This past week has been great! I love just going somewhere new here and seeing what's there. There's so much to see. On Friday night we went to the Lange Nacht der Kirche and it was amazing. It is a night where nearly every Christian church was open until late at night with different musical programs and performances going on. A few of us went to the Stephansdom, Jesuitenkirche (where I have my organ lessons and was able to see my teacher performing!), and the Karlskirche. All of the programs were really well done and I think it is so neat that they have this night for people to learn about and experience some different religions in a social setting. At the Karlskirche they had baskets that were full of small pieces of paper with scriptures written on them for anyone to take. I got one in Hungarian which I thought was really special. Which, leads me to my first Hungarian lesson!! I met with a super sweet lady from Hungary who is a language teacher here, she actually teaches English to German speakers. It was so fun to get a start on the language. We went over some simple greetings and phrases, listened to some Hungarian, and went over the alphabet. It went really well.
Slovakia! So some of our group went to Bratislava, Slovakia on Saturday. I didn't really know anything about Slovakia beforehand which was just more reason to go! The train ticket there and back was only 16 euros and it's only a little more than an hour away. So worth it!
We went to Devín Castle first which was incredible. We did a little hike to get to it so it was awesome to look over the city and see how beautiful it was with all the hills, which were covered in goats. The first time Devín castle was mentioned in a written work was in 864 so it's been there for a bit! Parts of it are in ruins, understandably, but it's still standing which I think is amazing. This was probably my favorite part of our trip to Bratislava.
We had lunch at a place called the Narnia Pub which was way fun. We got to try some Slovakian food and even did a toast "For Aslan!" to get in the Narnia mood. We wondered around a bit downtown and saw some old churches, water wells, and some historic buildings. To finish up our trip we went to the main castle of Bratislava, it's literally known as Bratislava Castle. It was so fun to just walk around and see such spectacular views from high up. We caught the train back to Vienna and some of us ended up asleep. Yes, I was one of them.
Church on Sunday was great because I went to the international ward. It was fun because I was able to meet the Bishop's wife who loves music like I do. She asked me to accompany the ward choir and to fill in when their organist is out of town. So, I'm glad I went to that ward and I think from now on my Sunday's might be a little busier since I will have the international Ward in the morning, followed by choir practice and then I am hoping to attend the German ward in the afternoon.
Tomorrow morning I am headed to Salzburg and Hallstatt so that will be really exciting.
Szia! (My newest Hungarian word which is used often as either hello or goodbye!)
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