We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don't exist. They [the people in Vienna] don't feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought: This is a terrific idea - that old people are useful -and that means I don't have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age. I thought "Vienna waits for you..."

-Billy Joel

Thursday, October 6, 2011

I'm Running Out of Words to Describe Beauty.

This week was yet another one filled with adventures and fun. We were blessed with beautiful weather every day!

On Monday our whole group went paddle boating on the Alte Donou (Old Donube River) here in Vienna. It turned out to be such a nice day and it was a blast!! J

Tuesday we went to the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts for Art History. Our professor was a student there back in the day! There is some pretty amazing stuff in there. During our break Ashley, Naomi and I went to the Catacombs underneath St. Stephens Gothic Cathedral. It was really interesting! A bit freaky but cool to learn about the history. That night Ashley and I had dinner with our host family. It was fun like always, but remind me to never eat liver dumpling soup EVER again.

Wednesday Ashley and I got tickets to go watch the Spanisch Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School) practice in the morning. It was SO cool! It’s amazing how well trained the horses are and the style of riding is beautiful. That afternoon we had Mormonism in Germany at the Minert’s apartment. That class always makes me happy! A few of us went to the Shonnbrunn Gardens that afternoon. The castle is gorgeous and the gardens are even better! Great place to run-you can run to the top where the restaurant is and have a view of the castle with the city around it. Yet another beautiful view here in Vienna! While waiting for institute to start, we went to the Opera House and watched the opera outside on the big screen. They do this every night for the opening month of opera season  (September). 



Thursday our History class went to the Military Museum. I must be growing up because I don’t think I could have handled this many historical museums a couple years ago-haha! I also don’t think I would have appreciated the architecture as much as I do now. There’s a right time for everything!

Friday was go go go. Our group rented bikes to ride along the Donou river. It was wonderful! We rode through orchards in Krem (lower Austria) and it was a bright sunny day. J It was quite the adventure getting home. Some of us needed to get back to Vienna to make the Balanchine and Robbins Ballet. That is…George Balanchine and Jerome Robins. AKA amazing. We all split up and had no idea where to put our bikes at the end. We ended up rushing and still got to the ballet a little late but seeing Balanchine and Robins blew my mind. BLEW my mind. So good! It made me miss dancing that much more. I need to get on finding a good place to dance here! I’ve looked, but so far they are either schools or studios for just beginners that I could dance at for a limited amount of time.  After the ballet some of us went SALSA DANCING! Haha, it was great! Having Austrian friends who know the city well and the fun things to do is definitely beneficial.


Inside the Opera House at the Ballet!

Saturday- We woke up and went to the Minert’s to watch Dresden, a war movie. We are going there in a couple weeks and he wanted us to be informed on what happened there during the war. REALLY good movie! We went to a market then went to a church building to watch the Saturday morning general conference session. It was weird watching conference at night rather than in the morning! All the talks were so great and inspiring. I’m so glad we are able to hear the words of the prophets twice a year and get that enlightenment! It made me happy when Germany was mentioned TWICE! Woop!

Ashley and I decided to make a to-do list of things here just in Vienna. So we hit out DK Vienna book and scouted out everything to do here! This is the Hundertwasserhaus. The artist wanted to strike a blow against all the modern architecture so he came up with this very colorful and slanted looking apartment building. Way cool!




I love waking up and remembering that I’m in Vienna. There is still so much to do! J

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