let´s start at the very beginning. a very good place to start...

when you read you begin with A,B,C. when you travel you begin with chris, beth, meg
so salzburgian we are. my sistah arrived last night, and oh what a bumpy road that was! she was supposed to arrive at 1:35pm, however instead her flight kept saying "next info 2:00, 2:30, 3:00..." oh so frustrating. and when finally i thought our reunion was near, CANCELED the arrivals said. so i dashed to the phone called dear old mommy, hoping my sister was thinking like me and leaving a msg there, but of course the line was busy. so i leave a panic msg and run off to the ticket booth. now like a good man chris was patiently waiting our turn in the long line of people booking new flights, however i was not going to participate in such madness, and against chris´ wishes i ran to the regular ticket man and dumped on him my tearful missing sister story. and oh beautiful day he assured me that she was still coming in, just the outgoing flight from salzburg was canceled. showed chris i sure did. i am always one to ask questions and avoiding any lines i can. so skipping back to the arrivals gate i go and soon it actually says "landed". so i pull out my very professional sign that said "SISSER MARIA" in bold letters. i did not want her to get confused with all the other sisters there! well, there was an actual professional man next to me with his printed, laminated sign for some business guy, when he looked at me puzzled because my sign was ripped from a note book, crumpled from being in my pocket, i turned to him and said "ohhh it´s not a real sign! it´s for my sister, i just wanted to feel special!" the german man did not find it as lovely as me, but oh well. my dear sistah was coming, and not only could i not contain my excitement to kiss and hug her, but our entire sisterly life has been leading up to the moment when we are austrian and singing in the hills with the von trapps! of course she was near last off, and i did confuse a few ladies arriving with my sign, since i was standing at the very front screaming "sistah! sistah! where are you my sistah!?" and intermittently singing a few "doe, re, mis" and "raindrops on roses". i jumped on her when she arrived and my soul was flying high in the austrian sky!
we had a lovely dinner at a place called Indigo. I knew I would love it when i walked by because it´s slogan was "food that tastes like a kiss". last night we relaxed and beth caught up on some much needed sleep, because the day next maria and gayorg were awaiting our arrival. 9am we were picked up to go on our huge "sound of music" tour coach bus, the whole bus painted with the von trapp family. oh my dreams began to come true! chris was assigned camera man for the day, since sister and i were going to be singing a great deal, climbing trees and drinking austrian apple cinnamon soda. our tour guide came from heaven above as far as i am concerned. i didn´t even know she was on the bus, but once we started moving she stood up, microphone in hand "let´s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..." had my attention and heart she did. so we had 4 hours of von trappin´ahead. we went everywhere; the abbey, the marribell gardens (where they sang and danced to do, re, mi), the house they used for the shots, the church where the wedding scene was shot, the trees the children hung from in curtains, the path that maria sings and runs down singing "i have confidence in sunshine!". beth and i sang this song while running down this very path, chris videotaping. i didn´t see any other toursits singing and dancing- weirdos! we tried to hang from the trees, we sang and danced, again with chris taping, around the pegasus fountain "do, re, mi", and were told "good show" by a tourist. on the bus they played the music, insisting that all sing. i don´t think everyone sang, but beth and i belted it out danced in our seats, did all the actions we could....oh how glorious. now during all of our frolicking across salzburg inside and out do know that it was snowing like a northern ontario! windy, snowy, COLD! so not quite the green austrian image i had, but oh just as perfect! we had to be quite careful when dancing on the road and fountain.
at the end of our tour an older english couple across from us on the bus turned to beth and told her "i´ve been on this tour four times, and you two made this one the best! we need people like you to make it fun! if you are ever in Oxford, look us up." and then the wife handed beth her business card with number and address. OH MAN did that make my sound of music day! perhaps my sistah and i should go on tour in oxford, for our fans i mean. oh those cutie oxfordians really just added an extra special feeling of "we are sound of music". beth and i our whole lives have talked about coming to salzburg and visiting all the movie spots, and singing and dancing. today was our walking on the moon, getting an oscar, winning the lottery.... for this has been our destiny! it hasn´t even sunk in yet that this really happened. so exciting, such a treat beyond all treats.
later we walked some of the christmas markets. apparently today was the official day that salzburg begins celebrating the christmas season, so the snow was a perfect touch. we stopped in a mozart museum, which was actually the home he was born in and raised. weirdest museum ever. we all agreed that someone was trying too hard to be artsy and "out of the box" that it ended up being like i was in a bad nightmare where everything is just a little off and so strange and you can´t get out quick enough. there were even several displays of mozart´s hair, a little creepy.
so back at hostel we are, resting before some drinks in the pub i think. there´s a pub right in the hostel, good ol´ YOHO. tomorrow we have a great walkabout and maybe a less terrifying mozart musem.
last night the aussie snow virgins were out in the streets in the underwear and bare feet, beer in hand singing christmas carols and frolicking. i am hoping they had the day to play in the snow so they aren´t naked, drunk and rolling in the snow tonight. this morning they were having a snow fight in flip flops. however, i did enjoy their snow ball fights much more than canadians- the newbies make nice little soft snowballs and lob them over to their friends. canada they clench the snow in their hands to make it an ice ball and whip it!

anyways, i do have many international friends to meet and sisters to spoon!
love love love

and chris and i love the comments from you!

Tschüs

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