Vienna

Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Nate's posts. We have had a busy couple of weeks trying to get everything in order to move back home! Yea!! I am thinking of posting a countdown except that our "borrowed" internet connection is not always reliable enough for daily posts (We are down to 28 days by the way). We are trying to do something fun or new every day to keep from getting to homesick. Today I went to Kensington High Street and bought a new bag for us bring some of our extra stuff home in and then dragged it home in the pouring rain (it does that here in Soggy London Town). Pretty fun, huh?

We still have a few pictures to post from our last trip so bear with us. On our next leg we met up with Nancy and Holly in Vienna. Nate and I were so tired by this point that we were so glad to be able to stay in one place for a few nights in a row. Nate and I planned to go to Vienna for a Moot Court competition that Notre Dame was participating in. We spent a week in this really pretty, clean, and friendly city.

The Austrians are real big on Easter and we were in Vienna the week before so we got in on quite a bit of the celebration. My favorite part was the eggs they sell EVERYWHERE. We went to a market where they had literally thousands of hand painted eggs. No more green and purple dye kits in cocoa cups for me. I think I may try my hand at this. These were some of my favorites. One has an entire and accurate globe motif and the other, in honor of Mozart, I assume, has piano keys and notes. Cool, no?

Nate, Nancy, Holly and I went and saw the symphony (Vivaldi and Handel) and the Ballet (Swan Lake). This is us at the Staatsoper where Swan Lake was. It was a really amazing performance and us girls loved it. Nate was ok most of the time but the prince in tights made him a little uncomfortable and he soothed himself by calling him Captain McCroth-Stuff throughout the entire performance. All in all it was a very good night.

This is a picture of Nate standing in front of the balcony where Hitler made the speech that officially annexed Austria as a member of the Third Reich. This is the Hofsburg palace where the Hapsburg family lived (say that ten times fast). The museum claims to have true pieces of Christ's cross and one of the nails as well (believe what you want about authenticity but I thought it was interesting nonetheless).

This is Nate's team (minus one member who was unfortunately indisposed at such an early hour in the morning- the Irish like their beer). Nate and Martha were arguing that morning and the others were there for moral support. They argued against a Finnish team who did well but Nate sort of mopped the floor with them (whoops) and Martha wasn't half bad either. One of the Finnish girls had that really cool color of silver-blond hair that you only find up in those parts of the world; sort of like Fleur Delacour only more silver. Nate's team won that argument but unfortunately did not move on (the rest of Nate's team couldn't measure up to his rhetorical skills).

This is me and Nate by the Blue Danube, or the Damn Danube as Nancy called it- we had a little trouble finding a place to park by it, causing some frustration. We eventually drove down a path that I am still pretty sure is only for pedestrians and got some really good pictures. Nate and I loved the church in the background (the church of St. Francis of Assisi). We had a really good time with a lot of food and a lot of laughter and several near death experiences involving cars. I would highly recommend Vienna to pretty much anyone.