Auf Wiedersehen

Good bye Vienna!
I will miss the U-bahn
and the Danube
Milka chocolate
being looked at like an imbecile
and I will miss my German teacher peter, who I don't understand.

I will miss the people at church and at school.


and I will miss Oma and Opa.



and the Jacobs



Its been a grand old time.

At the Danube

So my last week in Vienna has been pretty rainy, but last Saturday it was incredibly sunny! So we went and spent time at the Danube, which you have to pay for! Oh, how I miss America where the beach is free to all.
But it was really great.


Sunny!

Tiny towel!

I went with my roommate and Alex. We had a great time and I had a great peach.



It really was a great peach, but then this bee came and claimed it. Really it wouldn't leave! and I am real afraid of bees so I was freaking out a little and I just set the peach (with the bee sitting on it) down on the ground a safe distance away from my towel. The other girls were laughing at me but then when Taryn tried to shoo it away, it hovered in front of us for like a whole minute. It was really staring us down. It would look at me for a few seconds and then at Taryn... it was one sassy bee.

I walked. a lot

So while in Europe I walked a lot. I didn't really being a lot of clothes and stuff so I ended up wearing the stuff I did bring a lot and these shoes just got worn out!




Yuck huh! The grossest part was that I actually wore them for quite some time in this condition. I have sense bought some H&M shoes that I am already wearing through... I just wish you could smell these ones! When I showed Cami and Brit cami said, "Karl You're like a missionary"

They were Bad.

Thats why I threw them off a bridge into the Danube.

Paris

What can you say about Paris, right?!
I loved it, there was so much to do. I did a lot of planning so that I could do all the things I wanted to and even though I didn't get to all the places I wanted to go I had such a good time. First of all, paris is perfect for me. It gets light a lot later in the day and it doesn't get dark until after ten. seriously, I flew in at ten and it was still light outside. So I got to sleep in and not miss a thing!
Before we went we watched some movies about Paris. We watched "Funny Face" with Audrey Hepburn and the lady at the movie store recommended a French film named "Madame de..." Directed by Max Ophüls. It really set the mood and I highly recommend them.
A few of my favorite things:


San-Chapelle. This church is on the same island as Notre Dame, also really beautiful. The Gothic Stained glass windows are AMAZING. From the outside it looks like any other church but the entire chapel is the original stained glass. It makes the inside look sort of somber, but a beautiful sort.

The Arc De Triumph. Yes, I am standing in the middle of the road to get this picture, but when Cami and Brittany want a photo shoot, I hope to. Also, about 15 people followed us out there. Also, I bought that dress in Paris... love it.


The Champs de Elyse. I once attempted to memorise a song about this fancy little lane on a very productive tuesday/thursday with some fabulous girls, of whom I thought about for the entire time I walked down it. Which was quite a while indeed.


The Catacombs. So creepy, I loved it! The entire first half of the walk through them there were no bones. I kept saying "If there are no bones I will be so so mad" I have been through quite a few bone-less catacombs here... but there were so many, I picked up a skull! it was a little gross. And at the end they checked our purses, just incase we had thought of taking a souvenir.



Oh, you know, The Mona Lisa...


The Shakespeare Book shop, where I bought some great books to read on my billion hour flight home (that I take in one week! where has the time gone?)
And a Crazy girl named Carrie Speed that I bumped into.




The Pompidou, a modern art museum, its built inside out. I loved going there with my sister Katie, who was in Paris for two days with me! The museum was great, but the Frenchies were a little overzealous in their estimation of how much french literature they would need... oh those sassy Frenchies with their French.

The Eiffel Tower was blue, and at 11:00 it sparkled...
Ok, We went to this really great pastry shop, Stoher, that was opened in the 18th century, twice. I just had to film the display case. I am in LOVE!

Paris loves me

So I had a rough time getting here. I accidently made my plane reservation for eight at night instead of eight in the morning, which led to me crying in the middle of an airport hallway when I found out that they don't "do stand-by". Lame, I know. Also, I spent the next day (it was really rainy and horrible) reading and eating chocolate all alone at my house. I was pretty much the poster child for PMS.
However, I got here and I'm oh so happy!
And paris loves me. Look what I found on the street today...

Thats my name, spelled correctly. See? paris love!
Oh and since I spent all day at Versailles this was my first view of the Eiffel Tower

Its just sitting there! I'm going to spend all night getting a proper view of it.

Cookies!

So other than my family and my friends in America I also miss a lot of other things. Madonna said it, I am a material girl. One of them is chocolate Chip Cookies. they just don't have them here! Cami and Brit brought me some cookie mix, I love them. No cookies? No wonder Europeans can be so grumpy...
Other things I miss:
- refillable drinks. I really don't have that much soda or whatever usually but I can't tell you how many times I have just wanted a big gulp.
- Del Taco. We don't have this in Hawaii either but the three months tacked onto the four at school are just too many.
- Winchell's donuts. Also not in Hawaii, but every time I see a giant glass case of bread (which is often) I want there to be a maple bar in it.
- normal breakfast. Here breakfast is bread... I want pancakes and/ or hash browns. bacon?
- my blanket. Why am I confessing to acting like a child all the time on my blog? I don't know. but I miss it, ok?
also, I just want to say. I'm not complaining. All the things I miss will soon be restored and then I will have my awesome trip to remember. well worth the time missing these things.

Vienna vacations in Linz

Well aren't I glad that this city that I like a really lot gets to have a vacation of its very own.
NO, no I am not.
Me, Cami and Brittany went to see the Winter Riding school... it is really famous, every tourist does it. Unfortunately, the real riding school is on vacation in Linz. But don't worry they lent Vienna a bunch of untrained horses (that might get trained later) So we got to watch them run around and pull carriages for an hour... Almost as bad as the Black light show I saw in Prague that I'm not talking about.
Also, the other day I went to the natural history museum. I am against going to places like this in foreign countries generally, only because the things inside of natural history museums, or say a zoo, are not from that country. Pandas don't come from Vienna, I don't want to see one here... but the natural history museum here has something special. The Venus of Willendorf. You have probably seen a slide of this if you have been in a humanities or art history class, it is known as the first piece of art. It is just a small little fertility statue but I saw the spot the found it and I thought it would be cool to see the real thing, so I went to see it - not possible- she's on vacation in Linz... to bad they didn't tell me before hand and I bought my ticket. So now if I am ever in an art history class and the teacher asks if anyone has ever seen the real thing I will raise my hand and say, " No. but I got a real nice picture of a very good copy of the little vixen in the Natural History Museum of Vienna"


The plus side:
Remember when I was little and I had a rock collection? (you know, the one that is still in my closet that I pull out and look at when I feel nine.)
Well, I remembered why I used to do that...



Rocks are pretty.

Prague

Our last trip as a group was to Prague. I feel like I am getting good at this… I only got duped once, and I saw so many beautiful beautiful things! Before I went I bought a Wall Paper City Guide for Prague, these books are mainly for people interested in architecture. And Prague has a large amount of really interesting architecture. After communism fell they went nuts and let people build whatever they wanted, that’s really what it seemed like. Plus they have a lot of amazing, albeit conventional, buildings and sites as well.

The House of the Black Madonna. This is a cubist building. Cubism was really let wild in Prague. I like it.



Tyn church. Do note the big screen that ruined our view of this square our whole trip. Oh, Eurocup fever.


Look at that flowered cross ribbing! Ya, I took my art history final the week before our trip.

Golden ally. A place where midget people shop… Ich Bin Gross.


St. Charles bridge. Why is that guy looking at me like that?


The National Theatre. I saw the worst show I could ever imagine there…. I don’t even want to talk about it.


What leaning building?
The Fred and Ginger building (fred astaire and Ginger whoever, they are dancing.)


The Emauzy Church. The original top of this Gothic Cathedral was destroyed in WWII and they rebuilt it this way.


Hey I told you there was a lot.
This is the Lennon Wall, as in John Lennon. He was a big deal to kids under the communist regime and when he died they started tagging saint john’s wall. Now its legal, and that’s what I drew (I can’t draw feet, hence the flowers)



Zizkov T.V. Tower, used to block western signals. Yes those are Black babies crawling up and down it, I told you they were wild.


A Jewish cemetery that is so packed the stones are tipping, it is really weird to realize how long the Jews were persecuted in Europe, way before Hitler.


The Industrial Palace. When me and my friend Alex went there it was completely deserted, It was like in BIG, the movie, when he goes back to the carnival in the day time and no one is there. It was bazaar. Also, there was a carnival behind it and we went to get some licorice. The lady gave Alex the wrong flavor, when we wouldn’t leave until we got the right one she threw it on the floor and yelled gypsy at us.


Maybe my favorite, the Church of the Sacred Heart. Apparently the man that built this was run out of town afterwards… can’t see why. The out side was so cool and the inside looked like it belonged in the movie Romeo and Juliet (the new one). And we just happened to show up at Mass-time.


Best Travel lesson learned in Prague: always carry wet wipes. Katie gave me a pack before I left and when Alex was attacked by a tree we really needed them.


And now you have pretty much been to Prague.
p.s. I ate on the train home. Check that life-goal off the list. Czech