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Austria!!!

I know, I'm pretty terrible at updates. I wish I had a really good excuse like I'm too busy with exciting things to update, but the truth is there is rarely anything that warrants an update. If I were to update what is actually happening in my life on a daily basis, entries would typically ready "Today I got to change sheets after someone wet the bed. Again. And then I got to give another sponge bath and put lots of lotions and creams on someone else." Yeah, that's about it. Of course there are the more exciting days when the bed isn't just wet... yeah, you get the picture.

Anyway, I'm writing now because I have something much more exciting to talk about than my daily life. This past weekend I went to visit Rachel in Austria! It was an absolutely glorious break from work and it was so good to spend time with Rachel and see the interesting sights in Austria.

Friday we spent the day in Vienna, which is about an hour away from where Rachel lives by train. We started our day with a nice little jaunt up the big tower at Stephan's Dom. It was really neat to see Vienna from up high like that, and since Rachel has lived there for almost two years now she was able to point out the important buildings from up there. The church was absolutely beautiful. After we went back down (over 300 steps, all spiraled), we headed to the Mozarthaus. The Mozarthaus is a museum all about Mozart and Vienna when he lived and worked there. It is housed in a building that was once Mozart's apartment, and is actually where he composed The Marriage Of Figaro. There were plenty of interesting things to see and hear about Mozart's life, and it was just so surreal to be in his apartment... like, I was standing where Mozart once stood. It really felt like I was somehow in the shadow of his genius. After this we were ready for lunch, so Rachel took me to a typical Viennese restaurant, where I ate my first wienerschnitzel. Before this, I really had no idea what wienerschnitzel even was - it's basically just a thin piece of fried meat. Apparently the Austrians eat a lot of fried food, which is kind of surprising because they are all so thin. Must be all the skiing. Once we finished our lunch (and took a picture of Flat Stanley!), I went to tour the Statsoper, which is the main opera house in Vienna. It was really neat, and I learned that that opera stage is the hardest one in the world to sing on due to the height of the ceiling and the position of the orchestra - it's like a proving ground for opera singers. While I was there they were setting up the stage for that night's performace of The Flying Dutchman, so right before I left they brought the platform with the first act's scene up from the basement. To end our time in Vienna we went to a lovely cafe where I had melange (coffee with milk) and the famous sachertorte. Sachertorte is basically a chocolate layer cake with a little bit of orange marmalade, that was created by the hotel Sacher in Vienna. We took the train to Salzburg and found our hostel, checked our email, and had a drink before going to bed.

Saturday we got up relatively early and took the bus to the base of the mountain Untersburg. I think Maria mentions this mountain in The Sound Of Music. We took a gondola up to the top. It was really pretty - we hiked a little bit, got some pictures with Flat Stanley, and tried not to freeze. Look for pictures especially of this to be posted later this week. Once we came off the mountain we did a little walking tour of Salzburg - we went to a cathedral that was really neat because the whole part where the pews are is dark, but then the altar and nave are lit (naturally by the sun), and it represents coming out of the darkness of the world and into the light. Also we saw Mozart's birth house and another house where Mozart lived, and a few places they used in the fliming of The Sound Of Music. I had my first Mozart ball (a chocolate with marzipan in the center), and my first Kaserkranier, which is a cheese filled sausage. After a long cold day of walking we went to this cafe where Rachel ordered chai latte and I got hot chocolate. When Rachel's came out there was a smily face drawn with cinnamon in the milky foam, and we were both like "awww that's so cute!", then mine came out and there were music notes with a staff drawn in chocolate powder! It was so cool, and yes we took a picture (with Flat Stanley!) Once we were warmed up, we headed back to the hostel to collect our things, then to the train station to head back to Krems where Rachel lives. We had some soup for supper, then some of Rachel's friends came over and we played cards and hung out, and updated Flat Stanley's travel journal!

Sunday we got up and went to church at a protestant church Rachel attends. It was all in German, but I knew some of the songs. After church we went to visit Rachel's host family. Opa had his birthday party, so there was a large dinner at a guest house. I ate pork with real sauerkraut, and knodel - which are kind of like balls of mashed potatoes with some dough to hold the ball together. It was just like New Year's Day (but with better sauerkraut....) For dessert I had a poppy seed cake that I forget the German name for, but it was really tasty. Rachel and I walked through the town of Spitz and saw a neat chapel and some castle ruins and pretty views and vineyards. I had no idea that Austria produced so much wine, I thought that grapes were mainly grown in the Mediterranean or warmer countries. After chatting with her host family for a bit, we went to the heurigen, which is a place where families that produce wine sell their wine and have simple food. It's also a social gathering place. The wine was excellent, and it was a lot of fun. Rachel and I sang Happy Birthday to Opa, and a lot of the others in the heurigen joined it.

So that was basically my weekend! It was really fun.