Dirndls und der schönste Ort

We left for our trip to Hallstatt and Salzburg on Wednesday morning. Before going to Hallstatt though, we stopped at the Mauthausen Memorial, which is where one of many concentration camps was. This particular camp was quite large and for some time had the harshest conditions of confinement. It's hard for me to describe very much about my visit here because it was just such a somber experience and truly unbelievable what so many people went through. It was always a hard topic to learn about in school but actually being there and imagining how many people were treated so poorly there years ago was a solemn and grieve experience. 

We arrived in Hallstatt a little after lunch time and had the rest of the day free. As soon as we got off of the bus, the view was incredible. Hallstatt is gorgeous! We were able to walk up many sets of stairs to see a waterfall and saw a beautiful view of the town and lake. We also went to a few churches. The first one was a Lutheran Church where I am going to play an organ recital in August, I'm so excited! It is a beautiful church. We then went to the Catholic Church where they have a lovingly cared for cemetery. They also have the Hallstatt Beinhaus (Bone House), also known as the Charnel House. It is a small building that has 1,200 skulls and many bones. The skulls are painted with different images that represent the person and their family. We had dinner at a cute restaurant right next to the lake and then played on one of the best playgrounds I've ever seen. European playgrounds > American playgrounds. Every time. After it got dark we all jumped in the freezing cold lake for a polar bear swim! So so cold but definitely worth it! We even attracted a crowd of local teens who thought we were crazy at first but then all of the sudden were jumping in with us!

We started the next day by attending Frohnleichnam mass at the Catholic church in Hallstatt. I've been to a few masses before but it was especially interesting because this one was in German. Right after the mass was over we went down to get on a boat. I forgot to mention, it was a huge religious holiday here so there were many people in their tradition clothing and so many small boats were out on the lake in celebration. The boat ride was really fun and the scenery was to die for. I think Hallstatt is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. When our boat ride was over I met with some family friends of ours, Wiglef and Edith. Wiglef was an exchange student and went to high school in the states with my dad and they've stayed good friends ever since. It was so fun to spend some time with them and I will get to see them a lot more in a couple months. We ended our time in Hallstatt with a tour of the infamous salt mines. It was super fun! We got to ride down some awesome slides that the workers used to use to get around the mine quickly and then took a sweet train on the way out. It was so neat to learn about the salt mines and the different stories that they have discovered. The salt there actually used to be referred to as white gold because it was worth so much, particularly because it's found to be such a good preservative. We waved goodbye to Hallstatt and made our way towards Salzburg. We had a nice group dinner when we got there and walked around the town a bit. 

We had an awesome tour of Salzburg the next morning, there's a lot of history there. One of my favorite places was the Kollegiankirche (The University of Salzburg Church) which is a beautiful church from the outside but especially charming on the inside. Unlike other churches we visited, the interior of this one was all white which I thought gave it a calm and unique feel. After our tour was over, some of us went shopping. Not just any kind of shopping though, we went Dirndl shopping! It was so fun and I'm in love with the Dirndl I got. The store was called Hanna so it was perfect and the ladies who work there are really sweet. After a few of us made our purchases, we went up to Fortress Hohensalzburg, the view was incredible. That evening we went to a music festival dressed in our Dirndls and got dinner on the town. 

Before heading back to Vienna today we made a stop at the Hellbrunn Palace & Trick Fountains. This place is awesome. Archbishop Marcus Sittikus enjoyed making water fountains that were out of sight and would surprise guests at different times and get them wet! Of course, going through Hellbrunn today we all got really wet. Also here is the Gazebo from The Sound of Music, where Liesl and Rolf dance, and 16 going 17 is sung! We returned safely to Vienna this evening after an amazing Ausflug. 

Did someone say Slovakia?

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!) 

The pizza struggle

I guess every study abroad ends up having at least one interesting food experience. Ours was today! We went to a pizza shop and thought we'd try the mozzarella pizza, sounded great. Not so fast. It was the messiest pizza of all my life. Scott and I did our best to not get covered in pizza but seriously, it was quite the struggle. I'm not sure the picture even does it justice, this pizza was like half liquid and when you picked up a piece, almost everything fell off. We sat down on a bench and when we opened the box we both just laughed because man I've never seen such liquified pizza before but, nonetheless it still tasted great. As you can see, the struggle didn't end there but only continued when we attempted to throw the box out. We finished up by having some struggle free ice cream!!

A highlight from this week was that I had my first organ lesson! The Jesuitskirche is so beautiful, I can hardly believe I am having lessons there. My teacher is very talented and intelligent. The language barrier is a bit hard at times but he is extremely knowledgable about the organ. We worked on improvisation which was a new experience for me. I had always thought of it as really intimidating before and had no idea how to start, so that was fun to try. We started working on a new piece and I also played some pieces that I was familiar with for him. I also got a practice organ figured out so that was a relief. I'm going to practice at one of the LDS chapels and it's great because the missionaries just let me into the building in the mornings and I'm able to get a lot done. 

Es ist alles so schön

I am still loving Vienna and everything I see is so beautiful! On Friday we all went to the Wien Museum which was great! We had an introduction to the Art and Architecture History Course which is part of our program. I am really excited for that class because I have never really learned much about it before so I think it will be really interesting. We had a transportation rally after the museum where we were put into teams of three and had to leave and come back to the same spot after using four modes of transportation, which were going on the Straßenbahn (streetcars), Autobus (bus), U-Bahn (subway), and the Schnellbahn (railway). My team came in second place so we were happy about that. We came home after that and our host had made us wiener schnitzel which was really sweet. The next day we went to the Ephesosmuseum and the Römermuseum. At the museum they had works of art and architecture on display from Ephesus which was located in what is now present day Turkey. Since 1895, archaeologists have been excavating the ruins of Ephesus and many of the objects are now in Vienna at this museum. We learned about a lot of Greek and Roman art and architecture while we were there and had an assignment to do a formal art analysis on one of the works we saw. We also saw the Mozart Memorial, which is in the Ringstrasse. Afterwards, a few of us went to a store called Primark, which is kind of like H&M, but way inexpensive. It is awesome, I so wish they had these in America!! Later that night we went to a friend's house to watch Eurovision! Okay, so I hadn't heard about this until I got here but it's a European song contest where each country sends their best singer/band and they put on a huge show, I guess it is similar to American Idol, but with many countries and more enthusiasm! It is a big thing in Austria right now because last year Austria won with the singer Conchita Wurst, which, just to give you a nice mental image, is a transgender guy who looks for the most part like a woman but still sports a beard. Google images can help you out with that one. On Sunday, I went to church with my host and it was really fun. I wasn't able to understand a lot but it was great to see how strong the members are here. I was also able to talk to the missionaries a little bit which was great. This morning I was able to go find the Jesuitenkirche where I will be having my organ lessons, I will have my first one tomorrow! Then, we went to Naturhistorisches Museum: Venus of Willendorf. It was a fun Museum and there was so much to see! They have casts of dinosaur skeletons, a large display of skulls that show the history of man, lots of gems, prehistoric sculptures and extinct birds and mammals. I was able to meet some family friends for lunch which was wonderful, it is great to have some connections here. Tonight, we are going to Die Fledermaus, which is an Operetta by Johann Strauss. Bis später!