycles hanging from the ceiling and on display, and more RedBull apparel than one could need. There is also a “trendy” section right next door with actually cute clothes, even if they are quite expensive.

During my stay in Salzburg, I have enjoyed a few typical Austrian dishes, but for lunch I got to experience something quite unique. I ate an Ostrich Burger… made out of Ostrich. Ostrich…. Ostria. (get it?) Let me tell you- it was delicious.

The Afro Cafe was recommended to me by my couchsurfing host Martin. Good job Martin, it was awesome. If you’d like to get there yourself…. you’ll probably have to google it because I pretty much got “temporarily misplaced” and then magically found it. Lucky me.

After I was well full off of lunch, because you can bet your bottom dollar that I ate that entire meal, I made a trek up to the medieval fortress. Festung Hohensalzburg is the thing you always see on the postcards of Salzburg, and construction started in the 1070s I believe. To get there… you have to walk at basically a 90 degree angle, but it’s way worth it. There is also a funicular that you can take, psh, exercise rules. This place was worth the money. There is a patio with an incredible view of the city that is alone worth it, but there are a lot of other things in the fortress to see.

BOOM- hit you with a panorama. *FUN FACT* if you click on a picture, it becomes big. So, you can do that with everything.

Inside the fortress there is a museum with a lot of artifacts, and even 3 furnished medieval rooms. I was a little confused because there are also a lot of artifacts from the different wars, but that’s what I get for skipping the audio guide. Probably my favorite part of the fortress was the marionette portion. There is a side room filled with marionette scenes. At first they are creepy, but then they are cool. (Side note, in the Sound of Music, they actually bought those marionettes in Salzburg. That particular song isn’t featured in the Broadway musical, which makes me think they added it so that they could support the local business… but don’t quote me on that.)

Soon thereafter, I took a walk through the woods to take the scenic route to get to St. Augistines montesary. But this is a unique type of monk-hood… they brew beer. You can take part in this, and it’s actually really tasty beer. On the outside there are vendors selling some nice food too. (I would recommend going here for lunch, especially if you’re on a budget.) I got a kick out of drinking in a huge drinking hall… inside a montesary.

Overall, Salzburg has a special place in my heart. The people are friendly, the food is delicious, and the city is the perfect size. It’s big enough to have plenty to do, but small enough to not need a metro. Also, at the top of the hour if you’re in a good spot, you can hear the church bells from a bunch of different churches singing their songs. It’s quite lovely. One blemish could be the amount of beggars on what seems like every corner. But there are also some great street musicians, since Mozart’s music academy is in the city.

And now for a shameless selfie:

Like my new scarf?