When I left for my big OE, freshly 22, dewy skinned and nowhere near as clever as I thought I was, I had one ambition in mind.
- Go on the Salzburg Sound of Music Tour.
So let’s start at the very beginning.
I love TSOM. I have seen it more times than there are raindrops on roses and have been known to swirl on a few climbed mountains. When The Sing-a-long Sound of Music came to town I went along dressed as Liesel and didn’t even need the words bouncing on the screen.
When a couple of years later I was asked to host it but could not, I was as devastated as Napier c 1931.
So in 1997 when my Eurobus drove into gorgeous Salzburg my heart soared like a drop of golden sun. We disembarked at Yo-Ho’s youth hostel and settled in to watch TSOM which played everyday at 1pm. My fellow travellers were disturbed by my lyric knowledge but I cared not and was as high as a lonely goatherd.
Then the drinking started, as did the dancing on tables, and more drinking…. until I was a floppy flibbety-jibbet, and a wonky willo’ the wisp.
I eventually crashed giddy in the knowledge that the tour was tomorrow.
And then the vomiting.
Regular readers will remember my hangovers and this one was a virulent as H1N1. I was Napier all over again. How would I tour to the Gazebo they danced in or the trees they climbed in if I was barfing 16 going on 17 times. I had a problem to solve.
But I realised I had confidence in me, and made myself better. I haven’t managed to do that before or since, but Maria guided me and I got on that bus.
To be frank the tour itself was a bit disappointing, the host was a smarmy American, you couldn’t dance in the Gazebo as a 90 year old woman had broken her hip doing so and we found out locals hated the movie as stupid tourists ran through the Mirabel gardens everyday singing Doe a Deer.
So 7 of us did exactly that the next day, I played Liesel, and it was awesome.
On Saturday the Travel Channel kicks off, and no doubt it will soon become one of my favourite things.