The Beautiful City of Praha

Ok so this past weekend, we took a trip out to Prague in the Czech Republic. This city was very beautiful but also very different from Vienna. The streets were very narrow and had coblestones, giving off an older feel. We arrived there Friday night around 7pm - we were supposed to be there around 5:45 but due to a law about the driver resting for 30 minutes and then a wonderful traffic jam in the city it tacked on an hour or so. When we arrived we headed out to St. Norbert's Monastery where we ate dinner as a group then went on a tour of the area with our awesome tour guide named Dana (pronounced Donna). We saw a BEAUTIFUL church and I don't remember then name but here is a picture.
We also got an amazing view of the city on our walk down from the bus.

Saturday began with a 2 hour walking tour of the city, where we got to go onto St. Charles bridge which gives a great view because the river splits the city in two. The tour then brought us to our lunch destination - on a boat that took us down the river, giving us a view of the city from a different perspective. After that, we went shopping (of course) and found some very unique stores as well as a market that had some fresh fruit, unique crafts, and candies. Saturday night, we went to a black light theater performance. These are unique to Prague and the show was defiantly different but well done. We saw the performance called "Faust" and they company that preformed it had its own little spin on the story.

Sunday, we got a tour of the old Jewish quarter of Prague. This is where the old Jewish cemetery is and it is very interesting. There tombstones that date very far back in time (to at least the 16th century if not later) that are basically back to back with one another. It is defiantly something to go see if you ever go there. After that we did a little bit more shopping and exploring and then came back to Vienna around 7pm.

The most exciting thing that has been happening lately is that our host family got a NEW PUPPY!! Her name is Fielou (Fee-Lou) and she is an Elo - a new mixed breed of some kid. Most precious puppy ever. Seriously. I want to take her home with me. Ok, I won't obviously but she is going to be a very pretty dog.

Well we leave here in just over 3 days and I can't believe it already almost over. The time has flown by and it doesn't seem like I am going to be leaving soon. I am excited to come home and see all of the people I have been missing but I am going to miss exploring and seeing all of the different things in Austria and Europe.

Well I have to get to bed! Oh and yes - it rained again today - don't worry we did get one day without rain this weekend :)

Tut Tut... Looks Like Rain!

Hello again from Wien! (thats German for Vienna)

It rained for most of the day again. I feel like we're in London, or Michigan in April, or the rainforest with all of this rain! What is ironic is that the forecast predicts sun and high temperatures starting on June 3rd, the day we leave Vienna. That would happen.

The class I'm taking over here is called Austrian Art and Architecture. Its pretty fun, mainly because we go visit and tour various sites around the city, to learn first hand about the different types of art and architecture. We've been to a handful of museums, visited Roman ruins, and have visited multiple churches, including St. Stephen's Cathedral (see the picture). Today, we visited Belvedere Palace, and looked at many different sculptures and paintings. One of the coolest things that this class offers is the chance to see famous works of art up close. I've seen works by Michealangelo, Claude Monet, Rembrandt, and many others from an arms length away. If there ever was a way to learn about art, this is it! Visiting these places helps keep my attention to the subject, which is also helpful. We have to keep a journal for the class, which is not hard, but I am avoiding at the moment. I don't know much about art, so to me it is all interesting, but I don't feel like I have much to say about things other than "it's really beautiful."



I swear weird, funny things have their way of finding me. Remember how I got shut in a bus door last week? Yeah, well this week I got scolded by an Austrian grandma while waiting for the subway. It was finally warmer out (ie. NOT 50 and raining) so I decided to wear shorts and flip flops yesterday. Well, as I was standing there, a short little old woman walks by, and just starts looking at me as she passes. She proceeds to look me up and down, look me in the eye with that "disapproving-grandmother" look, and then make a long comment to me as she walked away. However, I have no idea what she actually said, because it was all in German, and it wasn't like I was going to stop her to ask her to say it again in English. I just stood there and didn't say anything. (Amanda told me that I was awkward for doing that - but seriously, what would you do!?) I would be interested in what she had to say though. It could be pretty funny.

A few other amusing things I feel you should know. 1. Dogs are EVERYWHERE. They are on the subways and buses, in restaurants, and popping their heads out of purses left and right. Many people don't even have their dog on a leash if it isn't required, and all the dogs seem to be quite well trained. 2. Birkenstocks (the really really comfy shoes made here in Germany) are mainly used as house shoes here in Austria. According to Fanni, people rarely ever wear them out of the house, and when they do they are usually old. We told here that in the States, people wear them religiously in the summer (and some people where them year round with socks, but we're not going to talk about that), and she just laughed. Another culture difference I guess. 3. The main food staples of Austria consist of the following: bread, meat, and booze. Seriously, I don't think I've ever eaten as much bread as I have here. It is all delicious (seriously I love it), but I feel like 80% of my daily food intake is in the form of bread. They also sell alcohol everywhere. There are some little carts that stand only to sell booze. You can even buy it at McDonald's, and the checkout stands in the grocery store have a little line of pocket size bottles of liquor. Oh, and Austrians love their meat, especially their sausages. Stands selling hot dogs and brats are on almost every corner. When you order one, they normally come in a massive roll of some sort. What... more bread! See, I told you it's everywhere.



This weekend, we're taking our second trip of the term to Prague, in the Czech Republic! I am very excited for this. It is supposed to be a beautiful city, with great sites and great shopping. There is supposed to be internet at the hotel, so we may get a post up while we're over there. After this trip, we'll have visited 4 countries on this trip! Not to shabby. Well, seeing as how I have homework to finish, its time to wrap this thing up. Oh crap... tut tut... looks like rain!

Molly

Only One Week Left!

With only one week left, I have really been wanting better weather but weather really hasn't been cooperating too much. though it has been sunnier, we have only had one full day without any rain (Monday) and I don't like this whole teasing game of it being sunny one minute and then raining five minutes later. The temperature has gone up quite a bit though - it has been in the mid to lower 70's the last few days. So hopefully the trend continues? (I'm crossing my fingers!)
As for the day yesterday, it was still fairly warm and nice outside. I had class in the morning and then grabbed some lunch because my class when to the Arsenal museum in the afternoon to see some interesting historical elements of Austrian history. We first saw the car that Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in during the tour through Sarajevo (in Bosnia). This basically caused the start of WWI. We also saw an exhibit on armored materials and different signs and other memorabilia from WWII in Austria. This part of the exhibit was interesting because it really showed how much control that Hitler had on everyone in Austria, There was even a square that was refereed to as Adolf Hitler Square. Ugh Creepy.
After the museum, Molly and I went home and went to a little bakery by our house that was cheap and SUPER delicious. We got a loft of bread and then some pastries that were so good. We are defiantly going back soon (we are only in Vienna once right?). After that, we went out for a run - one of which where it was sunny but raining on us for about 20 of the 30 minutes we ran. Then we came home and went out to eat downtown with some of the girls. The picture is of Mols and some of our friends but it shows that we got to eat outside in the middle of one of the busy pedestrian streets in Vienna - it was really fun!After dinner, we went out got gelato then walked around the city for a while before all going our separate ways. We got home and just spent the rest of the night finishing up homework and doing laundry.
Today I went for a tour of the Jewish area of Vienna and visited a Synagogue. That was very interesting and the synagogue we went to was the only one to survive the Nazi occupation during WWII. The rest of the day we spent exploring a little, grabbing lunch downtown and then coming back home and talking a walk and exploring our neighborhood in a direction we haven't traveled as well yet.
As of right now - the weather prediction is light rain all day -but I am going to hope for a Michigan weather forecast here and say that it will be wrong and be sunny. I feel like its a little bit of wishful thinking...but oh well - Im desperate for some consistent sunshine!

Until something semi interesting occurs (or just not wanting to do homework...)
Amanda

Oh What a Beautiful Day!

So right now I am sitting on the veranda at our house looking outside to the beautiful garden that our host parents keep. It reminds me of my mom and grandma and how much they would love it. With a little exploring I have found that most of the flowers are in the back and side yard of the house while the front has the veggies and other types of plants like that. This week, our host family is in Italy on vacation, with Fannie (our host sister) coming home Wednesday and Gerda and Michl returning on Sunday - which means molly and I are in charge of watering the house plants and flowers outside if it doesn't rain enough.

This weekend in Salzburg was amazing, the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I have decided that someday I am coming back and hiking through the alps. The best part was we only saw the edge of them, so i can't even imagine what it would be like to be in the middle of them! The other part of the trip that really was meaningful (minus the whole city of Salzburg) was when we made a trip to the concentration camp on the way back. Going though the buildings, seeing the pictures and memorials, really just broke my heart. The most ironic thing was that this place that was fully of death and disaster was surrounded by a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and valleys. It make me wonder why something so terrible was surrounded by such beauty?

But to move on a lighter subject, this is the first day that it hasn't rained and I have gotten to wear something other than jeans or pants because it is actually warm. It has rained for the past 12 days, and its supposed to again tonight...but I am crossing my fingers that the forecast is wrong. I have never been so sick of rain in my whole life. And I love to explore the city (like today we went down to the area of the University of Vienna), and it is so much easier to do when it is nice and sunny!

Plans for tonight we are going out to dinner with some of the girls also in the program that live down the road from us, which I am looking forward too! I am not looking forward to my midterm tomorrow in my class though. I mean, my studying has been going really thus far, since I am writing this with my books laying closed around me.... whoops. But I figure I am only in Vienna once though so I will just use those awesome cramming skills I have acquired thanks to the nursing program and hopefully do well.
A few more observations I have made while over here (i know this post is all over the place, sorry) but they are the following
1. People here don't really wear flip flops over here. They mostly wear closed toe shoes, even when its warm or nice sandals, but not flip flops as much.
2. The don't have peanut butter in anything. There are no chocolates or pastries or gelato with peanut butter in it. The basically use marzipan or Nutella instead, two things that we don't use that much in the States. Our host family does have peanut butter though so that is a plus.
3. It is really hard to find a cheap cup of what we would consider to be "regular" coffee. They don't really drink it like that over here as much, and it is more expensive to get things (since I am not really a big fan of shots of espresso). Trust me, Molly has noticed this a LOT. :)


Well, pray for us to have good weather and stay safe for the next 11 days until we return home.
Now I am off to enjoy the sunshine - oh an study too... ;)
Amanda

Our weekend in Salzburg!

Hello everyone. This weekend, we went on our first group trip to Salzburg. Well, we actually stayed in Hallein, a small town outside of the city. We left around 1pm Friday, and got back today around 7:15 pm. We were busy this weekend, so this post is going to be quite long.

Before I discuss this weekend, I just want to mention that we went exploring on Thursday, and found a fantastic park to go hiking in. Its part of the small mountain (some might say large hill) by our house. We saw Austrian deer there (they are the size of goats) and also wild boars. No, I am not kidding. They completely freaked me out, but Amanda and our friend Taylor that was with us didn't have a problem with them. It turned out that they were practically half domesticated, because when Taylor threw a stick they ran after it like dogs, thinking it was food.

On Friday, we stopped about halfway through our drive at Melk Abbey, which is the oldest monastery in Austria. This place was absolutely huge, with complete with a ballroom, library, and a beautiful, massive church. The pictures of the church do not do it justice, as it was elaborately decorated with paintings all over the walls gold adornments everywhere. It practically glowed. After that, we continued on our way to Hallein. (by the way, it was raining for most of the day.... again) On the rest of our drive to our hotel in Hallein, we saw two exciting things. The first is the church where they filmed scenes from the Sound of Music. The second is the MOUNTAINS! We didn't know this, but Salzburg and Hallein sit right at the beginning edge of the Alps. Needless to say, I was extremely excited - like 5-year-old-kid-at-Disney-World excited. Even though it was pretty rainy when we got in, I still got some good pictures. That night, we found a fantastic, cheap gelato place in the center of Hallein, which we visited again Saturday night as well.

Saturday was a very long day, but worth every minute. We had to be up somewhat early, in order to make it into Salzburg in time for our tour of the city. Let me just say that Salzburg is probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen. The buildings are all very old-world like, and very pretty, and the city is surrounded by the mountains, giving it gorgeous scenery. Even the signs for the shops were unique. We were lucky, and while the day started off somewhat cloudy, it kept improving throughout the day, and by about noon we had sunshine! During the tour, we were shown many important places in Salzburg, including the main shopping street, the cathedral, the fortress, and sites from the Sound of Music, including Mirabell Gardens, and the old stables, which were turned into a performance hall. I also went down to the Abbey where Maria VonTrapp was a member before marrying Mr. VonTrapp. If you didn't already pick this up, the VonTrapp family lived in Salzburg, and much of the movie the Sound of Music was filmed there. Did I mention that I love that movie? After having some fantastic pretzels for lunch, we headed over into Germany for a tour of where Hitler lived while he was Chancellor of Germany. The drive to that place was basically fantastic. Why? The view! We drove deeper into the Alps, which basically left us with jaw dropping, fantastic views of the mountain (see the picture). The museum was located at the top of a mountain in Obersalzburg, Germany. It was somewhat humbling to see the things in that museum, and it seemed to be contradictory to the setting of the building. You would never guess that one of the most ruthless leaders in world history would have lived in such an idyllic spot.



Today, in the morning, we visited the salt mines, through which the city of Salzburg gained its wealth throughout the ages. It was pretty fun. We had to put on these hilarious white suits over our clothes - we looked like oompa-loompas. Once we got into the mine, we had a hilarous tour guide, who at the end told us that he was glad he got us and "not the group of 50 asians." Oh my goodness, that was funny. While in the mines, we got to slide down these wooden slides that the miners used in the past to maneuver the mines - this was SO fun! After the salt mines, we ate lunch, and then went to Malthausen - a concentration camp in Austria. That was a humbling experience. We got to tour the grounds, see the barracks where the prisoners stayed, look through the gas chambers, and other holding rooms, and walk down to the rock quarry where most of the prisoners worked until death. The camp was set upon the top of a small mountain/hill, and the surrounding area was beautiful, making it contradictory to the horrific events that happened here. Walking through this was a heavy dose of reality. We've all read and know about the things that happened at the concentration camps, but it is so much more powerful to stand on the ground where these events took place. You can see a picture of the steps the prisoners had to walk up from the quarry, carrying the stones up with them.



Alright, well this is entirely too long, but hopefully we'll post again soon. We've got our 2nd full week in Vienna ahead of us... who knows what will happen! We'll inform you on our adventures sooner rather than later, I promise!

Until we write again,
Molly

Rain Rain Go Away!

Ok so the last three days it has been raining here all the time. Seriously, I thought I left Michigan behind.
Sunday, it poured all day and turned the what I would call a small river that is near our house into a huge raging one. Yesterday and thus far today it has been raining/sprinkling on and off, and SLOWLY its getting warmer...its normally 80 degrees in Vienna during this time of year and its been between 45 and 55 the whole time we have been in Vienna thus far. But seriously that is my only complaint. I am loving everything about the city and the experience. The last couple days we have gone exploring around the city and have found some yummy places to eat. On Sunday in the rain, Molly and I went out to find a restaurant a few stops away from ours on the Subway. Well instead we found some really cool shops and no where we wanted to eat. If you ask Molly though I apparently led her on a wild goose chase... whoops! :) But after that we just went into downtown Vienna where we found a restaurant on one of the side streets that was delicious then started to explore some more. We found a ton of shops and a LOT of places that sold chocolates and pastries. Eventually we made it to a main road and found Zanoni & Zanoni - which has the most delicious gelato ever! They also give you a ton for your money. Let me remind you that this whole time it was raining - a lot - but seriously once I got some food into Molly she was all for it (she was a TID bit crabby before that because we all know how Molly gets when she fails to eat hahaha).
Monday we had our first day of classes at the institute, we had started them previously in Morbisch. The history class is still good - we went to these things called the Catacombs where the Austrian Royal family, the Habsburgs, are all laid to rest in . It was interesting and creepy all at the same time becuase for a lot of them, you can get really close and some of them you can actually touch.
Monday night we went into the city and saw the Ballet "Coppélia." We had standing room only seats which weren't ideal but we did have a fairly good view and they were only 3 euros. Also the Opera house itself is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I have never seen anything like it and there was no way I could get a picture to capture how gorgeous it was. Here are a few to get the idea...



Everything here in Vienna is beautiful and I am finding surprises around every corner. We go into Salzburg this weekend from Friday until Sunday, so I am hoping that the weather warms up and the rain goes away :)

Until one of us finds more time...
Amanda

Vienna!! - We are finally here!

So now we are in Vienna and it is basically the coolest city I have ever seen. The last two days we had spent in Morbisch doing orientation and starting classes. The class I am in called Modern Austrian History and my professor (named Herbert) is really cool. He knows so much about not only Vienna but the world as a whole and how things all interact with one another. I actually think I might like a history class for once. But anyway - the more interesting things.
Last night (Friday) we went on a boat dinner/barbeque that was on a lake on the border of Morbisch and Hungary. The boat itself (and some of the crew) reminded me and mols of the episode of The Office when they go on the booze cruise (for all you office fans). Seriously though there was even a man running around playing the accordion knowing only a few phrases and english but it was very funny. (see picture)


Also I have had my first DELICIOUS gelato :) It was soo good - molly and I were wandering around and found this italian pizza place that served gelato and it was great! We also have gone running the past two mornings into Hungary - which is only about an 8 minute run - so that was pretty nifty. Jet lag hasn't been super awful - I have adjusted better than I expect but i did manage to catch a little bit of a cold on the way over here (lucky me.. not) so thats slowly been getting better. Today, we came back into Vienna to meet our host family and be introduced to the institute where we are having our classes... but i feel that though i REALLY want to just tell everything mols will get mad at me... so i guess its her turn now... :)
Like Amanda said, we got into Vienna today. On the drive in, the views of the countryside were absolutely gorgeous. Vienna is surrounded by hills/mountains, and there were some fantastic scenes as we drove into the city. Once we arrived, we got about an hour to explore before our host family came to pick us up. We walked down the main shopping drag for a bit (the name escapes me at the moment) and, let me tell you, Vienna is a beautiful city. Around every corner there were gorgeous buildings. We stumbled upon the national library, which is a large, beautiful white building that has a large kind-of square in front of it. There are also two large gold balls on the top of the building, which were my favorite part. Also amusing to me is the number of foreign cars that are everywhere. There are Volkswagons and Audi's like we have Chevy and Ford! In fact, many taxi's in the city that I've seen are Audi's. I'm pretty sure these are nicer than many of the taxi's back in the States.
After going back to the Institute, we received our weekly food money from Doc (Yes!) and got picked up by our host dad - Michl. He drove us back to the house, which is located in the 14th district, and made sure to point out important things (like the subways station, grocery store, Schonbrunn Palace, etc.) along the way. Once we got to the house we met our host mom Gerda, and host sister Fanni. They were very amused with my name, because they had never heard the name Molly before. I guess it's not a common dog name here like it is back home. They all know English fairly well, which makes our lives a little easier. We are also living with another student from a college in Minnesota, who has been here since March studying at the Institute. Shortly after we arrived, Gerda and Michl left for a trip to visit his family, so only Fanni will be here this weekend. Talking with her helped us figure out that both sides were given wrong information about eachother. For example, they thought we were Mormons. (Hmmm...nope.) We also learned that Michl studied law, and worked with a muliple sclerosis society until he retired, and Gerda had been a Sports and Russian teacher. Therefore they were not a musician in the Philharmonic and an art teacher like we were told. I've decided that they remind me of the Austrian version of my parents (especially after looking at their wine collection).Also, they have 4 children (not 3 like we were told) and the 3 oldest boys have since moved out of the house. It was very amusing. Fanni was extremely helpful, gave us a tour of the house, and helped us find a place to eat, complete with giving us directions and german phrases and words to use. The italian restaurant Amanda and I went to for dinner was fabulous, and not very expensive. It took us some time, but we figured out the menu, and ended up splitting a delicious pizza and had a glass of beer with dinner. The total was about 16 euros with tip, and we definitely plan on going back there. We walked back home, and saw some more beautiful buildings. I've decided that Vienna is filled with picturesque buildings at random.
I am very excited for our day tomorrow. We plan on going to the flea market early in the morning, then we have a walking tour with the group, followed by a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace, and an Operetta that night. I can't wait to see what other things Vienna has in store for us! Also, check out facebook for some pictures from the last few days - Amanda just posted some. I hope you all enjoyed this 2nd blog post of the trip. Until the next one...

Molly and Amanda

And We Made It!

Hello from Austria!

Amanda and I arrived today in Vienna around 9:30am (3:30am EST). Our flights were, well, interesting. Our first was a connection from Detroit to Washington D.C. on a cute, little puddle jumper of a plane. Note little. There were some interesting moments of turbulence during this trip that made most of us nervous at some point. At one point I closed my eyes and just told myself “pretend you’re on I-94.” The flight from Washington D.C. to Vienna had some turbulence as well, but that plane took it much better, considering it was about 50x the size of the previous plane. Between the two, I said a half dozen prayers, just to be safe. There were also better distractions on the overseas flight. Mainly, this consisted of personal TVs for everyone. I watched about 5 different things so it was pretty fantastic. We also 2 meals on board (dinner and breakfast), which were surprisingly good, and introduced me to the Austrian form of ginger ale. Between eating and watching movies, I attempted sleep. This was difficult, considering I’m not a good napper, and our seats only reclined to about 120 degrees. I briefly considered using Amanda’s shoulder as a pillow, but when I asked her if I could in “what if form”, she told me she’d punch me, which eliminated that option. I probably got about 2-3 hours of sleep, but am surprisingly not tired right now.
Upon landing in the Vienna airport, we got all of our bags from the baggage claim (yes! No lost luggage!) and proceeded with the group to Morbisch, a town about an hour and a half south of Vienna, for our orientation. We checked into the hotel, where Amanda and I are sharing a double room. The hotel also provided lunch to us, which was the largest lunch I’d had in awhile; 3 courses including dessert (sorry no ice cream yet). After that, Amanda and I got a much needed shower, and then decided to walk around the town with some people.
Ok now its my turn – so just to add a few notes to Molly’s part above… the plane was not considered “cute” – I think an extremely small theme park attraction might a better description. Also, we are waiting at the hotel for the other half of our group that few out of GR because of the volcanic ash cloud causing problems. The planes have to go around it so this made their flight late and then they missed their connecting flight from Amsterdam to Vienna– but I mean they should be here by 6pm as long as everything goes as planned.
Anyway, on our walk with some other people on the trip, we took a little self- tour around this town with the goal of finding a coffee shop. It took us about 20 minutes and a trip to the bank, where the tellers giggled at us when one of the girls asked where a “coffee shop” was (apparently they refer to it as a coffee HOUSE). Well the pointed us in the right direction and we finally located one. The employees at the coffee house were very friendly, even though we spoke no German at all and they spoke very little English. We did find a common language of Spanish that worked well enough to order some delicious coffee. I ordered something I had no idea what it was but I mean it was good! – it was like a strong latte but the name totally is gone minus it started with an “M.” After the coffee, we walked around to explore the town a little more and found the town bar is located right next to a elementary school (obviously not something we are used to…) and then proceeded to go up the hill and find grape fields that went on forever.
As for being in Europe, it still seems unreal to actually be here! I (sorry WE) are beyond excited for the next 3 weeks, and the experience we will have. We meet our host family on Friday and from what little information we know about them, I am excited to get to know them. Also, I cannot wait to experience the food in Vienna (in particular the Gelato). But I mean, none of that starts till Friday when we go back into the city.

So until then -
Amanda and Molly