Brno, Prague, Budepest

It has been really interesting traveling to other cities the past two weeks.  You really get an idea for how the region is, Budapest and Brno are not as beautiful as Prague, but I also think there were more affected by the Soviets.  Prague has been the most beautiful city so far but I love the feel of Vienna.  Traveling to the other cities has also given me an appreciation for German.  When we were in Prague, (which speaks Czech and uses Czech coronas, not Euros,) we gained an appreciation for the  widespread use of German and the Euro here in Vienna and all of Austria.  Even though I dont really speak German I still find it much easier to understand people and signs than in the Czech Republic and Hungary.  

The smaller towns in those areas are also much poorer than the areas here.  Traveling by train you get to see a lot of countryside, it was interesting to see how small and close together some homes were, most were no bigger than a garage! 

It should be interesting as we continue these far trips in Austria to see how it compares.

Hope you are all enjoying the blog! Feel free to comment!

Love,

Kristin

Praha

To see pictures from Prague check out this link

Prague 1

and this one (I took a lot of pictures)

Prague 2

3 countries in 3 days!

The first room of coffins, one of MANY (There were a lot of Hofsburgs)

The top of a coffin, very decorated!  You could barely tell there was a coffin underneath!
This is the person who ruled Mexico for a while, they didnt like him being there...
The latest member of the family to be placed there, one of the last that will be allowed.

Hello all!

First of all I would like to inform you that I have finally watched The Sound Of Music! I cant wait to go to Salzburg and see all the sights from the movie now.

Today we bought the train tickets for Prague this weekend.  On our way to the train station we realized that we will be in 3 countries in 3 days.  Tomorrow we will be traveling to Budapest for the day and Friday we will be going to Prague for the weekend.  

Forever raining

Over one week down and it is still raining here.  We have had a nice day of sunniness, but back to rain, it feels like we are actually in London!  Yesterday we went to a large psychiatric facility, we got to go inside the church they use that had recently been renovated.  It was very beautiful and the guide told us how everything had been smoothed and rounded so that the patients could not hurt themselves.  

Friday we went to the National Cemetery, it is the largest in all of Europe!  One of the last fights for Vienna took place in the old Jewish quarter of the cemetery, so it was interesting to see bullet holes in the gravestones.  That area had also been bombed and it was sad to see the piles and piles of grave-markers that weren't where they belonged.  

I hope to put up more pictures soon,

Love,

Kristin

Pictures!

Old meets New, I thought this was an interesting place.  Vienna is a city of paradox!
Monument to all of the Jewish people who were killed by the Nazis.
Stephansdom , the big cathedral in Vienna, very beautiful, inside and out.
One of the Hofsburgs palaces, its never been lived in!!

A statue to Mozart at the palace.

Movie in Vienna

Yesterday (Sunday) almost all of the shops are closed in Vienna, and all of Austria.  My roommate Lacey, Kate, Maggie and I decided to go shopping, which turning into a long walk because everything was closed.  We sat in a cafe for a while and decided to see a movie, "He's just not that into you" because we hadn't seen it and it was something to do while EVERYTHING else was closed.  A big group of us decided to go and it was a lot of fun.  There is a student discount, but we had to sit in the front.  The movie theater was MUCH smaller than at home and the screen was about 1/2 to a 1/3 of the normal size.  

Today we started classes, and went on a "forced march" to go see the burial site of most of the Haufsburgs, which was the ruling family of Austria (Spain, Mexico, Hungary, Italy, etc).  It was amazing to see how detailed and ornate the coffins were, I took many pictures and I hope to post them soon.  

Tonight was the first night of doing homework, so to celebrate Lacey and I went shopping.  I got some great buys.  I got some boots (which EVERYONE wears here) for about 20 Euros, a couple tshirts, 5 euro each, a zip u hoodie and a nice/casual top.  We stopped to get a slice of pizza.  At home it could be called a pepperoni pizza, but here its salami and was the size of a quarter of a pizza!  

Hope to post more soon!

Love,

Kristin

Our roaming adventure

Today, Kate and I joined with Margaret and Nelson, who got here yesterday as well, to do some more exploring.  Luckily I brought my umbrella because today was a very rainy day!

We went all over the ring, which kind of outlines the downtown, and wandered around the downtown area.  We got a bit turned around and lost but we eventually found are way back.  The older part of town was very beautiful and I wanted to take 100000 pictures every 10 feet, I held off and just took a couple.  I can be more of a tourist when I am with the rest of the class.  The "forced marches" we will go on will be nothing compared to our 4 hour excursions.  

For lunch the four of us went into a little bakery that had sandwiches, I also bought a phone that will work when i am here.  It is interesting that a lot of the music we here is in english, but then there are workers in the buildings that dont speak English.  Our  German will hopefully improve soon!

Love,

Kristin

The first day!

Hey all!

We (Kate and I) have finally made it after a little over 16 hours traveling.  Unfortunelty the airline lost my baggage, thankfully it was in Munich, so it arrived a few hours later.  

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful trip.  It seems to be a lot like any other city, only the people all speak German.  

Kate and I walked around a bit and went to a cafe, where the woman who worked there didnt speak any English, it was a bit hard but it all worked out.  We decided to go to an Italian place for dinner that we had seen earlier in the day and on the way we ran into Margaret, one of the Augie students here early and she is staying in the same hotel we are!  We all went to dinner and loved what we got.  The chicken risotto was delicious!  

I'll try to post pictures in the next blog!

Love,

Kristin