Day 23

Wow, 4 days have passed since my last entry. Thursday night Josef arrived on campus so to celebrate we went out and had a drink. We all, Lauree, Trent, Josef and myself went out to the pub. Trent did not like his beer, so he gave it to me to finish. To make a long story short, I got a little drunk that night. That seems to be the custom over here. Not to get drunk, but to drink a lot. I see people drink beer with breakfast!

On Saturday, Lauree and I walked around Vienna. We went to castles and palaces. Scholoss Schonbrunn. We took the forty room tour. I really enjoyed that. It was fun to see the past. I liked the idea of all the rooms being connected via both private and public corridors. Anyway, if you wanted to do anything without being seen or heard, you could very easily.

After the castle, we went into old town Vienna. We viewed St. Stephan's Cathedral. It is the icon of Vienna. At night, the stain glass roof glows with bright colors. I will try to remember all we saw today.

Museum of Armor
Museum Music and Art
Unteen monuments -- Victims of the plague.
The pillar of people reaches far into the sky.

All around Vienna, there are photographs to shoot. Sigmund Freud park had a small rock concert to listen to today.

Cathedrals are everywhere. i took a few pictures of St. Steven's cathedral, but I could not do it justice. Also, at the National Theater, there was a carnival outside. I had a bratwurst while admiring the golden ceilings and general architecture. The culture was very attracted to sculptures and statues on buildings. On any building in Vienna, you can find something of interest. I took a picture of what I thought was a hotel. On the top floor they had beautiful stained glass windows. I know that I did not explain that very well, but I tried.

We also visited the royal jewels. I only took 1 picture during the viewing because I didn't want to draw attention to myself and cause problems. I photographed a cloak (or something like it) that went over the kings shoulders. It had gold woven into the fabric. I thought that mom would like to see this someday. The jewels were excessive. Everything from golden roses to gifts of bones coated in silver were on display. They had several crowns made for the king and queen. Evidentially, no king wanted to wear a crown worn by his predecessor. Therefore, several crowns were commissioned through the years.

In the gallery of armor -- they had small suits of armor made for children. I never knew children fought in battle. They also had equestrian armor. I took a closeup of the craftsmanship on the chest of one of these huge plates of steal. It has a woman holding a shield. I guess as a symbol of protection and heroism.

In the art gallery I also took one photo. This of angels grieving over the death of Jesus. They were carefully washing his tortured body. The reason I chose this particular work over the rest was this: when I die I hope I am lovingly cleansed by angels and then taken to Heaven. I even sat down to see what was happening inside the picture. I'm sure I looked crazy.

By 3:00 in the afternoon it was time to eat something. We shared a satori. It is suppose to be the be the best chocolate cake in the world. It was good, but not enough for me.

We ate dinner at a nice restaurant. Schnitzel, salad and a coke for 115 shillings. Not bad for $12.

With our energy refreshed we strolled from one end of the old city to another via our 24 hour pass. All the stores close at 6:00 PM no exceptions. Therefore, I only bought a glasses case as my souvenir.

We stayed in a youth hostel. I met two girls from Denmark. Eva and Kama are going to a neural biology conference in Vienna until Thursday.

So many sights -- so little time to write about. I can't describe most of them. I can only say, you must go and see for yourself. I couldn't read or speak German, therefore, the signs meant nothing to me. That is the #1 drawback for Vienna. I could only take in the sights. I could not read about them.