living a childhood dream!
This post is very over due, as I am writing this I am listening to Christmas music, so that is saying something! But I wanted to share about my adventures with Laura to Munich and Salzburg for the Sound of Music tour! We had an unforgettable weekend (October 23-25) ! We went to Germany and Austria just for the weekend?! It still boggles my mind! We are so blessed!
Friday afternoon, I waited impatiently for Laura to get out of class and we rushed to the airport to catch our plane! We bought our tickets separately so we couldn’t sit together on the plane and I ended up sitting next to an older Danish man. He was an interesting man, first he smelled weird, and second he proceed to tell me how my home (Southern California) would be a good place for a terrorist attack because they could just set off fires everywhere! I was like, “Is he seriously telling me how terrorists should attack my country on a plane?” He was whacked. So as we landed Laura and I quickly walked away from him, picked up our bags, and jumped on a metro to take us to our hostel in Munich!
That night we went to the Hofbrauhaus (a famous beer hall) for some dinner! It was like stepping into a mini Oktoberfest! People were dressed up in their lederhosen, singing German songs while cheering their huge mugs (called mas) of beer! (which I had trouble holding with one hand!) 
We felt awkward at first because there are just long tables, and you are just suppose to sit with strangers! We ended up finding a table with two seats on the end next to an American family! They asked us where we were from, and it was funny to say that we were from different places in the US. Laura was New York, and I was California! We realized those are really the only two states most foreigners go google eyed over. But the family at our table asked me, “Where in California?” “Southern.” “Where??” “Orange County?” “Yeah…where?” “Irvineee?” “I’m from Tustin!” Small world!! And they had just been to Salzburg, where we were going the next day, so they told us what to do there! Soon after we ordered our beer, pretzels, and sausage (Laura had wine of course 
) the family left and Asian tourists sat at our table with two older German men. They told us that they were doing business together and they were showing their Asian clients a typical German beer garden! They were interesting. The Asian men kept wanting to take pictures with Laura and I! They would take the picture and then zoom in on my mouth in the photo and say, ” like sunshine! like sunshine!” It was hilarious! He was then like “E-mail? e-mail?” and I was like “you knowwww, no that is okay” and then he nodded and said “that is okay! that is okay!” Here are some pictures from our eventful night!: 
I could not finish it! it was soo BIG! i tried though! i guess it is because I am not fully german
lookin like a pro waitress!
We went back to our hostel exhausted ready for a good nights sleep…but we were in for a long night. Let me just tell you, German kids are crazy! We heard them running up and down the hall of the hostel, yelling and blowing a duck horn, like the one’s they sell at Ducks game, till 6 in the morning! Six in the morning!! Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep but of course had energy to explore Munich that Saturday and then catch our train to Salzburg!!
In Munich we climbed St. Peter’s church tower (all 300 stairs!), were yelled at by an old German woman in the Frauenkirche (a church): “shhhh it’s a kirke!”..twice actually..ha ha apparently you can’t laugh in a church!, watched the Glockenspiel strike noon, and ate lunch at the Viktualienmarkt, an outdoor street market!
climbing st. peters!
the Glockenspiel!
Viktualienmarkt!
We then bought brie, starbucks, and candy for our two hour train ride to Salzburg (aka Sound of Music tour!!!)
knitting on the train! we were such grandmas!
The train ride was beautiful! It was so nice to finally see mountains, well parts of mountains, because of the intense fog! I told Laura that I was sick of pancake Copenhagen and ready for some waffles! Because it was so foggy I had no idea that Salzburg was sounded by gorgeous massive mountains with snow on the top! We didn’t see all of mountains until the next morning when the sun had finally come out!
That night in Salzburg we caught the bus into town from our hostel and ate at Mozart’s cafe (we thought it was appropriate, Mozart was born in Salzburg), saw his house, and went into a beautiful church! The church was having an art show inside, many colorful lights were lit up inside and they would change colors and a service was going on inside, it was actually very moving! We saw nuns walking in and they would be singing along to the songs, I wish I had known German!
Mozart's cafe! where i got apple studel!
Mozart's house!
obsessed much!?
And then Sunday finally came!! The whole reason for our trip! The Sound of Music TOUR!!! I was finally living my childhood dream! I grew up watching this movie probably once a month, I loved and still love this movie. It is my mom’s favorite movie too, so we would always watch it together singing along! And the tour lived up to all my expectations. Our bus was bright red with the actors pictures printed on the front, our tour guide was probably the most obsessed person I have ever met with the Sound of Music! On the tour she would be quoting direct quotes from the movie and walking up and down our bus singing every song! When our bus would be going up a mountain they would play “Climb Every Mountain” on the intercom, it was really cheesy, but i LOVED it! Laura and I sang along the whole time, and we tried to reenact parts of the movie in front of some of the famous landmarks from the movie:
"I have confidence...in confidence ALONEEE!"
"you are sixteen going on seventeen!"
The church where Maria married the Captain!
"Doe, Re, Meee!"
our ridiculous bus, which i LOVED!
Overall it was a wonderful tour! We also just got to see Salzburg which is a gorgeous place! Laura was the best traveling and singing partner and we had so much fun together! Love you Laura! What an unforgettable trip!
the lake district in Salzburg! beautiful!
singing on the tour of course!
goodbye Salzbug!! we loved youu!
