Salzburg, Austria.

I went here just for a weekend, with one of my friends. Due to a failure to plan ahead, we arrived in the town Friday night without having reserved a place to stay. Fortunately we had a map with a few places we could try; the place we ended up staying the first night had room for only two people for one night; it's a good thing there were only two of us. The hostel was really small, and we had to share a room with two strangers. Also, the door to our room didn't lock from the inside, so we had to sleep with our door unlocked in a strange place in a foreign country. It was pretty unnerving, but none of our things were stolen. Or maybe something was stolen and I just haven't noticed yet. It must not have been important. By the way, I took a picture of our hostel from far away:

Other than the brief lodging panic, we had a great time. Salzburg is known for two main things: it is Mozart's hometown, and it is the setting and the filming location of The Sound of Music. I went to the house where Mozart resided as a young man; it is now a museum with various artifacts from the life of Mozart, including instruments and letters. Since I'm a pianist, it was really exciting for me to see the piano that Mozart used. The experience felt kind of like a pilgrimage.

I also went on a The Sound of Music–themed bus tour of Salzburg. We got to see a lot of the landmarks from the life of the real Trapp family, as well as some important locations at which the movie was filmed. I really like The Sound of Music, so this tour was really fun.

This road appeared in the movie twice: first, Maria danced and sang down this road with her bag and her guitar in hand as she went to meet the Trapp family for the first time; second, the family pushed their car down this road as they were attempting to flee the country.

This is the real-life gazebo that the movie's "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo is based on.

The villa that was used for filming.

The backyard lake that was used for filming.

The abbey that real-life Maria was from.

The bus tour also took us by beautiful lakes and mountains.

I tried a Topfenstrudel (strudel pastry thing with sweet cheese in it). Strudel is a traditional Austrian food. It was delightfully awesome. This is what it looked like.

I am really glad I was able to visit Salzburg. It was a beautiful mountainous small town, which many would call "charming". I will close with some photographs that I took from Salzburg's fortress.