I do not believe that I can stress the importance of that movie enough. It really did depict Salzburg as it was, a quiet mountain town. It still is, to this day, but it cannot escape its claim to tinsel town success. I knew this to be true as soon as I checked into my hostel, as the girl working behind the desk boastfully informed that in the common room they showed The Sound of Music movie on the large flat screen TV every night at 8 PM. It made me think that if I worked at this hostel I would want to kill myself by the end of the first week. However, since I have not seen the entire movie from start to finish, and have only come accustomed to random references made about it on numerous other television sitcoms, I decided that it would at least count as my “cultural thing to do” for the day. After a nap, I went up to the common room, bottle of Jager in hand, and settled down to watch the movie. Sure enough, the opening credits rolled, and the entire room blasted, in perfect surround sound, the opening line “THE HILLS ARE FILLED WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!” It was then and there that I decided for the rest of the movie that I would take a pull of Jager for every song, that I would drink until Julie Andrews looked as good as she sounded. Little did I know that there were well over 20 songs in the movie and that I did not have enough Jager to accomplish the task at hand. I believe I finished the rest of the bottle by the fifth song. Damn you Rogers and Hammerstein!
For a film made in the 1950’s, it had some pretty subtle adult humor to it for a Disney family movie that I got a good laugh out of. The Max character was by far the funniest. I felt the movie progressed along rather well until the mood was ruined by the biggest party crashers in history: the Nazis. Having never seen the film or play before, this came as an interesting twist to me. The feeling I got was similar to the one I got watching the movie Apocalypto: A man, running for his life because he is being chased by a pissed off group of Mayan man-hunters hell-bent on either killing him or dragging him back to the temple to have his heart ripped out of his chest for religious purposes, makes it down to a beachhead, and just when you think it’s all over and things couldn’t get any worse for the poor chap, the Spanish conquistadors show up. That’s the feeling I’m talking about. Anyway, the movie wrapped up rather nicely with the von Trapp family escaping to the sanctity of ever-neutral Switzerland. I was baffled. The hero that saved the day was Swiss neutrality. As the closing credits, rolled, I felt robbed of life that I would never get back, and I was overcome by an insane urge to consume strong drink.
The next day I ventured to a local brewery I had visited before on a family trip 5 years prior. It was the Stiegl brewery, and was the most famous brewer in all of Austria. I vaguely remember the tour as a youth, but it came back to me almost instantly the moment I approached the building. I bought my ticket and began the tour. It started in the basement where all the grains were kept and it walked through all the necessary components that go into making beer. The most interested thing I found was a picture of a cellular organism that is used to brew hefeweizen.
The next floor was a cooper's shop. It was here that barrels for storing the beer was made. Here is the largest of the barrels:
Further on, there was another section where the bottling took place. I was amazed that there was a beer-ymid of bottles. Here it is:
I also found a wonderful display on other uses of beer other than consumption. This one, entitled “Beer Bath” struck me as the most ingenious thing I had ever heard of.
Finally, at the end of the tour, I received two samples of beer. I chose a dark beer and a regular beer, each equally tasty and satisfactory. Since the price was not too great, I decided to order a couple mugs, including one Radler. Here I am enjoying a fine brew:
Getting home was an interesting experience. Tipsy as I was, I was able to communicate with the bus driver where I needed to be let off, and I promptly fell asleep as soon as I sat down. I was prodded awake by the bus driver, and let off. It was not until later that I realized the bus stopped specifically in front the street my hostel was located down, even though there was no bus stop at this particular spot. I grabbed my bags and headed for the train station, and promptly resumed my sleep as soon as I situated myself on the train to Vienna.
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