"Vienna!! After a full day of traveling we are (finally) cozied in our hotel room in our pj’s. We left Salz at nine this morning, drove until noon where we stopped off at this monastery—Melk. At this point I was so done with being on the bus and wasn’t properly informed that we weren’t getting lunch until 2pm, I wasn’t in the best of moods. So instead of carrying around my sweater, camera, and bag I left it all on the bus—my personal form of boycott. While everyone was wide-eyed and taking pictures on the tour I was hungry, CRANKY, tired, and all the above.
Anyways, Melk was very pretty. The outside was all painted yellow, for some reason having to do with a King’s favorite color, and the murals on the inside were stunning. The world’s oldest book (dated back to the 9th Century) was in the library there and we got to see it, very cool!
With food finally in our stomachs we were ready to board the bus and continue the two more hours to Vienna. But oh wait… engine issues. Neat. Our driver said in broken English that “sometimes this happens.” Sometimes this happens??? What does that even mean? Sometime the bus doesn’t turn on? Holy moly, let’s just say that Mario the bus driver was not on my list of favorite people. We ended up getting to the city close to 5pm, got to our Hotel Post (Abbie and I shared a very spacious double with a shower head that had amazing pressure J) and we were let loose to explore for the rest of the night.
We unpacked a little and then headed out to do a little sightseeing. Now I can sympathize with Hilary and Liz, being put in an unfamiliar city and just told to “go” see things is easier said than done! We walked along the Danube River for a little while and bought a few postcards, then made out way to this really cool Gothic Church, which actually had a mass going on. Lots of candles were lit with prayers and you could heard the pastor giving his sermon. Outside the church we ran into a group of break dancers who were performing in the middle of the main square, it was a great opportunity to people watch J
We stumbled upon this yummy Asian place for dinner. Then we went a got ice cream at this very big, very crowded (always a good sign!) homemade icecream place. OMG so good!!! I got mint chocolate chip (which they call pefermintz here) and coffee (Kaffee). Totally hit the spot. We are back in the hotel now, a lot of people went out looking for a fun discoteca, but with an 8am wakeup call tomorrow morning I’m thinking sleep over booze might be the best idea."
9-27 Back in Salzburg!
Didn’t have time to journal the days in their entirety because unlike trains, buses make me nauseas! SO I’m going to fashion a list of all the things that stuck out.
- the opera, Die Fleirermaus!
- Underground bar called Flek… very yummy drinks J
- The Art History museum… I walked around by myself, very peaceful, got 1 ½ to just roam around, found the portrait of Jane Seymour… from The Other Bolyen Girl! Wanted to take a picture but the stupid security lady was watching me like a hawk
- The open flee market… I got this super cool elephant bag and a stud for my ear piercing! Oh and some presents, very neat. Reminded me a little of Pick Place, substituting German confusion for anything as simple as buying a bracelet.
- The beautiful weather! Jim says he hasn’t been to Vienna with any group that had better weather than we had!
- Oh… minor bummer. I am SUCH a clutz. In Munich I fell down stairs in a Starbucks and hurt my knee. In Vienna I decided to fall flat on my face off a curb I did not properly acknowledge and bloody up my other knee… a chunk of skin is definitely missing (cute, huh?) These injuries on top of my stress fracture makes me a walking emergency case.
"For the first time since I’ve been here, when the bus pulled into our little nook I got off the bus and it felt like home. Next Friday will be the ONE MONTH marker for my stay so far in Europe. It has really flown. In a way, I want to push back the clock and make time pause since everything here is so different, exotic, and intoxicating. We have really taken to the Austrian way of life and tried our hardest to understand and appreciate everything that goes along with that responsibility. I love it here, I do, but on the other hand, thoughts of home come so often its becoming tiring to constantly have to keep them at a healthy distance. It has only been a month. September. I can’t even get up enough courage to look at a calendar and physically see all of the days that are between me and December 19th. Too many. To say I missed home would be accurate. But more than that I miss faces, voices, and the people that make me, me."
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