Well, I will begin this post with a picture of me creeping in the shadows behind a cow decorated with "The Sound of Music" locations.
I wanted to take Adrienne to Salzburg, since I went with my friend Hyojeong and we had a fabulous time.
And "The Sound of Music" tour was one of the best moments of my life, hands down. I mean, how can you not love seeing the locations of your favorite movie while also singing along to the music?
Adrienne and I had an uneventful early morning train ride, arriving in Salzburg around 10 AM. We dropped off our bags at the hostel, then headed to get breakfast.
We passed the wonderful Sound of Music cow on the way to breakfast.
We also stopped by Mirabell Palace and Gardens, one of the many locations in Salzburg in the Sound of Music.
Of course it is extremely beautiful, as is the rest of the city.
Here is a unicorn, located in the gardens.
The flowers were blooming nicely, which was wonderful1
You can see the castle in the background here.
Adrienne looking very excited.
Adrienne in the distance skipping towards the camera ungracefully.
Adrienne missing a leg.
Adrienne finishing her skipping.
Here is the fountain that the children danced around during Do Re Mi.
A lion peacefully overlooking the garden.
Here is Adrienne looking very excited in the tunnel.
And some more skipping.
and more skipping.
and skipping...
The gardens from another angle, with Mirabell church in the background.
A statue decorated with small animals.
A different statue decorated with an anchor.
A small turtle decorating the statue.
Here I am failing at looking like the statue.
Adrienne failing at fitting the statues in the picture.
I do not know what this is.
We walked through the city on a search for a cafe.
We found one in a cute little square in the middle of the city.
Our waiter looked like Voldemort and it was a little unnerving.
We wandered around a bit more, even though Adrienne was wearing a jacket.
I point out that Adrienne was wearing a jacket because it was 10:30 AM and already 87 degrees and clearly getting hotter.
It was quite warm that day, but I was enjoying the city! Apparently it was a lot hotter than the usual high temperature for July, but that's ok.
We looked around a bit more, before heading back to the hostel so we could check in and Adrienne could take off her jacket.
Here is Adrienne sweating in her jacket in front of Salzburg Cathedral.
We went inside the Cathedral, which was built in only 15 years and finished in 1628. How that is possible, I do not know because it is quite large! Apparently during World War II a bomb crashed through the dome and had to be repaired.
The inside of the church is intricate, which is typical of European churches, but it is still beautiful!
Here's Adrienne looking excited as usual!
Here I am looking a bit sweaty due to the extremely high temperature of Salzburg.
You can see the vastness here. I love all the decorations on the ceiling, which have a variety of characters in them.
There were several organs in the cathedral, which we didn't hear, unfortunately.
There's the castle!
Here is man on a golden ball.
I think this might have been a slight photobomb, but I couldn't be sure.
That is Nonnberg Abbey, also in the movie. We walked up there on a different day, which I will write about later.
We took the long way back to the hostel, exploring little back areas of the town, which are beautiful!
Well, maybe not back areas, but places people don't think to look at I think.
The hills are alivveeeeeeee
with the Sound of MUSIIIICCC.
We of course sang quietly to ourselves the whole time.
So many hills that are alive!
The view from across the bridge which the children run along.
Looking at the beautiful castle from across the river, which was beautiful. Even though it was hot and it felt like we were never going to make it back to the hostel.
It was a lovely day though.
Adrienne refused to stop photobombing and this was the best non-photobombing picture.
Very Austrian/German looking hotels.
What looks like part of an old castle.
We walked back through Mirabell gardens again, because when in Salzburg, one must spend a large amount of time in those beautiful gardens.
The flowers are just gorgeous!
We also saw a lot of roses!
The roses were wonderful.
I mean, look at those roses! and the castles!
We headed to Mozarts Geburtshaus, aka the house where he was born. I learned a lot of things that I had forgotten about Mozart. I also forgot he was only 35 when he died. Imagine what more he could have composed if he had survived longer! Also, he had a sad life. 6 of his 7 children died at a very young age.
We couldn't take pictures inside thee house, but this was a picture of a small area of the house, shared with a person who lives right next door.
We headed to the castle afterwards, which has some fabulous views. I was lucky this time because I didn't have to rush through it! We saw every nook and cranny of that castle.
Well, I have inadvertently not written a blog for another month. That would be due to the fact that I was having a fabulous time with Grant and Adrienne in Seoul! And also Marsha and Greg, my aunt and uncle came in January/February. It's been a very exciting couple months!
If you don't know me personally, Grant and Adrienne are my brother and sister. I am going to take a quick break in my Europe blogs to tell you a bit about the trip. Then I will go back to writing in order. (I'm so close to being finished! They will be finished by the end of May! I am determined! I apologize that life keeps getting in the way of me being a productive writer.)
Grant was able to come for about 8 days and Adrienne stayed for a whole month! It was fabulous. While Grant was here, we spent a lot of time running around, trying to see as much as possible since he had a limited amount of time.
One of those places was Noryangjin Fish Market. After three years, I had managed to never go (because I went to a different fish market in Busan) and I thought it was something we should see.
That and Grant was very insistent that he try live octopus during his time in Korea. He was not disappointed.
Well, he was actually determined to just eat all the weird foods he could. We succeeded in a few of them, but ran out of time before he could eat puffer fish. That means I haven't tried puffer fish...I think I get a pass due to the fact that I've all the weird foods. Including monk fish, which is a truly horrifying looking fish.
It's that fish in the ice to the left. I saw him at Namdaemun Market when I was walking around with Marsha and Greg. A few days later, my friend Hye Jin took me to eat Agu-Jjim, which is, apparently, monk fish with vegetables and a spicy sauce.
Little did I know that they would not just give you pieces of the boneless fish, but they cut up the entire fish, bones and all, and put it into the dish.
I discovered this fact when I found a jaw and basically a full set of teeth in my food.
It. was. terrible.
I immediately lost my appetite. I can put jellyfish, scorpion, live octopus, penis fish and this weird fish head stew on my list of weird things that were good.
(Side note: Yes, it's actually called penis fish. Also known as Fat Innkeeper Worm, also known as Urechis unicinctus).
Monkfish, sea squirt and star fish are on my bad list.
And Beondaegi, also known as boiled silk worm larvae. That was not delicious. And now, every time I smell it, the smell is 5 times as powerful.
I got severe food poisoning the day after I ate the Agu-jjim. I know it was the kimbap I ate that day (either the egg or the spinach was the culprit) but I want to blame it on the teeth I inevitably ingested while eating the monkfish.
The food poisoning was terrible. My evening classes end at 10 PM. At approximately 9:30, I was perfectly fine. At 9:45 I was thinking, "Hmm my stomach hurts, maybe it's not a good idea to go to the gym." At 9:50, I was thinking, "Wow my stomach really, really, really hurts."
At 9:56, 4 minutes before class ended, I had to run out of the room mid-sentence due to the immediate need to vomit. I made it to the bathroom, thank heavens, but I can tell you it is never fun to throw up at work! I returned to my classroom and had to tell my students to go home. They noticed I was sick due to the fact I'd put my hair in a ponytail (seeing as I did not want to get anything unseemly in my hair).
And so it began.
I was up until 8 AM vomiting, which was the worst. I had to go to work for my night class the next evening and my students said, "Your face is so white! You look so sick!" I didn't feel up to speed for several days and when I weighed myself at the gym a few days later, I was alarmed to learn I had lost 10 pounds.
No, that is not a typo. TEN pounds. And it never came back, which was surprising. It was kind of nice, but alarming at the same time.
I also saw a shark in Namdaemun Market. That was a very sad moment.
Anyway, back to Noryangjin. Adrienne, Grant and I headed to Noryangjin a little before lunch time.
It is quite a fascinating sight to behold! It's enormous. And, as would be expected, there were fish everywhere!
There were fish and mollusks of unusual size throughout the market. Including those mussels to the left.
Here's the market from above. You can see the vastness here quite well. It also extends to the right of the picture really far. It's basically a warehouse of fish.
Here is one of the stands from above. Each stand had a fairly large variety of fish, though each stand did not have every kind of fish, otherwise that would have been unfair to the people in the back.
I wonder the people at the beginning of the market have been there to get that prime location!
They had octopus, both dead and alive.
As usual, the live octopus were trying to break free of their buckets. I saw more escaping octopus that I could count! Of course, It took several pictures of them, just to show you.
To the left is one making his escape, straight into the legs of a larger, dad octopus.
Here is the market from the ground. One row of the market at least.
Here are various shelled organisms.
Here are the shrimps, but small and gigantic. I did not know that shrimps existed in that size.
Here are the crabs, small and large.
Apparently lobsters are also gigantic.
Here is a larger escaping octopus. He actually made quite the break for it. You'll also notice a smaller one in the background of the picture that was also on the run.
If I could speak Korean better, I would have said "Excuse me sir, but your octopus is escaping."
Unfortunately, I could not and just pointed at it and then ran away, just in case he thought I wanted to buy him.
The bottom of this picture is the penis fish.
The market once again. This was towards the end of the first line.
Here are some squid bobbing around.
And another escaping octopus. They were escaping all over the place!
The tentacles on this octopus were shocking. I feel like it MUST have been a giant octopus. Or giant squid. I can't tell from this angle.
And here are some more! Who would buy those and actually cook them?? I don't know about other people, but I only have 2 burners in my apartment and that's pretty standard here.
Some of these rays were looking very smiley. The others were looking quite horrified at being dead.
I don't know what this is but it makes me want to vomit.
Here are some eels!
I think it's an eel. It's looking at me. I can't look back at it!
You could also buy various spices to cook your various purchases with, both spicy and non-spicy.
Grant purchased the 3 small octopi and we headed to the second floor to a restaurant, where they prepare the octopi for consumption.
They asked if we wanted it live and I said yes.
Adrienne was not happy about it.
Grant was thrilled.
I had already tried it before but it's actually pretty good, so I was not unhappy about eating it again.
Grant in his excitement and Adrienne in her horror.
Adrienne is an extremely picky eater, so I was very proud of her for actually putting the octopus in her mouth. She even tried TWO bites after I fed her and forgot to dip it in the sauce.
As our mom said later, "She doesn't even like waffles!"
Here is Grant with a tentacle hanging out of his mouth.
Here Grant is at the market with the rays behind him.
Here is Adrienne with the rays.
Adrienne cleansed her palate later with some ice cream waffle. She likes waffles as long as their taste is covered with ice cream and whipped cream. Yumm.
It was an interesting start to the day. I will write later about all of our other exploits.
Just in case you needed them, here are some videos of the three of us eating live octopi, for your viewing pleasure.
And "The Sound of Music" tour was one of the best moments of my life, hands down. I mean, how can you not love seeing the locations of your favorite movie while also singing along to the music?
