Thoughts of home.

View of Salzburg.


Ever since Dan left, I have been feeling a little homesick.

I miss his company. I miss my friends and family. I long for my bed. Shopping for a new pair of pants, I wished I had more money to buy pretty clothes. I badly need a haircut--and a pedicure. My feet have never been in such a state. Today I saw some runners and wished I could join them. I want to sit in front of the television and not feel guilty about it.

It sort of feels like summer vacation and it is already August and while you don't exactly want to go back to school, it's a feeling of mentally preparing yourself for its coming and the anticipation for seeing your friends, having work to do, having some kind of schedule.

I have to admit, I am actually relieved that I feel this way. In the beginning of this trip, I was so sick and tired of my life that I was afraid that I would never want to go back. At the same time, I long for home, but I don't want it to be exactly the same. It can't be. I won't let it. And I am not ready to go home yet.

I still am here, and I still need to enjoy it. Salzburg is a beautiful city. Feeling a little lazy, I have not been exploring it very intensely, checking out every sight and what not, but rather I have been floating around, taking it in, popping in here and there. I have frequented the same restaurant three times in two days because the scene's good, the food's good, and I don't have to think about it.

Probably the coolest place I went in Salzburg is this crazy store called "Easter in Salzburg" where they have three full rooms of decorated eggs, with strings attached to them so they hang like ornaments. According to The Lonely Planet, they are given as gifts at Easter and on New Year's. Across the alleyway is a similar "Christmas in Salzburg" store which has a collection of Christmas-themed eggs, along with beautiful hand-painted glass ornaments. This place had me thinking how I was planning to decorate my imaginary home for the holidays. (Right now, my apartment in New York cannot even fit a tree, so this is all conceptual at this point). On the bottom floor is a Halloween egg room. Yes, you can even have a Halloween egg tree.

On the other hand, I am not a big fan of my hostel. The girls in my room are not backpackers, rather British girls who took a cheap airline here for the weekend, and they think it okay to turn on the light at night and talk even though someone (that would be me) is sleeping (well, was sleeping). The girls both sat at my breakfast table and came on The Sound of Music Tour with me and completely ignored me, until we were all at a café during the tour and they couldn't stop looking and talking about my apple strudel. Finally, I offered one of them a bite. That prompted some mild conversation, but at that point, I didn't like them so it didn't matter.

The other person I met in Salzburg is a Canadian who asked me for a pencil when I was in the computer lab. (The hostel is supposed to have free wi-fi but it wasn't working. As explained by the girl at the front desk, "The wi-fi is free because we have problems with it all the time." Meaning it never works. Lame.) I told him I had no pencil and five minutes later, he tapped me on the shoulder and asked me what city I was heading next and if he could join me. I said no in so many words. First I have people who don't want to be my friend, then there are people who want to be my friend too much. Come on now. Now, can you see why I miss my friends back home?

Pick an egg, any egg.

Painted faces.



Egg-tra awesome.

Selections from The Sound of Music

I am not a fan of the bus tour. But I received a very strong recommendation from my friend Megan to see The Sound of Music tour when in Salzburg, because this is the location where the movie was filmed.

I even watched the movie before I left on this trip, noting that Maria, played by a zesty Julie Andrews, is a huge fun-pig (don't you remember that the nuns got mad at her because she couldn't help frolicking and singing in the mountains? And she's all like, "I can't help it!") And so why not see everywhere Maria has been within a large, obnoxious bus that has her picture painted on it? Our tour guide was a British woman with an incredibly dry sense of humor that no one understood and a voice similar to a sex phone operator. They played songs from the movie, and she was the only one who sang along. (The tourist group was not in fun-pig mode at all).

It was interesting to see the sights, but afterwards, I decided that what makes The Sound of Music tour fun must be Megan herself. If I ever do it again, I must have her (singing) by my side.


We learned that most Austrians are not fans of the Sound of Music and have not seen the movie. Our tour guide said that our bus riding around the city of Salzburg has given them some indication that something is going on.


The hills are alive...with lots of snow.



One of the buidlings used to portray the von Trapp house in the movie.



The gazebo where Liesl and Rolfe sang "Sixteen going on seventeen."



Nonneburg Abbey, where Maria studied to be a nun.



One of my favorite things? Apple strudel with vanilla creme sauce.



Do-Ri-Me: Yes, I am singing again.