If You're Not First, You're Last

Mondays are hard.  Three classes are just so difficult to sit through, especially when there are so many better things I could be doing.  (What am I going to do when I go back to BYU when I don't have anything fun to do AND I have to sit through class... It's gonna be rough!)

Last Monday, after our classes, we went down to the Danube and floated along the river in paddle boats.  Maddie, Annisija, Shelly and I shared a boat, and it was great to just relax and hang out.  Of course, we relaxed for about a half hour, and then Professor Minert organized a race and got to his boat the fastest would get the prize... the rest of his bag of gummy bears!  All of us girls are competitive, and we took turns peddling until our thighs and glutes were on fire!  Guess who won? That's right, we did.  And guess how many gummy bears were left?  About two for each of us... But we were victorious, and that's really all that matters right?  Like Shelly said, "If I don't win, I quit."  Couldn't have said it better myself.

Maddie and I have been running in Vienna a few times a week.  We ran the Ringstrasse last week, which is just under 4 miles.  It's great!  We even bought matching running outfits, and they are fantastic.  It hasn't been warm enough to wear them yet, but trust me, when we do I'll post pictures.

Story time.  Last Thursday, Kendal and I thought we had dinner with our host mom, so we raced home to make sure we were there on time.  Originally we had planned for Friday, but then Frau Schauer told us that she was going to an Opera on Friday and told us to be home on Thursday night.  Apparently there was a misunderstanding because when we got home Frau Schauer was asleep!  And we ended up missing dinner on Friday because we were with our group all day.  It was crazy, but we finally worked out what had happened and have decided to have dinner every Tuesday so there's no problems in the future!  We had our first Tuesday dinner last week and it was nice to get to know our host mom and her daughter-in-law better.

On Friday we went to the Melk Monastery.  My favorite room was the library.  It was huuuuge, and there were thousands of books.  Even though the books were not the usual types of books I read, it was still amazing to be in such a beautiful library!

Melk Monastery

View from Melk Monastery

The chapel

The library!

We left from Melk and went on a 20 mile bike ride along the Danube.  The weather was perfect, the views were phenomenal, and the exercise felt amazing.  We were all tired by the end, but we had no idea where to put our bikes and our professor was about an hour behind us.  We rode along the same stretch of land probably 10 times, while we tried to figure out where to put our bikes.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but every time we had to get back onto our bikes our sore bums were not happy.  But it was great bonding time, and it was fun hanging out with everyone in the group!

After the bike ride, a few of us went to Pratter, which is the amusement park in Vienna.  We rode the spinning swings, that took us way above the city, and it was awesome to see Vienna at night, with all the lights of the city glittering below, at such a great vantage point.  Kiersten and I also went on the human sling shot.  I had done one before in Denver, but this was the first time for Kiersten.  It made the whole experience so much more fun! Haha

These are the swings.  This isn't when I went, we went
when it was dark, but it was still awesome!

Hallstatt is hands down the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life.  Even though it was cold and raining our whole trip this past weekend, it was amazing.  We got to tour the salt mine.  Shelly and I walked up to the mine, while the everyone else rode the tram.  Apparently, though, the last tour started about 10 minutes before we reached the mine, but when we got there one of the tour guides took us to catch up with the rest of the group, so that was nice.  We had paid for it already and didn't want to waste our 16 Euros.  The mine was worth it, though.  The tour was great, and we got to race down slides in ridiculous suits which makes everything better!  I can't even describe how amazing the rest of Hallstatt was, and not even my pictures can do it justice, but that's the best I've got!

 We went to our church ward for the first time on Sunday.... and we were 50 minutes late.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong did, and we finally made it to church after missing the bus, getting off at wrong stops, and walking around in the freezing cold rain.  Willie Hirschmann is in our ward, which is great!  He is the grandson of Johann Huber (the man who pioneered the church in Austria) and he is one of the cutest old men I have ever met.  And for 81 years old, he is super mobile!  We actually met him before we went to church.  As a group we went to his apartment and he told us about his family and his experiences during WWII.  When he was 8 years old he watched the tanks roll down the streets when the Germans came into Austria.  Listening to Willie Hirschman's stories made the events of WWII more real to me, and I was glad he was willing to share some of his past with us.

In the cellar at Willie Hirschmann's

On Friday we head to Germany for a 10 day trip, including stops in Dresden, Berlin, Prague, and Freiberg.  I am excited.

A Drop of Golden Sun

I completely forgot to mention that last week at Stake Conference I ran into the Morgans from the Los Alamos Ward.  I saw Sister Morgan there, and when I went to talk to her, I realized she was talking to Becca, another girl in my study abroad group.  Turns out Sister Morgan and Becca are cousins!  Small world.

Okay, so last Monday I went home on my own because Kendal was off doing something else.  We have this little cafe with a green sign that we use as our reference point to get off the bus.  However, it was really hard to see out of the S-bahn windows because it was dark and raining so hard.  I saw a green sign, got out, realized I was at the wrong stop, but at that point, the S-bahn had left me.  So I stood in the rain and got soaking wet while I waited for the next one.  Turns out my stop was the next one, so I could have just walked... But it was pretty funny!

Last Wednesday, our group left on a five day bus trip to Salzburg, Munich, Haag, and other places.  Our first stop was Mauthausen.  Mauthausen was a concentration camp during WWII, and was intended to cause "death by labor."  The prisoners in Mauthausen were starved, living on only an average of 250 calories per day.  During the day the prisoners were forced to work in a huge rock quarry, carrying the rocks up an enormous staircase, as they were pushed beyond their limits by the guards.  Going to Mauthausen was a very sobering experience.  I cannot even begin to comprehend what the prisoners here had to suffer and endure, it is truly terrible.  As I walked where these tortured prisoners walked, I felt sorrow and complete horror for what these people had experienced.  How can humans be so cruel to one another?  We watched a video before touring the concentration camp, and at one point it was describing the graffiti on the prison walls.  One prisoner had written, "If there is a God, He is going to have to beg for my forgiveness."  How truly heartbreaking.  What these prisoners had to endure would no doubt shake their faith in a higher being.  They had to wonder what kind of God could let such cruel things occur.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that our Heavenly Father sent each and everyone of us to earth to exercise our agency, whether for good or evil.  Our Heavenly Father loves every single one of those people who endured the tortures at Mauthausen, and I know he wept at the treatment of his precious children.  I fervently believe that He welcomed and embraced them in his arms, praising their strength for what they suffered.  I will never even be able to begin to imagine the pains and sufferings of the Mauthausen prisoners, but I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ who died for us so that we could live with Him again.

Mauthausen Gate

A memorial to those who died at Mauthausen

The rock quarry.  It would be beautiful but for the horrific events that occurred here.

The prisoners were forced to carry every stone up these stairs,
though they were sick and starved

After Mauthausen, our trip destinations were of a lighter caliber.  We went to Salzburg and visited some of the sites where Sound of Music was filmed.  We got to see where Maria was married, in Mondsee Cathedral.  We also saw the gazebo where Rolfe and Leisl sang "I Am Sixteen," and the front of the "Von Trap" house, as well as some of the sites where Maria and the children sang "Do-Re-Mi."  It was pretty great!

 In Salzburg, we went to Hellbrunn Castle.  When the castle was built, it was built with all kinds of "water pranks." For example, there was a stone table in the gardens with stone chairs surrounding it.  But, there were holes in the chairs where water could be squirted through, so if you sat on the chair, you could quite possibly get a very wet butt.  Frau Schauer warned us about that before we went there, but a few of our group members sat on the chairs anyway, it was great!  Pretty sure, I would have been best friends with these people if I had lived back then!

After Hellbrunn Castle, we went to Obersalzburg Castle.  It fulfilled my lifelong dream of visiting a castle (Hellbrunn didn't look so much like a castle to me).  I got some great pictures, and the view from the castle was fantastic.

We went on a walking tour of the Mirabell gardens.  The gardens are super pretty.  After Obersalzburg we went back to the gardens, and there was an orchestra playing a concert.  They were really good, and it was nice to just relax and listen to them play.

Mondsee Cathedral

The inside of Mondsee Cathedral

Hellbrunn Castle

The water chairs at Hellbrunn!

Gazebo

"Von Trap" family house

Mirabell Gardens, some scenes from Sound of Music were filmed here!

Mirabell Gardens

Probably the prettiest cemetery I have ever been to

View from Obersalzburg

Obersalzburg

After Salzburg we went to a hotel in Irschenberg, Germany.  It was in the countryside and it was so beautiful!  Refreshing after being in the city for a while!  Irshcenberg is about an hour away from Munich, so that's where we went on Friday.  We went to the Deutsches Museum (the most visited museum in Germany).  It was pretty interesting, but it was all very technical.  The one thing I loved was the satellites and computers showing the weather in different areas.  It was pretty neat.

In Munich we also got to see the world's largest Glockenspiel.  Not quite as interesting as I had hoped, but it was still pretty cool.

Oh! And I bought a dirndl in Munich.  A dirndl is a traditional Austrian/German dress.  About half of the girls in our group bought one, and we toured Herrenchimsee Palace in them.  They are way cute!

Our hotel in Irschenberg

At our hotel in Irschenberg, wearing my dirndl!

At the Deutsches Museum

The Rathaus and Glockenspiel

On Saturday we took a ferry and went to Herrenchiemsee Island and toured the palace.  Our professor actually conducted the tour.  Turns out he spent four months doing tour guides there when he was younger!  The palace was beautiful, but we weren't allowed to take pictures which is a shame. 

After Herrenchiemsee we went to Eagle's Nest in the Alps.  Oh my goodness the view was PHENOMENAL!  I could have stayed up there for hours just enjoying weather and the beauty of the mountains.  It's definitely my favorite place I've been so far.

Half of the group getting ready for the ferry ride

Herrenchiemsee

Berchtesgaden

Eagle's Nest

Haag was my favorite place we stayed our whole trip.  It's a small country town in Austria, and it was beautiful. 

This study abroad experience is seriously the best ever.  I'm so happy and grateful to be here!  I'll try to keep my future posts shorter, with less writing and more pictures!  Enjoy :)