Welcome!

From August 2008 to December 2008, I studied abroad in Maastricht in the Netherlands.  Here are some of my highlights from my four months away (updating!).

 

Preparations:
Residence Permit - needed if in Europe for longer than 3 months
Housing - living in the Guesthouse (C building)
Application process

 

After arrival:
Arriving in Amsterdam - my trip from home to Amsterdam to Maastricht
ESN - Exchange Student Network
Banks - details on my bank account
Cell Phone - cell phone options in the Netherlands
Orientation - organized by the faculty
Life in Maastricht
Dutch Life

School:
Classes - Block One, End of Block One, Block Two
Library
Faculty of Business and Economics Building Tour

Travels:

Resources – Information on destinations and how to get there
Belgium - Tongeren, Brussels, Antwerp, Brussels at Night, Brugge 
Germany - Aachen, German Fairy Tale Route, Kassel, Düsseldorf
Austria - Vienna 01, Salzburg, Vienna 02, Vienna 03
Czech Republic - Prague 01, Prague 02, Prague 03
Netherlands - Den Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Kinderdijk, Valkenburg
Italy - Pisa & Florence, Rome 01, Rome 02, Rome 03, Rome 04
Ireland - Dublin 01, Dublin 02, Dublin 03
France - Paris 01, Paris 02, Paris 03, Paris 04, Paris 05

Last Post from Europe

So its the morning of December 23.  I'm sitting in the reception area of the hostel I'm staying at in Paris.  It is just before 7am local time and it is dark outside.  Why am I awake?  I have to catch a train in a hour back to Amsterdam before boarding my flight home.

In many ways I'm happy to be going home.  I miss Canada (despite it being covered under feets of snow right now) and home.  Sleeping in my own bed with my own private shower.  I miss the food, the familiarity and of course my family.  But also, in many ways I'm sad to be leaving.  I feel like I've barely seen the world and Europe (despite all my travels).  There is so much to see and do.  I feel like I haven't learned enough about Dutch culture and way of life. 

This last leg of my travels in Paris, I spent alone for 2 days and I met some amazing people in my hostel (more about this later). and I understand now why people like to backpack and travel by themselves. 

An so, in a couple hours I'll be heading home.  Can't wait to see the snow!

So my bags are packed...

... and its my last night in Maastricht.  Tomorrow after checking out I'm headed to Amsterdam to drop off my bags at Schiphol airport and then will be boarding a train headed to Paris for a couple days.

I'm extremely exhausted from packing and running around doing last minute errands around the city and yet I don't want to sleep.  When I wake up tomorrow, its the end.  I have to leave.

I'm dreading tomorrow.  I have no idea how I'm going to carry all my stuff to Amsterdam.  I have three bags, one of which is ridiculously heavy.  Hopefully I'll be able to enlist the help of someone to carry my luggage on and off the train...

I guess I should probably sleep.  I have some last minute packing to do tomorrow morning.

I Fear For My English

I'm starting to notice that my English is starting to go.  I've started picking up weird combination of words and phrases that do not make sense.  I no longer speak or write grammatically correct without thinking twice.  I can't spell properly either.  I keep on making silly mistakes or forgetting how to spell certain words.  When talking, I've gotten use to speaking slowly and enunciating my words. 

I'm going to sound like an idiot when I go back to Canada >.<"

All I Want for Christmas is YOU!

So classes have more or less ended and people are studying and preparing to head home.  This past Wednesday evening, my corridor gathered together (25 of us!! so hard to coordinate) for an evening of world dining and gift exchange.  There are a lot of nationalities in my corridor ranging from German to Columbian to Italian to Australian.  So each of us was responsible for making a dish that was representative of our nationality.  I had no clue what to make - what's typical Canadian food?!  Maple syrup?  I didn't have any.  I decided to make something Chinese...  I've run out of rice and I don't want to buy another bag so close to leaving so that takes fried rice out (which is what I typically make for potlucks).  But I had a huge bag of rice noodles (米粉) left.  I've never fried them before, only had them in soup, so the experimentation began and the results were pretty good.  It tasted okay, but the others loved it.  Apparently Chinese food is a huge hit, half the table didn't get any.  I'm going to make it again tomorrow for dinner (I still have half the package of noodles left anyway).

My noodles!

Here is some of what the others made:

Making Knödel- potato dumpling stuffed with meat (German)

 

Tuna stuffed eggs appetizer (Spanish)

Elaborate salad (Italian) and some wrap appetizers (American)

Cheese fonduee~

Our dinner table!  So much foood~

And of course - dessert!  We had Panettone (Italian cake that is only available during the holidays) with Marscapone.  There was also some Portuguese desserts (I forgot their names) but I was way toooo full to eat it.  Someone was handing out homemade Brazilian chocolates and those were ridiculously good. 

And then came presents time! 

... and with it, the stupidness started...

C4.10!  Best corridor ever!

The Countdown Begins

Today I ran into a friend from York on exchange here that I hadn't seen for a couple weeks and we got to talking.  He asked me when I was leaving and then it struck me: two weeks.

Two weeks today, I'm going to be boarding my flight home from Amsterdam.  In 9 days I'm going to be leaving Maastricht for a couple days in Paris before heading home.  Today I had my final tutorial ever at UM.  Only a group paper and an exam before I'll be finished with my classes.

While I've had my ups and downs, battling homesickness and language barriers, Maastricht and the way of life here has become natural.  It has really become my home for the past four months and I'm sad that I have to leave soon.  As I go about my daily life, it strikes me, this may be the last time I'll be here or the last time I'll be doing this.  Definitely it will be hard to say goodbye to all the people I've met here from around the world. 

I'm scared to go home too.  What use to be normal will probably feel weird to me.  People will be different - I'll be different.  I'll have to adjust all over again.  I've been putting off purchasing a box to send my things home (through mail).  By going and buying that box its like saying to myself, that yes its true I have to leave.  I don't want to think about packing up everything here, putting it into boxes, and heading home.  Its exhausting and makes me feel bittersweet. 

I feel like there is so much I haven't done, so much I haven't seen - even within the city of Maastricht.  And there's barely any time to do all those things.  For awhile I took for granted what I had here and I forgot about experiencing things, instead withdrawing into myself.  Now that time is so short, I'm starting to realize all the things that I could have done. 

Bah - enough of this self pity.  I have a paper to write!

What's in a name?

I've started to notice a trend.  No one can spell my name properly here.  Everyone substitutes the last "a" in my name with an "e".  At first I thought it was just the one person (from the UM Visa office), but then the International Relations Office started doing it and then now my group mates do it too.  I don't understand.  I'll be spelling out my name and somehow they don't hear the last "a" and instead the "e" shows up.  Or even when copying my name from an email (in a reply for example), the last "a" is changed again. 

Maybe its not common to have a name ending in an "a"?  I don't know.  I think I will investigate, but its really starting to get annoying.  I'm use to people mispronouncing my name but seriously, copying it or with me spelling it out and they still can't get it right?  Bah annoying!

**UPDATE**  So I asked one of my Dutch group mates, and apparently the letter "e" in Dutch is pronounced like the letter "a" in English.  So that explains why they can't spell it when I spell it out for them.  What about during the copying?

Dutch Innovativeness

I'm currently writing a paper on the national competitive advantage of the Dutch flower industry.  So far, its been interesting and also a bit boring.  Because I'm in the Netherlands during the fall, there are no flowers.  It has been interesting to read about how the Dutch have innovated so that they can produce flowers year round despite the many difficulties the weather bring. 

While randomly surfing the internet (procrastination >.<" but on topic - sorta), I came across this article, detailing how a restaurant in the town of Zeist is harnessing the energy from a revolving door.  They have figured out how to convert the energy produced from someone passing through the door into electricity.  Each time someone passes through the door, enough energy is produced to make a cup of coffee!

Its a pretty interesting read.  Check it out: Holland Puts a New Spin on Old Technology to Combat Climate Change [via EcoWorldly]

Why Europe is awesome

I took this recording ages ago, but I finally put it up.  I love how cultured everywhere is.  One day I was walking home, and I stumbled upon this.  LOVE!  It was taken in the centrum area of Maastricht, right outside the tourist information building. 

When I first heard them, they were playing Czardas by Monti which really caught my attention cause that was one of my favourite violin pieces.  This is their interpretation of Pachabel's Canon in D:

Sinterklaas!

Today is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands.  There have been decorations around for ages, since the beginning of November more or less.  Sinterklaas is pretty much like Christmas, but takes place on December 5th.  They exchange gifts and have family gatherings.  I asked a Dutch student that is in one of my classes, and he says that his family celebrates both Sinterklaas and Christmas.  He had a family dinner yesterday night and exchanged gifts then too (but I think traditionally people celebrate it on the 5th).  In terms of holidays, everything is still open today, but on Christmas things are closed. 

There are two main figures for Sinterklaas: Sinterklaas (who looks a bit like Santa Claus) and Zwarte Piet (or Black Pete and kind of like the elves that we know).

Block Two Classes

For my second block, I am taking Crisis Management and Global Transportation Management. 

Crisis Management

This class really reminds me of the organizational behaviour class I took last year, but from a more strategic point of view.  There is no textbook – all readings come from articles.  The articles are pretty interesting, but sometimes can get really confusing.  For each class, there are group assignments related to the readings.  Its been pretty annoying trying to complete the assignments together as a group.  The majority of students in this class are exchange students so there are definitely some difficulties in working with English.  My tutor is originally from Columbia and its a bit frustrating working with her.  I feel like she doesn’t really understand what is happening most of the time.  She keeps asking for more in depth discussions of the topic at hand, but often there really isn’t too much detail we can discuss.  So many of the topics are really superficial and doesn’t really have too much substance to it. 

Each student is required to make a presentation on one of the class readings.  We need to come up with a creative way to discuss the literature and present it to the class.  I was pretty worried about this presentation, but after watching a couple people do their presentation, it doesn’t seem too bad.  The final exam is an open book exam and follows the group assignments that we had during the block.

 

Global Transportation Management

While crisis management was primarily made up of exchange students, Global Transportation Management was not.  I think I was the only exchange student in the whole class – definitely the only one in my tutorial group.  At first, I felt a bit awkward about this, but in the end I think it worked towards my advantage.  I was able to see how their classes truly operate and I learned SO much about transportation in Europe.  The tutorial group was split into three smaller groups and each group had to present three topics – two that have assigned readings and a third where we a freedom to conduct our own research.  We were asked to present the materials in the reading and go above and beyond to bring interesting related facts about the topic.  My group discussed ocean shipping, ports and canals and intermodal transportation.  This class didn’t have a final exam, instead having a final paper where we were asked to create a transportation plan for moving printers from Shanghai to Germany using the course materials.  

UM Library

There are two libraries on at UM, the main one was where I went to do all my printing and was a great place to meet with classmates to work on projects.  The library set up is pretty interesting – you’re not allowed to bring your bags or jackets into the library.  Instead they have lockers for you to store your belongings.  If the lockers were all full, they had hooks for you to put up your things.  To get into the library you need to swipe your UM card.  Definitely a lot more security here than the libraries back at UVic.

The main entrance to the UM Library.

The lockers

Pulley system for jackets and bags

The most annoying thing at the library is that there are very limited printers available and more often than not, they don’t work properly.  Especially at the beginning of the block, there are tons of people wanting to print things.  The line for the printer is super long and the printers kept on breaking down.  Ugh – so frustrating.

Time for a Major Update

It has been ages since I’ve updated here.  Since the last time I wrote, I’ve been doing tons of traveling.  I’ve traveled to some smaller cities in Germany following the Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tale Route, visited Vienna, Salzburg and Prague and went to Den Haag for a day trip.

I also celebrated my birthday in style as a mime, went on my first (scary and bumpy) bike ride in the Netherlands, wrote my first set of exams and started a new class block at school.

End of Block 1 Classes

The first block officially ended on Oct 17.  For finals, I had to write a paper for my Business and Politics in Europe class and an exam for my Brand Management class.  Because I was leaving right after my exam for Vienna, I had to finish my paper fast.  We were required to develop an argument based on a bunch of literature we had read during the course of the class.  The most difficult part was coming up with an argument that involved all of the literature (that ranged from a variety of topics from lobbying to types of capitalism, problems with transitional governments to governance). The end result was a crappy written paper (although the beginning wasn’t too bad).  My exam went pretty well - all I was hoping for was a pass and surprisingly I did fairly well =)

Block 2 Classes

I’ve started my second block classes already.  I’m taking Crisis Management and Global Transportation Management.  They’ve just started so I’m not too sure where they’re headed.  I’ve done one presentation for the transportation class and have another one on Thursday about ocean shipping, ports and canals.  These classes have less exchange students compared the ones I took last block.  I’m the only exchange student in my transportation tutorial! 

Scary Bike Ride

I had decided on not purchasing a bike while I’m here, instead walking everywhere.  Maastricht isn’t all that big and its easy to walk to school and to the centrum.  It takes about 15 – 20 mins to school and 20-30 mins to the centrum which isn’t too bad and I really don’t mind walking (except when its pouring, but that hasn’t happened too much).  One weekend, one of my friends was heading out of town so I asked if I could borrow her bike.  There is a Chinese supermarket by the main train station but its really far to walk so I decided to take the bike.  To put things in perspective, the last time I rode a bike I don’t even remember.  Maybe grade 8??  Too long ago!  The streets here are much smaller and the cars pass you so much closer.  Half the streets are cobble stone, making for a very bumpy ride.  Then there are a bunch of one way streets that bikes technically aren’t allowed to go the wrong way on either.  But by the time I got back, I was feeling a little more comfortable with the traffic.  Its great to get around, but I’m still glad I’m walking everywhere.  Too stressful!

Travels

Stayed tuned for updates of my travels!

More info about Austria

B&B's in Salzburg:
Am Moos
Pension Jahn
This is where I stayed, owned by a Taiwanese family, they were really helpful in planning our day and pointing us in the right direction.  While the hostel is a bit far from the main area of Salzburg, it is close enough to walk.  Breakfast is included as well.

 

Hostels in Wien:
Wombat's
I would highly recommend "the Lounge" over "the Base".  I stayed in both as the Lounge one was booked up.  The Base was in a older building and was really far away from the main street.  At night it was a bit sketchy trying to get to the hostel.  They also have hostels in other cities, but I didn't try them.
Homestay
My travel partner and I had originally wanted to stay here the duration of our visit to Wien, but they were booked.  Essentially its a room in their apartment, but everything was really clean and affordable.  I stayed there one night by myself for 25euro - I had the whole room to myself and didn't have to pay for the other (lack of) occupants.  If I go back to Wien for an extended stay I would probably stay here again.   While they speak English, knowing Mandarin is helpful.

 

Wien Info:
Wien Tourism Info
Wien Metro

When I was in Wien I opted for the Vienna card.  While the savings with the card weren't that great, I more than made up for the cost of the card by traveling on their public transportation.  I got it in the airport and started using it right away.  The card is valid for 3 days.

In Salzburg, there is a similar card, but we didn't get it.  It was more expensive than the Vienna one and didn't offer as many perks.  Also, I was only there for day...

For train travel their site is useful for planning and comes complete with an English version (although slightly aggravating at times when it switches back to Germany suddenly).  Because the two hostels I stayed at in Wien were close to a train station, I bought my tickets in person at the station (both to Salzburg and to Prague).

10.24.08 More of Wien

Today was the last full day in Wien for me and my travel partner was leaving in the afternoon to head back to Maastricht (she was on her way to Barcelona!).  Our day started at the Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  The building was originally a low income apartment complex and now is a tourist attraction.  While no tourists are allowed inside, many still come to look at the building.  As we approached, I could see where the architecture switched from typical buildings to that of the Hundertwasserhaus.  The colors of the building were crazy, with random columns here and there.  My eyes didn't know where to look first - there was something interesting to look at everywhere my eyes went.

Next to the building is the Hundertwasser Village.  This village was designed for visitors who came to see the Hundertwasser Haus could experience what it would be like inside the building.  The village is now filled with tourist shops and some art galleries.  The design though, was just as colourful as the building across the street.  There were no straight lines and everything was so fascinating to look at.

We next headed to the "Ring" Boulevard (Ringstrasse).  This road circles the city centre and goes past important buildings such as the Hofburg Palace and the Austrian Parliament building.  We went to look at the Rathaus, or city hall.  The day following my visit was National Austrian Day and they were in the process of setting up tents for the celebrations.

The Parliament was next.  Despite the two buildings being really close (almost neighbours) they varied quite a bit in terms of architecture which I found a bit odd.  In front of the building is a fountain depicting Athena.

We wandered some more without a set destination in mind.  We stumbled upon the Museumsquartier, but we had decided - no more museums!  Finally we ended up by the Hofburg Palace were more tents and military displays were being set up in preparation for the next day. 

There were a number of interesting food stalls set up, but we planning on visiting a cafe soon for some cake.  The Sacher Hotel is known around the world as the makers of the Original Sacher Torte.   The word "original" is in the name because of a dispute  between a competing shop, Demel, over who really had the original.  The Demel cake is now called "Demels Sachertorte." 

The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake (traditionally a sponge cake) with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it as most Viennese consider the Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

Source: Wikipedia

So with all this hype about the cake, I had to go try it.  Honestly?  It didn't seem all that remarkable.  It wasn't too sweet, which is good, and I found it a bit too dry even with the cream. 

After resting for a bit in the cafe, we headed on a series of musical encounters.  I wanted to visit the monuments of various composers around the city.  First stop was Mozart. 

Then it was off to Stadtpark to see Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert (respectively).

After our walk in the park, my travel partner headed to the airport while I went in search of my homestay for the night.  I had a high school friend doing her exchange in Vienna and we had arranged to meet up that night for dinner and some wandering around the city.  We walked through the Naschmarkt, sort of a farmer's market in the middle of Vienna, visited the Vienna Prater, before meeting her friend for dinner.  We went to a very Austrian pub and I tried a couple of Austrian food items.  First up was Sturm, called federweisser in Germany, is a partially fermented wine and is only available during certain times of the year (usually early fall). 

It was really sweet and didn't taste like wine at all.  But towards the end of the night it really didn't sit all that well.  We ordered two dishes of Knödel to share between the three of us.

They're essentially a dumpling made from potato with a meat filling served with some gravy.  I found it to be really really salty, but otherwise not bad. 

I remember we were sitting at the bar eating and taking pictures of our food.  Apparently that caused quite a scene as many of the locals didn't understand what we were doing.  A number of people were looking at us and laughing silently and we were oblivious until someone sitting across from us at the bar came over loudly and said enough with the picture taking - he was going to take a picture for us so we could start eating.  And so that is what he did and now we have a picture (and all the local's probably think Asian tourists are crazy...)

And so ended my stay in the Austrian capital.  I went to bed relatively early that night as I had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch a 4 hour train to Prague!

 

To see more pictures click here.
Read the rest of the series: Day I, Day II and Day III.
For some tips on travel in Austria click here.

10.23.08 Back to Wien

After spending a day and night in Salzburg, we headed back to Wien with a three hour long train ride.  After dropping off our bags we headed to the Belvedere Palace.  There is an art gallery here, focusing on the works of Klimt, an Austrian painter.  We decided to not go to the museum, instead just wandering around the gardens.  Most of the Earth was dug up, similar to the Mirabel Gardens in Salzburg, but it was still pretty nonetheless.  I can only imagine what it would look like during the spring and summer when the gardens are filled with blooming flowers. The day we were there was extremely cold.  The wind was blowing and just being outside made you want to cringe.  Horrible day to be traveling - such a big difference compared to the Salzburg the day before. 

Looking at the Upper Belvedere from the gardens

 
The Lower Belvedere from the sculpture garden

After wandering the grounds of this massive palace, we headed to another massive palace - the Schönbrunn Palace.  The palace showcases the lifestyle of the Hapsburg monarchs before their downfall in 1918.  The palace was mainly used as a summer residence and had a large area for hunting and recreation.  Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, used the palace the most during the 19th century.  He was born and also died there, spending the majority of his time within this palace.  We toured the palace, seeing the majority of the rooms.  Honestly, I don't really remember much about the rooms.  They were very grand, filled with paintings, elaborate decorations and fancy furniture.  We were given an audio guide, but it went through so much information so fast. 

The palace was HUGE!

After taking the tour inside, we headed out into the grounds.  There are tons of things to see and do within the grounds of the palace.  It has its own zoo, a maze and labyrinth, a number of fountains and various different buildings.  We walked to see the Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette.

Looking at the Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette from the Palace.

The Gloriette was set on top of a hill.  We could see quite a distance surrounding the palace into Wien.  The world "gloriette" meaning, little glory, is a building that is usually placed in an elevated area and the one in Wien is no exception.  This one was originally used as a dining hall and festive hall for Franz Joseph I.  Now it holds a viewing terrace and a small cafe.

The view from the Gloriette.

After wandering around the gardens in the FREEEEZING cold, we headed back into the city in search of the Haus der Musik.  The museum itself was very interactive - there were tons of things to play with and/or touch.  Kids would probably really enjoy it.  I was a bit freaked out touching everything (germs! >.<)  The museum started with some information about how sound is made and how we perceive sounds.  One of the first exhibits went through a series of sound illusions and the reasons behind them.  That was really interesting!  For example, a scale is typically made up of 8 notes and as you continue the notes get higher and higher.  They showed one scale that never seemed to end.  Its called the Shepard's scale and they have examples of it on the internet.  Using science, they tried to explain what was going on, but so much of it was over my head!  I didn't understand it at all.  In another area of the museum, they went through the different eras of music and had examples of the various well known musicians at the time.  It reminded me so much of music history class!  We were given audio guides so we could hear music as well as the narration. 

In a final area focusing on the Wien Philharmonic Orchestra, they had this display where you could "compose" your own music using a set of dice.  Here are our results:

By the end of the museum, we were starving and we went in search of some good Austrian food.  One of my high school friends who is currently on exchange in Wien recommended we head to Figlmuller for some Schnitzel.  En route to the restaurant we stumbled upon the Musik Meile Wien.  There were tons of stars on the ground with many composers I am familiar with, and some that I was not. 

 

We finally made it to the restaurant, ordered our schnitzel and when it came, boy was I glad we decided to share.  The portion was HUGEE!  Bigger than my face - probably twice the size of my face. 

We ordered it with a side of potatoes and salad which were both very yummy.  I found the schnitzel to be really salty (a trend I'm starting to notice in European food), especially around the edges.  The centre was less so and tasted much better.  Now I've had schnitzel in Austria!

 

For more pictures, click here.

Read the rest of the series: Day I and Day II.

10.22.08 Storming Salzburg

While in Wien, we decided to take a day out and head to Salzburg for a day trip.  The train ride was about 3 hours each way.  Much of the filming for the Sound of Music took place in and around Salzburg.  I was really excited to see the city and see where everything was filmed.  Most of the larger buildings that were used in the movie weren't in the city and required a tour for you to see them.  It was a bit pricy and took up a lot of time so we elected to not do the tour.  Instead we wandered the city and saw as much as we could. 

Our first stop was the Mirabell Gardens where sections of the "Do-Re-Mi" song was sung.  They had dug up all the flowers so it looked quite different from the movie. 

Our next stops were both related to Mozart.  We went to one of Mozart's apartments and then to his birthplace.  This trip is turning into quite the musical tour. 

  
Left: Mozart's apartment from 1773 to 1780.  Right: Mozart's birthplace and house from from 1747 to 1773.

Both places held a museum, but we decided not to go as we went to the larger one in Wien.  Most of Mozart's apartment was destroyed by a bomb in WWII and when that section was reconstructed, it became an office.  Later the International Mozarteum Foundation purchased it and reconstructed the building to what it would have looked like when Mozart lived there. 

There were tons of people in front of Mozart's birthplace.  You knew you were approaching it before you even got there.  There was a huge crowd gathered right in front, taking pictures.  Of course we had to join them!  Like Mozart's apartment, his birthplace has been under renovations too.

Mozart's birthplace was right in the heart of Salzburg's Getreidegasse, a shopping street that is decorated with iron signs for shops, with its narrow street and houses standing tall above you. 

Left: The windy street of Getreidegaase; Right: Elaborate sign for a McDonalds!

We wandered around the town a bit, making our way up to the castle overlooking Salzburg.  We saw the Horse Pond which appears in the Sound of Music, but I don't remember where exactly.  I'll have to watch the movie again!  (Yay procrastination!)

 
The Horse Pond

Next to it, is the Rock Riding School or the Festival House where the von Trapp family sang Edelweiss (the linked version is from when they sang it earlier in the movie, not at the festival) before escaping the country.  We couldn't go inside, but just walked past the outside. 

We went to look at the Cathedral, but as with the rest of Europe, it was under construction.  They had also put up a plastic covering to protect the statue that was right outside of it.   We didn't go in.

 

En route to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, we can across two interesting site: a giant chess game and a huge golden ball with a fake person standing on top of it.  There was a huge crowd surround the chess board and I'm guessing people probably spend hours here, watching and / or playing chess.  There were a number of smaller boards set up as well.  The fake person standing on the ball looked SO real at first.  I didn't know it wasn't a real person until I realized it never moved! 

Looks real doesn't it? 

Finally, we made it to the base of the fortress and we took the funicular up.   From the top we could see most of Salzburg before us. 

The fortress is Europe's biggest fortification, built in 1077!  We were able to tour the fortress, explore a marionette museum and another museum about the fortress' history.  By the end of it, I was exhausted! 

Before heading back to our hostel, we had one final stop: a bakery to taste the Mozarttorte.  Mozart has a chocolate named after him and consequently a cake made from the flavours of the chocolate.  It is made from marzipan, surrounded by dark and light layer of nougat creme and coated with chocolate. 

After all that eating, we headed back to our hostel for a night of watching, you guessed it, yes, the Sound of Music!