The hills are alive....

This week has been full of adventures. On Wednesday of this week, I was introduced to a mother of one of my students. Almost immediately into our conversation, she generously offered me a room in her home in Munich whenever I wanted to come. My thoughts jumped immediately to December when my beautiful roommate Becki is coming and we are traveling to Munich. She then mentioned that Munich is only a few hour train ride from Salzburg, Austria. So, I thought, should I wait until December to take up her offer…of course not? Why not go to Salzburg this weekend? So that’s what I did…I went to Salzburg.

Thankfully, I had friends along for the ride as we had quite an adventure getting there. We accidentally got on the wrong train, which took us in the completely opposite direction of our intended destination. It was only a short train ride so we only added an hour to our trip. Once we finally arrived, the Martins kindly welcomed us into their beautiful home. Saturday was a full day as we took a 3 hour train ride to Salzburg and then proceeded to walk around for the whole day. We saw many beautiful churches, along with astounding architecture all over the city. I also got a purse!!! That might seem not exciting to you, but as a female to not have a purse can be difficult because there are so many things we need to carry around. I had forgotten to bring one and being that I a good deal, it took me several trips to big cities to finally find a purse that I felt was affordable. We also saw Mozart’s home and birthplace. Best of all, we were in the city of The Sound of Music, one of my all time favorite movies. We may have performed some of our favorite songs from the film and there may even be one or two short video clips of those performances. Such fun!

On Sunday, we went into Munich. I experienced the Glockenspiel, which was really a neat experience. I remember learning about it in German class in high school so it was fun to see something I had learned about. Overall, it was definitely a fun filled weekend packed with lots of sightseeing.

Speaking of sightseeing, I have discovered something about myself while in Germany. When I was growing up, my family would go on vacation and I always wanted to go do things, whereas my parents loved just sitting by the pool or by the ocean and relaxing. I would generally give them a little attitude because I thought it was so uncool to just sit around on vacation. Well Mom and Dad, I’m just as uncool as you apparently because I have realized how much I LOVE relaxing vacation. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Zurich and Basel last weekend and Munich and Salzburg this weekend but I would take a day at the beach over sightseeing. Like I said, I’m loving exploring…so don’t think I’m not enjoying my journeys. But I love relaxing, especially when the people I love are with me. So although as a kid I vowed I would never become like my parents, I am proud to say I see them in me more and more each day.