Props to Franz

Vienna...where to start. where to start. Well, Thursday afternoon we arrived in Vienna. It was slightly chilly when we first got there and I was a little bit worried that it wasn't going to be as warm as we had all anticipated! But anyway, we got to the hostel, put our bags in our rooms, went down to the cafeteria, ate and then went on a really small walking tour. On the tour, we stopped in the square that had two museums and a GIANT statue of Maria Theresia. We all decided to take a picture with the elephant in front of the Museum of Natural History...however, you can't really see the elephant all that well lolEmpress Maria Theresia is someone who is VERY popular amongst the Austrians. She was the only female to rule Austria. She did a lot of things, mainly making it mandatory for EVERYONE to attend schooling for the first nine years. Anyway, in one of the big squares in Vienna, there's a HUGE Maria Theresia statue/monument which me and Kerry thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures with :)

On Friday, we woke up early and went to the European Union [the organization lol] and afterwards, they gave us this scavenger hunt we were supposed to do. It was so much fun. We had to go all through the city and it was really fun because we got to see so much more that we would have if we were just traveling on our own.
This is Laura, Me and Kerry in front of Burgtheater during our scavenger hunt. We had to somewhat rush through the scavenger hunt and not complete all of it because we had to get back to the hostel and get ready for the ballet, which was SO much fun! The ballet had a very sad and tragic plot to it. It was about Franz Joseph and Sisi's son, Rupert [I think], who didn't have a good relationship with his parents. He didn't like the life he was forced to live or the woman he was supposed to marry, etc. So, basically it was a ballet which followed him cheating on his wife, disobeying his father, doing drugs, and eventually committing suicide. Yeah-like I said, tragic. Despite the ballet being tragic, the "curtain" for the ballet was really umm...interesting lol
The ballet was not only really good, but it was really longgggggggg! There were two intermissions! TWO intermissions. I didn't even know you were allowed to have more than one. I mean, that's a little bit on the ridiculous side. lol But, considering we got standing seats [for only 3 EURO I might add], it was good that there were two intermissions so we could sit down :) This is me and Kerry during the first intermission!
After the ballet, a bunch of people went to a hookah bar and then I think to some disco club or something but me being a sleepy party pooper [as well as an extreme white girl when it comes to dancing], I decided to go back to the hostel with Kerry and Carrie. We just kind of walked around taking our time and we walked by Cafe Grienstiedl, which happened to still be open. So, we went in and got coffee and glorious desserts. :) We actually talked about Cafe Grienstiedl a lot in my Understanding Austria class. It just so happened to be one of the most popular places for very intelligent and famous people to go back in the day. People such as Sigmund Freud and even Adolf Hitler. So, we felt pretty important getting to eat there! Ha ha :)

Also in Vienna, there was the Spanish Horse Riding School which me and Kerry stalked because we wanted to get a picture with one of the boys. Well, unfortunately, they never walked by when we were stalking to so we had to settle for pictures of the horses...which were the most beautiful horses that I have ever seen. They were stunning! They were so tall and pure white and perfectly groomed. They were amazing. I was extremely tempted to reach out and touch them when they walked by but fortunately I thought about my actions before hand and decided that I'd rather not get arrested. lol
After stalking the horses and their riders, we all walked to like, the other side of town to this market we went to the day before that had tons of little shops where you could buy fresh fruit and vegetables or get seafood or classic Austrian food, etc. that was really cheap and also really really good. Unfortunately, we got all the way over there before realizing that it was Sunday and nothing is open on Sundays...lol woops! So, we had to turn around and walk all the way back to town. On our way there, we passed these horse and carriages (which are EVERYWHERE) and there were some horses "taking a break" and getting buckets of water, etc. Well, one of them accidently knocked its bucket over and all the water dumped out and it was EXTREMELY hot on Sunday. So, I felt bad and we went and told its owner that all its water had dumped out and that was when I realized there aren't any animal laws in Austria because she told me that I needed to mind my own business and it didn't matter because it's just a horse. So I went and bought a bottle of water and poured it in its water bucket while the lady just glared at me. Ha ha probably made her like Americans that much more.

Anyway, we spent the next 2 hrs or so just kind of wandering around. We stopped in a park to just kind of relax before going back to the hostel to head to the train station. It was so pretty outside and the breeze felt absolutely AMAZING in the shade so me, Aaron, and Karley just kind of layed on the steps for a little while. This is my and Franzi [my magnet that I bought of Franz Joseph II who is probably the most famous of the Habsburgs and I take pictures with him when we travel to new places].
He's kind of like the angel/devil on my shoulder advising me when it comes to decision-making.
Overall, Vienna has probably been my favorite trip over all. Italy was stunning, and I've always wanted to go there, but Vienna was the most fun and I had my favorite people with me and I got to experience so so much! Everything I've been learning in class basically became real. It was truly amazing and I'm so thankful that I got to experience it.