Talk About Chills...

Woo! These past two weeks have flown by in the blink of an eye.  With the long amount of time it has been you have to brace yourself and bare with me as I try to catch you up on as much as possible. And yes that means a lot of pictures as well!

When I first thought of going to Austria I was thrilled! All I could think of is singing in the hills just like they did in the movie the Sound of Music.  When we arrived I was very confused by the fact that we were in the city rather than the country side.  I should have known better, I was just jumping to conclusion.  It is like when I say I am from Nebraska and people only think of cows, corn, and outhouses.  I took the country side look out from my head and followed the group into the City Square.  The plan was originally to take a tour outside, but it started to rain and hail.  We took off on run to find some shelter and changed our plans in a jiffy! Instead we went into the Hasburg’s family heirlooms museum.  The Hasburg family line still exist to this day, although they are not allowed in Austria unless they take an oath in agreement that they will never claim as royalty and will not step up to the thrown if ever needed again.

keys to the city

 

We moved on from the museum to an amazing Catholic Cathedral.  In this cathedral I instantly felt happy.  I mean I am a happy person most of the time, just you know that feeling that you get when you just feel safe and happy?  That is the feeling I got when I walked in. I felt like I needed to go to some candles and just pray.  While I had my friend take my picture I noticed this elderly lady standing next to me and her husband right across taking a picture of her as well.  This couple looked so familiar, I just didn’t think anything of it at the time.  Later that night in our hostel I went flipping through some paperwork that thankfully my grandma printed out about our family history and saw my great grandma and grandpa’s name being in Vienna, Austria as one of their favorite places.  Having chills that I already did I talked to my mom and she sent me a picture of them immediately.  Sure enough this couple looks just like them.  Now my great grandma and grandpa died when I was younger so I don’t remember much of them then, but seeing them that day made me feel the safest I have ever felt during my trip here to Europe.

Chills

The next day we split up into groups and went to the museum of our choice.  I decided to go to the natural science museum.  The natural science museum gained my interest because a female clay figurine that I have learned about in college was there.  She is the sign of fertility and people used these all the time as almost a good luck.  She was a lot smaller than what I expected her to be, but it was still amazing to see her in person.   The other part of the museum that I didn’t put in to play was the 15 rooms filled with taxidermy animals.  For those that know me I am a vegetarian and it was honestly hard for me to see all of these animals dead.  I just hope that all of the animals were sick or already dying and they put them out of their misery. After the long emotional trip in the museum we grabbed some lunch, hit some more museums and set off for Venice. 

 Our bus ride to Venice was about an 8 hour long bus ride. Lets just say I got a lot of sleeping in.  As we entered into Venice my heart filled with joy to see all of the canals and gondolas.  We made our way through the town and made our first stop to the Jewish Quarter.  This Jewish quarter still had those that survived from the Auschwitz living there.  Jan told us it is very odd to have the survivors come back to their original home because they wanted to get rid of all the bad memories.  Although, these people wanted to form a community again.

Jan our leader for the trip

 

After visiting the Jewish Quarter we made our way over to the bridge of sighs.  This bridge was the place where the prisoners would get to see their last glimpse of life before being executed.  Legend has it that Casanova was the only one to escape within a month of staying in prison.  Soon after the bridge we broke off for some lunch and was lunch not one of the best parts of my day!  A group of us stopped at a place called Alfredo’s and had some of the best pasta that I have ever consumed.   This pasta was so good that we decided to have more the next day. 

Mr.Alfredo his self!

 

On our last day in Venice a group of us decided to check something off of everyone’s bucket list and take a ride in a gondola.  The ride was super fun and relaxing all at the same time and I recommend for anyone who has the chance to, to go on a gondola.  After the joyous ride we started to head back to our hostel to pack up and get ready for our spring break adventures.

 

Be ready for Part two because we haven’t even started spring break yet! Ciao!