Vienna

---

a quick notice, i am typing on a german keyboard, and the z and the y
are switched, which is taking me a great deal of mental anguish, and
i cannot find the apostrophe for the life of me, so be warned.

Courtney and i left from Florence monday night, and the train ride
was ten hours long, and we had reserved seats that reclined.
unfortunatelz, italians do not really pay attention to stuff like
that, so our seats were already occupied. so we, along with two
other ACA girls who are now probably in Budapest, found an empty
cabin and slept. we got to Vienna about 8 the next morning, found
our hostel, and started off. the guy at the hostel told us we should
take time to see the palace, so we left our stuff at the hostel and
found our waz. the austrian transportation system is incredibly
efficient, so it did not take us long to find our way. the palace
was HUGE, and it was so beautiful. we took the audio tour and found
that there was a nightly concert with works from Mozart and Strauss,
so we bought tickets for the following evening and left.

outside there was a market, and the same guy at the hostel explained
that these are the european thing to do; go to the christmas markets,
because there is one on every street. it was so cute, and they were
selling all these different things. one of the things i wish i could
have bought was a candle that was thin around the wick and wrapped
into a shape like a bees hive, and they were prayer candles. each
time a person goes into a church, they have the candle that they
unwind just a little bit, and when they are done they extinguish it
and put it back in their pockets. it was so neat.

the next day, we had time to kill before the concert, and we made it
to the natural history museum. this place was ENORMOUS, much akin to
the aquarium in Genova. it took up at least 3 hours, and we had
lunch at a restaurant, and by then it was almost 3, and the sun was
going down. the sun goes down by at least 4 p.m., so we made it back
to the hostel to get ready for the concert. it was so beautiful. we
were in one of the party rooms of the palace itself, and a little
chamber orchestra played for an hour and a half. there were also two
opera singers and two ballerinas. the male singer was kind of corny,
and he had a goofy grin on his face the entire time, very personable,
shook hands with the audience members, winked at a couple of people
while singing, just fun to watch.

the next day (today) was our last day, and we decided to see the last
of the things Vienna is known for. we had to go to the train station
first to get our tickets for Prague (next stop) and then went to
Stephansdom, which is the big famous cathedral in Stephansplatz. i
got the BEST pictures without having to use my flash. the church is
strikinglz gothic, and we wanted to go to the catacombs, but it cost
too much, and you had to go with a tour. so we walked around
Stephansplatz, which kind of reminded us of downtown Florence, with
shops and cafes everzwhere. and then i saw it; a Manner store!!!!!
allow me to explain....

about four years ago, we hosted an austrian student in our home for
about 2 weeks, and one of the things she brought as a gift to her
american family was this hazelnut wafer called a Manner wafer, and
this was the best stuff i have ever had in my life. so when i saw
the store, i was like, COURTNEY!!!! WE HAVE TO GO INSIDE!!!! so we
did, and i ended up buying christmas gifts for a few people. i will
send them home with mom, and for those who get one, it is not much,
but you will not be disappointed!!!

finally we got back on the underground and rode to the Danube river,
and on our way it snowed!!!!! it was so pretty to get off at the
river and have a light dusting of snow everywhere! and it was powder
snow, so it was not wet. then Courtney looked at the map and saw
something about the Vienna international center, which turned out to
be the U.N. headquarters. we were not allowed in, besides it was
getting dark, but we can now say that we have been to the U.N!

tomorrow we will come into Prague by about 3 in the afternoon, and we
have a day extra there than we had here. the entire time we were her
people kept mistakening me for an austrian, because i guess i look
more like the austrians than i do the nationalities i am actuallz a
part of! but thankfully about 50% of any german speaking country at
least speaks a little english. we are a little afraid of going to
Prague, because we do not know how many people there will be who
speak english!

---