Lainzer Tiergarten

Another week come and [almost] gone here in Vienna. This week, Eric and I finally made it out to the Lainzer Tiergarten. We didn't have any big trips or tests to worry about and it was quite relaxing to just have a few days to just spend peacefully in Vienna. The Tiergarten was the perfect choice. It's a great wildlife preserve out it the 23rd district of Vienna (out it the country). It's so beautiful out there and it was really nice to get out of the city for a while. We also picked the perfect day head out because it started snowing at noon today and it's suppsed to snow for the rest of the weekend! We discovered some fun, new animals.

There was the Damwild (or Fallow Deer, in English)

and the Mufflon (aka: Mouflon)

and even European Bison.

Aparently, the Mouflon is a kind of wild sheep or “goat antelopes." We learned that it is thought to be one of the two ancestors of modern sheep breeds! They were pretty cool, but not nearly as friendly as the Fallow Deer. In fact, one of the deer came right up to the fence and after a little sniffing, one of them let me pet him!


He was terribly cute! Then two adorable little kids with their grandma came over and we all pet/fed the deer.

The little girl was just darling! She looked about three and she kept picking "mitten-fulls" of grass and then she would hold it out to me and say "Bitte, bitte!" (Asking me to feed it to the deer). [Note: Fallow Deer prefer clover to grass; just in case you were wondering.]


Right now is getting to the end of the "Rut season" for Fallow Deer and we got to watch a few chases. One of the males was being rather territorial and would chase off all the other males. He chased one poor female all around the field (and was joined by two other males), until she had the sense to go back to her group of girlfriends - then the guys left her alone. Sounds just like humans! I think the best part was the lady's explanation to her grandchildren of what the deer were doing and saying. "Er sagt, 'Ich liebe dich, ich leibe dich'!" It was quite fun.

After thoroughly enjoying the deer and the sheep, we went looking for the wild boar that they apparently have in the park. Unfortunately, the only other animals that we saw were European Bison, or as Eric would say, "Sissy French Buffalo". It wasn't nearly as exciting as frolicking boar would have been, but I guess that just means that we'll have to go back in the snow and look for them again!

**This sad little pile of snow is all that is left from the snow that we got last Sunday. Hopefully next time I got to the park there will be a little more snow than this!**

Dublin, Prague, and then some...

Ok, here I am, late again with my posts. So much has happened in the past couple weeks! Two weeks ago was our last group trip… to Prague! Our train ride there was lovely. The countryside through the Czech Republic was so beautiful! There were so many cute little villages with cute little houses! It was great! I didn’t really know what to expect once we got to Prague. I had been told how wonderful and beautiful it was, but other than the Charles Bridge, I didn’t really know what it had to offer.

It was amazing! The weather forecast had predicted rain for the whole week, but somehow we got lucky and only got a 5 minute sprinkling on the second day we were there. (Taylor claims that since her offering of an apple core to Mother Nature back on our trip to Melk, the weather has been in our favor…) Although it didn’t rain, it was cloudy and overcast the whole time we were there and it made all of the colors seem so much more vibrant. I loved it in Prague. Every couple minutes I would have to just stop and remind myself that I was really there.

We had a tour almost every morning with our wonderful tour guide, Vladimir. The first tour took us around the city, mostly to get our bearings. The next morning we went down to the Jewish Quarter. There were some interesting memorials and a really cool cemetery. It was more of a tombstone forest than anything else. Our tour the next day took us up to castle hill and on a tour of St. Vitus and St. George’s Cathedrals, to name a few. I think, for me, the one of the coolest things in Prague is the different architecture and design. Every building is so different and just standing in one square you can see styles ranging from Gothic to Romanesque to Art Nouveau to Cubist to Baroque. It’s really fascinating. I also think that Prague has one of the coolest skylines – sticking out above all of the other buildings are hundreds of different spires, including those of the “Sleeping Beauty” castle. We saw the Powder Tower, the Charles Bridge, the Old Bridge Tower, the Prague Castle, St. Vitas’ Cathedral, St. George’s Basilica, Wenceslas. Square, etc…. One of the things that I got to see while we were there was really interesting. It was a museum of medieval torture devices! I’ve never seen one and it was disgusting, sick, terrible, heart-wrenching, cruel and unusual, and all around fascinating!

One of the things that Prague is known for is it’s beer. I couldn’t tell you from first-hand experience, but apparently Pilsner Urquell is some of the best in the world! Every meal in Prague consisted of beer and maybe some food to keep you from getting too sick the next morning. (actually, they even make soap, makeup, and bath products out of beer!) The Czech Republic is also one of the only places in the world where Absinth is even legal… and they sell it everywhere! According to Eric’s “Cheap Eats” book about Prague, Absinth is a very strong alcoholic drink to say the least. It is made from wormwood and side effects range from hallucinations, to seizures, to amnesia, and the flavor has been compared to bilge water at it’s best, to toxic waste at it’s worst. In case I really need to say it, Prague is a rather drunken city. Our first night in Prague we went to dinner and our waiter so completely drunk – he could hardly walk straight! He had a hard time taking our orders, and then later, figuring out how to give us our bill. While we were there, he broke a huge mug and then a set of salt and pepper shakers. Then as we were leaving, he took our plates in the back and immediately we heard a huge crash! I kind of felt bad for the guy, but it was really funny!

Along with drinking, a very popular pastime in Prague seems to be defenestrating people, or in other words, throwing each other out of windows. Apparently there have been multiple “Defenestrations of Prague.” We were very lucky and got to walk right under the window where the 2^nd Defenestration of Prague took place. “….and threw him out the window, the window, the second story window….” It gives such a new meaning to the old nursery rhyme.

Another of my highlights was our lunch adventure on Friday. We went to a little restaurant in the more residential area, where we were the only people not speaking Czech. That was fun enough in itself, but then I saw the menu for the daily special. They were serving vareyky! I was so excited! I’ve been craving some good varenyky since I was in Ukraine and this definitely fulfilled my desire (now I want more… oh dear). Even better though, I got the very last – as soon as I ordered, they crossed it off the menu board! It was great!

We got home from Prague and that gave me a couple days to get my laundry done, get packed and ready to leave for Dublin, and brace myself to go from one drunken city to he next. I thoroughly enjoyed those couple days of soberness. We took a bus to Bratislava and it was kind of cool to get to look out at the city as we were driving through it. The last time we were in Bratislava it was raining so hard and we didn’t get to really see a whole lot. Bratislava looks like a pretty cool place! After a little confusion with our tickets, we got on the plane and we were off to Ireland! It was around this time that we remembered it was Halloween. We knew that in Austria they don’t celebrate Halloween and we wondered if was just an American tradition, or if other European countries (Ireland included) celebrated Halloween. Boy, were we in for a big surprise. As we flew in over Dublin, we could see huge bonfires and fireworks going off everywhere! It kind of reminded me of the view of Butte from my house on the Fourth of July where you can see fireworks going off in almost every direction! It was so cool to see fireworks from above. Once we got settled into our hostel and started walking around town, we saw so many people wearing costumes! Many more teenagers and young-ish adults, and not as many children. We decided that the interpretation of Halloween in Ireland was to see how much leg you could show and still be legal. Most all of the girls were wearing mini-skirts in one form or another, and we even saw a couple guys in mini-skirts. That was a little disturbing.

Dublin felt like a mix between America and Europe. It was kind of strange. Most of the signs were written in two languages: English and Celtic, although most everyone speaks English there. And then there were European restaurants and stores, with a scattering of things like McDonalds, Quiznos, TGIFridays, etc… So fun! Another rather interesting thing is that, just like in England, they drive on the left side of the road! I didn’t realize this at first until I walked past a parked car with someone sitting in the drivers’ seat and it was on the “wrong side!” It was so crazy! It didn’t really affect me when we were walking down the road, but it was the little things, like remembering which way to look when crossing the street that made me really confused. Luckily for us, at the crosswalks, they had little things painted on the road saying “Look Left” or “Look Right” or there would be a picture of an eye with an arrow showing you which way you needed to look. They were very helpful! I guess they had too many tourists get squished so they put in signs. Our first full day in Dublin we spent in the city, seeing all the sights. We started our day at Phoenix Park and then went to [part of] the National Museum of Ireland. My favorite exhibit there (of course) was the one that was specifically furniture and design. They had a beautiful exhibition of a style that I have never seen before! It’s called Neo Celtic. It’s very cool! It seems to incorporate a few different styles, but mainly uses different Celtic patterns and designs. I really like it, and it was really cool to see something completely different. We also went to see the Guinness Storehouse, the Christ Church Cathedral, the Dublin castle, the Book of Kells, and then instead of taking a tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, we heard that they were having a special musical service for All Saint’s Day that evening, so we went to that. The music was absolutely beautiful! We got to see so many other things while we were walking around as well.

Then on Friday we got up and did a little bit of shopping and stuff and then we caught a train to a little town called Howth. It's right on the coast and everything was so beautiful! We started walking towards a lookout point that we had seen when we were getting off the train and ended up walking all over the place. We had a lovely little picnic lunch on the extremely green side yard of a little church that we past. Then we kept walking. After quite some time we figured we had probably gone too far or something and we were going to turn back, but then we saw a horse. With 5 girls, Eric was slightly out numbered and so we stopped to feed, play with, and take pictures of the horse. Finally we turned around and went up a different road. That led us right where we wanted to be. We found a lighthouse on the edge of the white cliffs and right next to it we saw a little staircase that went down the side of the cliffs right to a little beach. Of course, we went down to it and climbed on the rocks and played in the water. It was so fun! It’s been so long since I was at the coast and it was really nice. The water itself was cold, but not freezing. Actually, the weather there was really nice the whole time and everything was so green! Yes, it is the Emerald Isle, but I didn't expect it to look and smell like spring in November. There were even flowers everywhere!

Overall, I loved getting to spend time in Ireland. It’s someplace that I’ve always wanted to go and now that I’ve had a little taste of it, I can’t wait to go back!

DUBLIN

HOWTH and THE COAST

Budapest

Well, I’m getting this up a little later than I had planned, but last week we had our trip to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is such a beautiful city! There was quite a bit that was similar to Vienna, but overall there was a different feel to the town. The Danube runs right through the middle of the two towns, Buda and Pest, and they are connected by the Chain Bridge (among other bridges). On thing that I found very interesting about Budapest is that instead of cleaning up and rebuilding everything after the wars, they have left bullet holes in buildings, and created countless monuments to war victims and such. They also managed to keep their “Hungarian-ness” so now, visiting the country, you are still able to see, feel and taste their culture. I decided to do something a little different this time. Instead of writing everything I did, I'm going to take you on a picture tour of my stay in Budapest.

The money (Forints) was really fun - like playing Monopoly... they didn't have "dollars and cents" - we dealt in thousands!

The week in Budapest was perfect - nice weather and beautiful fall colors.


We took a tour that took up into the castle district ... they were so beautiful!

Hungarian, or Magyar is a very interesting language. It's not similar to anything else! I felt completely helpless. My Germanic and Romantic language skills did not serve me well at all.

There were quite a few homeless people sleeping in parks and other areas. Walking up these stairs it felt like I was intruding on someone's home.

Backyard community laundry. It was somewhat run-down but it had a nice feel to it.

Watching the sunset from the castle district on the first night in Budapest while writing in my journal. It was so beautiful! I took a series of pictures about every five minutes. It was great.

This was beautiful little walking path along the castle wall. The beautiful view of the city and the fall colors came complete with cannons.

This is the beautiful Chain Bridge over the Danube. The way everything was light up at night was potentially more amazing than the buildings themselves during the day.

This is a rather interesting Synagogue. It was designed/built by a catholic man who had never been in a synagogue before. It looks just like a cathedral, except that where there should be crosses, there are Stars of David.

"Whoever saves a life is considered as if he has saved an entire world."


Holocaust Memorial - each leaf has a name on it.


This is one of the bombed out buildings - you can see the bullet holes in the side... the largest being in the middle of the wall just between the two cars. The inside of the building is not much more than an empty shell.


We were going take these stairs down the hill, but they didn't go very far...

The stairs we ended up taking...


Sunrise on the Danube. Beautiful! What more can I say? It was such a great way to start out the day.

The train station built by Gustav Eiffel - also known for designing the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the train station is not kept up quite as well as the Tower. It was pretty awesome though.


We found a mini zip-line at one of the parks we went to. It was really fun, but we were pretty worried about scraping the ground as we went.

Rebekah and I on the bridge just before we went to Margret's Island. It was so windy!! The island was really cool though. There were so many wonderful trees and we stopped to climb quite a few of them.


One of the spectacular trees that we climbed. This one was just perfect for sitting, swinging, and/or reading in.

I don't know what this was for... it was just standing out on the side of the road. Weird.



We hiked up to see the "Lady Liberty" on the hill and on the way we passed a little waterfall. It is actually part of some monument and the waterfall is man-made... but it looked pretty cool anyway.


Up on the hill with the Lady Liberty statue, we found a line of huge machine gun/cannons. Of course, we had to stop and take pictures on them. They were kind of scary.


It was really cold up on the hill and so we stopped for some hot chocolate in an amazing little cafe. The whole place was done in a very modern design. It was very sleek and artsy feeling. They were out of hot chocolate, so they brought out some hot carmel. It was wonderful! We enjoyed our hot carmel so much, so we decided to order some chocolate cake. It was so good! I've never had anything like it! It looked amazing and it tasted better than it looked!


On the way back to Veinna, we passed seemingly endless fields of windmills. They were so beautiful.

Der schönste Mantel in der Welt

I forgot to post this earlier, but while we were in Salzburg I found the most spectacular, amazing, and wonderful coat ever. I instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the 700 + Euro that it cost. It is one of the most beautiful coats ever... the color is great and the cut is very flattering. I'm sad I didn't get it (it's probably for the best, though), but at least I have a picture of it.

PS - Christmas is coming up soon... If anyone is wondering what I'd like for a Christmas present when I get home, this would be the perfect gift. I'm sure some sort of group gifting could be arranged... ;)

Belated pictures from Venice

Es tut mir leid that I didn't get these up sooner. Hungary is coming soon....

Pictures from Florence, Italy!

Better Late than Never...

What a week. Actually, the past few weeks have been so busy and so amazing! This past week was reasonably slow in comparison to the weeks before. We had class and we took a trip to three little towns just outside Vienna, including Carnuntum to see the Roman ruins! It was pretty cool. I bought a German cook book in our stop at Eisenstadt and I’m really excited to try it out. All the recipes look fantastic! The week before last was our trip to Italy, and the week before that was Salzburg.

Our trip to Salzburg included stops at Mauthausen, Hallstadt, the cathedral at St. Wolfgang, and of course, Salzburg. Our first stop was Mauthausen at the Concentration Camp. I took a few pictures, but I really struggled going through the whole thing. They had a museum with pictures of the prisoners and some of their clothing, and some of the "tools" used to "discipline" them (i.e. whips, etc...) It was very sobering. It was kind of ironic, but really nice - across the street from the Camp was a huge field of the most beautiful sunflowers I've ever seen. It helped to kind of lighten the mood.

Our next stop was in Hallstadt. A beautiful little alpine town tucked into the mountains on the edge of a lake. Can things really get more beautiful that that? We were there for only one night, but it was spectacular! We had the whole afternoon/evening to wander around the town and that’s exactly what we did. We found a giant chess board next to one of the building, so Anne and I challenged Eric to a game. We lost. :_( We also went into a lot of the little shops. There were quite a few that sold soap and salt! One of the shops had the most amazing soaps that I’ve seen! There were roses that looked absolutely real, and fruit that looked and smelled good enough to eat!! For dinner we ate at this amazing restaurant where the ivy that's growing up the outside of the building actually comes in the windows and grows around the room. It was really cool, and the food was spectacular. I had a filet of deer with a spectacular mushroom sauce and the most amazing mixed vegetables and potato croquets, and other things. Mmm… Lecker! It was one of the best things I've ever eaten and after dinner, I decided that I would never eat again because food can never quite compare with that. : )

The next morning we went on a tour of the world's oldest salt mine that just happens to still be running! Apparently, they started mining salt in Hallstadt around the same time that the Egyptians started building pyramids, and there's even a historic period named after this town. (you know, like all of the dinosaur periods and stuff). We also went to see the “Bone House.” The big church in the town has a beautiful little cemetery, but the problem is that it’s too small. So, to fix that problem, a long time ago they made it more of a rented space. So… after about 10 years, they’ll dig you up to make room for someone else. For years, after digging up the body, they would take the bones, paint the names and dates (and any other decoration on them) and put them in the bone house. It was cool, but kind of weird at the same time. Of the places we visited during this trip, Hallstadt was by far my favorite.

We stopped on the way to Salzburg for a mini-tour of the cathedral in St. Wolfgang. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we enjoyed sitting along the wall outside the cathedral, overlooking the lake…especially after our tour - It was very cold inside the church. We learned that, as the story goes,(the builder of the cathedral??) made a deal with the devil to help build the cathedral. Apparently, he promised the devil the soul of the first living being to enter the cathedral after it’s completion in return for help building the cathedral. When it was completed, the first thing that walked into the church was a wolf, and the devil was so mad that he shot right out of the church through a hole in the roof… which is still there! Crazy.

There were a lot of cool carvings here... this was one of the more crazy ones.

Super awesome picture with a fine door specimen.

Eric making fun of my door picture...

Marie and I soaking in the sunny afternoon.

From there we went on to Salzburg. It was a beautiful town, and there was so much to see. It was definitely much more touristy. The two (huge) things that Salzburg is known for are: 1) the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (and part of his growing up days), and 2) the setting/filming place of The Sound of Music. Needless to say, there were a lot of people and a lot of things going on. They were also having a festival/carnival thing celebrating their patron saint, St. Rupert. We went on a tour of the city in the morning and then we were free to wander. We went to Mirabell gardens, which were so beautiful! We also found a cute little park in the middle of them with the most amazing slide! It was super fun…and definitely made it up there in the Top 10 Slides list. : ) On one of the streets (as part of the festival) there were multiple booths set up where you could see different professions and watch the people working. It was so cool! There was a watch/clock maker, a baker, a rug maker, a blacksmith, a hat maker, not to mention many other things! There were so many fun things going on, and so many guys wearing lederhosen! It was quite funny. There was a stage set up in one of the squares with a bunch of men doing some traditional dances. It was quite fun to watch. We hiked up the hill to the castle and while we were up there we decided to eat dinner. The food was pretty good and the view was spectacular! While we were up there, I found a little marionette museum. It was cool, but kind of freaky at the same time. There was one set up so that you could try it, so I put on my own little puppet show. After dinner, we went back into town for dessert. We went to what could very well be the oldest restaurant in the world! The restaurant (St. Peter’s) was established in 803! We ordered Salzburg Nockerl, (which was divine) and we had the coolest waiter ever! Besides the fact that we witnessed him switch (fluently) between four different languages, when I asked him what was in the Nockerl, he told me exactly how they make it and told me I could make it at home! Most restaurants like that won’t tell you how to make the food… The next day we found a spectacular tree (the one in some of the pictures that Michael Voge sent me) and took a big group picture on it. After that, we took at tour of the house that Mozart grew up in. Very cool. Then for lunch, Eric and I decided to sample some of the gourmet food back at St. Peter’s. We figured that since the restaurant it’s self was beautiful, and the dessert was really good, the actual food would probably be phenomenal. I ordered “three kinds of salted herring with pumpernickel” (we were in Salzburg… I though the salted fish would be a nice addition to my experience) and a creamy tomato soup. It was served beautifully and the food was so good! The fish was definitely salty, but oh so good! After lunch we all loaded back onto the bus and headed back to Vienna.

Our Italy trip was so great! We stayed in two different towns: Florence and Venice! I still can’t believe that I was in Italy! We left Monday afternoon and took a night train to Italy (it was terribly uncomfortable). There were little fold down bunks, scratchy blankets, and pillows that don’t deserve to be called pillows. After folding it into quarters it was still too flat! We arrived in Florence at about 6:30 Tuesday morning and dropped off our bags at the hotel. Then we headed out into town and had one of the longest days ever! Our first stop was the Duomo, as they say it in Italy. We got there while everything was still closed and there were (amazingly) hardly any people around, so we got to walk around the outside and admire the beautiful architecture and watch the sunrise! Finally we were able to go inside and we walked up all 464 steps to the very top of the dome. We were able to see all of the beautiful frescos on the ceiling, and then we went up a little further and it took us right out onto the roof! We had the most spectacular view of the city, and with the sun just coming up, it kind of gave you the feeling that you could just fly! From the roof, we could see a little market, so eventually we went back down all 464 steps and went over to the market. By the time we were supposed to meet the group back at the hotel at noon to check in, we were all pooped and so we took naps and showers and got all freshened up to head back into town. There were so many people!!! We went past the Duomo again and the square was so thick with people that it was actually hard to walk through! (I've learned that I really don't like tourists, or being a tourist, so I tend to avoid the huge throngs.) Heather, Liesl, Eric and I spent the day wandering the streets of Florence and it was spectacular! We found a little gelato (Italian ice-cream) shop and it was so good! After eating it there, all the rest that we tried wasn’t even mediocre! That evening we met the whole group at Michelangelo Piazza and we were all going to get some food and watch the sun set. Heather, Eric and I had heard of a really good restaurant that we wanted to try, so we set off on a hunt for the restaurant. After walking for an hour, we still hadn’t found it, so we decided to turn around and go to this amazing little pizzeria that we had seen earlier. After the 1 hour walk back to town and then walking to the other side of town, we were really hungry! There was a half hour wait to get into the restaurant, so we went to a little park/square nearby and watched a guy running around on crazy springy shoe type things. The pizza was exceptional, and I think the fact that we were so hungry made it even better! We calculated that, subtracting a few hours for showering, napping, and eating, we had been walking for 14 hours straight that day! Amazing. No wonder my feet were a little sore!

On Wednesday most of the group was going to Pisa. It sounded kind of fun, but the 3 hours spent on a train, not to mention waiting time, was a slight deterrent especially when there was so much to see and do in Florence! So, needless to say, I didn't go. Instead I hung out with Liesl (the professor's daughter – he’s so worried about her, and so worried that she’s going to be a burden on us because she’s younger…) and Eric. We went back and wandered around the different street markets. They’re some of my favorite places in every town. There are so many different sights, smells, and sounds to take it. It’s so fun! Well, we were in Italy, so after a lot of haggling with three different vendors, I bought an Italian leather jacket! I quite like it, and I even got complements from other jacket vendors on my jacket while walking through the market! It was pretty funny. Actually, everything I've been told about how Italian men are very forward is so true! I got hit on so often I just had to laugh! For example, when we were finally leaving the market, on of the vendors said hi as we passed - they all do that - and then he was like, "Remember me? This morning you told me you loved me!" We all laughed pretty hard after that one. On Thursday we went to see Michelangelo's David. It was amazing! There were little David souvenirs all over town, and two big replicas in different parks, but after seeing the really thing, they looked so terrible! It's so amazing that someone could create something so perfect, and doing it in stone makes it just that much more spectacular! I really could have sat there all day. There was so much emotion in the face. Although the sculpture seems too muscular to be a young boy (however young David actually was), it's as if Michelangelo was using that to show David's inner strength. It was interesting to look at the sculpture and think that only Michelangelo could create something so beautiful and so perfect, and then to realize that God did the same thing, in creating something so beautiful and so perfect, but the amazing difference is that God’s creation works! Wow. I took a picture of David and then was told by the guards to put my camera away, so it's not the greatest shot, but it's better than nothing. : ) After that, we were going to go to the Medici palace and gardens, but it was a little too expensive, so we just kind of wandered around enjoying all the sights, sounds, and smells of Florence. We came across a beautiful little winding path lined with trees so we followed it to a park. It was just lightly raining on and off and the sun kept coming out and it was so beautiful! We took a lot of pictures in the park and then kept walking. We were already pretty far off the beaten, tourist track, discovering some beautiful new stuff and it was great. We ended up in some little neighborhoods and they were so cute! We had to get back to the hotel to catch the train to Venice and at this point we had no idea where we were! Eventually we found a gorgeous hotel and they had a little map showing where they were in relation to town. As Eric put it, we were a good 3-4 inches off the map, south of town! It started raining a little harder and we saw a bus so we jumped on. Just in time too - when we sat down, it started hailing! The bus dropped us off right by our hotel and we even had time to stop for lunch (we had been ready for lunch for about 4 hours)!

We got to Venice and I was so excited! It was evening and raining when we got there. Apparently there had been flooding the day before, so the hotels we short some rooms and we ended up being split up into 3 different hotels! At this point I was starting to feel a little sick (everyone in the group was getting sort of sick), but I decided to ignore it and enjoy Italy. I'm sure I wasn't the only one praying for sun while we were there, but when we woke up it was still overcast, cold and rainy.

Friday was our only full day in Venice and after about 5 minutes we were officially lost. Basically we spent the day wandering around and it was so great! I think it’s impossible to NOT be lost in Venice. It makes me wonder how people could live there. We had 2 different maps, but they didn't help much because the little alleys - aka "roads" were not labeled at all! After being very cold for a while, the sun did finally come out and it was quite warm. My very favorite part of Venice was when we went to St. Marco's Piazza. From the direction we entered it, you could see the beautiful buildings down at the far end, and the rest of the plaza was full of pigeons! There must have been thousands! And, they were fairly tame. At first we just stood there and watched what was going on around us and they would just walk right over our shoes! Then one came and landed on my shoulder! It was so cool! They were selling birdseed for 1 Euro, so I bought some and as soon as the birds saw the envelope in my hand, I was covered in birds! It was so fun! They were on my head, shoulders, arms, hands, clinging to my coat, sitting in my purse, everywhere! They were even cooing in my ear! It was the most fun thing ever! I would definitely go back to Venice just to go play in the birds again! On Saturday, Eric and I found an amazing post office, built in the Spanish influence style (also perfect for Italy), and sat down to write/send off our postcards. The day went by far too quickly. There were so many things that we wanted to do, but before we knew it, we were on a train back to Vienna. At one of the first stops, they announced that we were waiting for a train from Rome and it would be a 30 min wait. Well, David and Prof. and Sis. Hansen got off the train to grab a water bottle and some McDonalds really quickly. Prof. Hansen was really worried about the train leaving because he had the tickets so he came back as quickly as he could. After 10 minutes the conductor announced that we were leaving and David and Sis Hansen weren't back yet! Prof. Hansen started to panic, so he gave Liesl the tickets and jumped off just as the train left. Then it was just us on the train. What a scary thought… the Professor and the most responsible person in the group missing. I’m amazed we didn’t end up in Greece or something! About an hour or so down the road another announcement was made, saying that we were waiting for a train with some people going to Vienna. It was the one they were supposed to wait for the first time, but didn't. So, after sitting at that station for over an hour, the train caught up with us and lo and behold, there was David, Prof, and Sis Hansen! It was great! Unfortunately that put us getting back to Vienna at about midnight.

All in all, it was a spectacular trip and a great couple weeks. They’ve been fairly rough on all of us though and I think the slowness of this week has been a welcome break for everyone. Our next trip is to Budapest and I can’t wait!