Crispy pata, Emperor Maximilian I and Mozart

Before I continue my article on my tour of Europe, I’d like to say a few things about the Shang Cineplex. A couple of days ago, I took my sisters to watch the animated flick Madagascar with one of my friends. About 30 minutes into the movie, the screen fizzes and goes dead. It remains off for about 10 minutes. The Shang Cineplex is supposedly one of the better movie houses. I’d hate to think of what the theaters are like in the province, if compared to this.

Day 5

The Belmontes take a stopover at Munich, and continue on to the Golden Roof and Wilten Basilica of Innsbruck.

I don’t really recall much about Munich, perhaps because I was asleep most of the time. But I do remember our lunch. We were given free rein of the city, as long as we were back in time for lunch. After a good walk down one of the main avenues, we (Mikey, Ethan, and I) discovered this super cool store which had four floors. The basement was full of software and phones. Ground floor had CDs and DVDs. First floor had consoles and console games. Second floor had PC games. The store was huge. How cool is that? While I was about to check out the Xbox games, my two compatriots immersed themselves in the DVD section. Almost as soon as we got in, I got a text from my dad saying that we should be heading back. I told my cousins that it was lunch time, and that I’d be heading back. They gave no reply, but instead were discussing among themselves the DVDs they held in their hands. So I went on ahead. When I got to the restaurant, I was already late by a few minutes. I discovered I had come all the way to Europe to eat Germany’s version of Crispy Pata. It also came with these incredibly synthetic mashed potatoes. It was good. (The pork, not the potatoes). While I write this it’s about dinnertime and just remembering it makes me hungry. I can’t describe it, you have to go there and eat it yourself. About 20 minutes into the meal, Ethan and Mikey showed up. They claimed I never told them I was leaving. Anyway, their mothers were so upset about them being late that they thought up this fine. For every 15 minutes they were late, they would be fined five Euros.

On we went to the land where Glocks are made. Surprisingly, Red Bull Energy Drink originated here, too. Innsbruck is actually the fifth largest city in Austria. I was amazed at the extravagance of Maximilian I, the emperor who ordered the Golden Roof of Innsbruck constructed. It’s basically a roof made of solid gold. Think of how many peasants he could have fed with all the money he spent commemorating his second marriage. Hell, not even Erap would spend that much on his mistresses. Or would he? Maybe his pal Dichaves would know. Anyway, extravagant or not, the Golden Roof was a glorious sight. All the better to eat gelato under the Wilten Basilica which was undergoing restoration, which meant it was covered with scaffolding and ads like most other historical buildings in Europe.

Day 6

We drive to Vienna, passing through Salzburg and viewing the Danube River and taking a Sound of Music tour.

When we got to Mozart’s house in Salzburg, what immediately struck me was that it was such an ordinary house of the time. The great Mozart lived like a regular Joe during the early years of his life. On display inside the house were items such as Mozart’s first musical composition, his first violin, his viola, his full-sized violin, his harpsichord, etc. I was hoping to be inspired and suddenly become a musical genius, but nothing happened. My sisters couldn’t wait for the Sound of Music tour. They incessantly belted out tunes from the movie. I heard Edelweiss sung more than ten times that day. Our Sound of Music guide was old, frail, and had a terrible English accent. We didn’t learn much from her. It was raining, so we all had our hoods up. All in all, the tour was pretty bad. The only good thing about it was the Danube river. One can easily imagine how Strauss was inspired by this blue river. If only there weren’t so many gypsies hanging around the bridges.