Hundertwasser Haus

The Hundertwasser Haus was built by an Austrian architect who was bored with architecture. The floors inside aren't flat, but have little hills and curve up to meet the wall. It's kind of refreshing after seeing so much Baroque architecture.

Cemetary

Um, so Beethoven is buried in my backyard. Okay, not really, but kind of. A lot of other famous composers are buried here too. So we visited them. Ironically on Veteran's day.

Schoenbrunn

Schoenbrunn was the ruling family's summer home in Vienna. TH palace is beautiful and has some pretty gardens, a zoo, garden mazes, a playground, a few museums, and now a Christmas market out front. I have been several times, and it is one of my favorite places here.

Paris Day 2

Our second day in Paris we went to most of the major churches- we saw Sacre Cour, La Chapelle (filled with stained glass), and Notre Dame. ON Notre Dame we climbed up the towers, which was really cool. We saw the bell and all of the gargoyles. We also met a guy from Provo. Small world, once again. For the afternoon a few of us went to Versailles, which was also quite large and extravagant. We walked through the palace, the hall of mirrors, and then we took a little train ride through the gardens. That night we went to the Arc d'Triumph and then to a little crepe restaurant. We crashed at our hostel (Kind of a hole) about midnight, and got up at 4am to fly back to Vienna!

Paris Day 1

One of the great things about being here is it's so easy to go anywhere. Seven of us went to Paris for the weekend, and we had two full days there. On the first day we went to the Louvre, the Orsay, the Rodin, and the Eiffel Tower. WE pretty much ran around the whole city. I think the Orsay is my new favorite art m useum- it's just full of Monet, who is my favorite painter.

Milan

Flying back to Bratislava we had a nine hour layover in Milan. So we bought bus tickets and went downtown for a few hours. There isn't a whole lot to do in Milan, but we saw the Duomo (bad picture though it is) and ate same amazing gelatto. There was also a very large number of mcDonald's there- I went almost nowhere in the city and I counted 7 of them. In one ritzy mall there was a nice McDonald's. And then turn 180 degrees and there's a Prada store. Strange.

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a lot of fun. We went to the ROman forum and climbed all over the really big old Roman rocks and columns. We saw the coloseum, the pantheon, and the mouth of truth. For the mouth of truth, you're supposed to put yuor hand in, and if you're a liar, it eats your hand off. SO there's me being eaten.

Mosoleum (?) and Lunch

Our first day, after listening to the pope, Jessica and I (after getting lost from our group- which turned out to be better in the end) found a little Italian sidewalk restaurant. I think "cute" is the best word for it. After that we went to what i think was the Mosoleum (it was called something else too, but I can't quite remember) and from there was a beautiful view of the city.

The Vatican

The first of November was All Saint's Day, a National Holiday, so we got a day off of school. And since we only have class three days a week anyway... 11 of us went to Rome for five days. And it was warm! It snowed here in Vienna when we were gone and it hasn't snowed since, so we went just at the right time :)
We went to the Vatican and heard the pope speak the first day. he came out and spoke leaning out of his little window. The Vatican museum was amazing, and you can see me in the little courtyard there. There was SO much art there, it was really image overload for my brain- I couldn't take it all in.
St. Peter's Basilica was HUGE! I couldn't believe it. We went to mass while we were in St. Peter's. It was sweet.

Ambassador's Reception

So here's a picture from the reception at the begiining of October, with me, Lexi, and our host mom, Frau Alfons.

Venice Pictures

Well, I know it's been quite a while since I went top Venice, but the internet is working! (That's almost as rare as seeing Schwarzenegger walking the streets of Saratoga) So i am posting. Finally. I have them.



Well, so I know it's

Church in Prague

We stayed in Prague until Sunday, and we had the opportunity to attend church there. It was probably one of the best Sundays I have had. There is only one ward in Prague, and about a fourth of the members speak English, so the missionaries translate for the congregation. In Relief Society our teacher spoke French, so there was a later to translate into czech, than a missionary to translate into English, and if someone asked a question or had a response, it went all the way back the other way. For the closing hymn half of us sang in English and half sang in czech, which was beautiful.

Prague!

I'm really sorry I haven't been able to update for a while- I canot even begin to describe how busy I have been. So on October 25th we left for Prague. Prague was so BEAUTIFUl. It wasn't bombed during the war so there weren't a lot of repeairs that had to be performed.
Prague had some great food- I think I ate 10,000 calories/day there. There was also this little crepe place we found that sold crepes for $1 in about 20 different flavors. It was by the metro stop we took to get anywhere, and I ate a total of 8 (24'') crepes in the few days we were there. The lady who ran the stand started to recognize us and laughed when she saw us. Prague also had some really good music. One night we went to a concert as a group and we were the only audience members. There was a violinist that was one of the best i have ever heard (about as good as Joshua Bell, for a comparison). I also went to a concert the next night, and it was held in the National Museum. The National Museum was where the beginning party scene in the first Mission Impossible was filmed, and we sat on the steps in that entry way for the actual concert.



While we were there we stayed in prison every night. Well, it was a hostel that used to be a prison, at least. We were underground and our bedroom doors were huge steel jail doors that they had painted bright colors (everything was painted in bright colors) in an attempt to make the place look freindlier, i guess.