I heart Vienna!

Feeling more and more like a world travelor these days... About an hour ago we returned from a magnificent weekend in Vienna, Austria. I fell in love with the culture, the music on the streets, yummy desserts (a famous chocolate torte even - and I'll be honest, I like my chocolate cake better), the shopping, many museums, glorious parks (for real- they're amazing), statues placed strategically throughout the city, and cherry beer. ;) We spent a lot of time walking around (and that in and of itself is an understatement) the city. Vienna is a little bit classier than Prague which was fun for a weekend, but also more expensive.

On Friday night I discovered that I am beginning to dislike group tours of cities. I would much rather explore on my own... and I am even getting bored with the history. Oh blasphemous I know, and I feel like a traitor to my major- but wow... I'm just tired of hearing about rulers and their palaces. Sorry to sound cynical and ignorant, but there's only so many castles and churches you can look at. They start running together in my mind... Soooo this weekend Teddy and I decided to ditch the optional 3 hour walking tour of the city on Saturday morning and its historical sights, and ride bikes around Vienna instead. Yes. This was a good idea with great intentions. However, it ended up leading into a three hour wild goose chase to find those darn bikes and we finally decided we'd seen enough of the city without the bikes. However, it was a fantastic three hours because we got Starbucks, giggled alot, and saw much of the city on foot (including live musical performances all over the streets... beautiful). Ahh freedom! Later in the day we went on a shopping excursion (our first on this trip) and purchased some fun European clothing items. After a couple hours of shopping we hitailed it back to the hotel to get ready for a ballet! Let's be honest, watching a ballet in Vienna is necessary. A group of girls stood in line for an hour to purchase our student tickets and we went to the ballet. The performances were slightly modern and unique... such talent! After the ballet we met up with most of our group to hang out in one of Vienna's fine parks. Today we woke up early to try the famous chocolate torte at 9:45 in the morning. It's really never too early to eat chocolate cake in my opinion. After a few more quick stops in the city, our bus was off to Empress Maria Theresa's palace - complete with Europe's oldest zoo, a hedge maze, magnificent gardens, palace tours, and more famous dessert: the Viennese apple streudal. As I mentioned earlier, I'm getting sort of over the palaces, castles, and other historical sites, so Christie and a few other people opted to go to the zoo, gardens, and eat the streudal. The zoo was quite entertaining and beautiful. Christie and her boyfriend really like penguins, and being their 23 month anniversary today, Christie was quite excited to see the penguins. Honestly it was worth it just to see the smile on her face when she saw the funny little creatures dive into the pond. We ran (literally) to the stredual place just before we had to leave and ordered two warm apple streudals to go. Oh my goodness. Pure bliss. That's all I have to say about that. Just a whole lot of goodness! Yummm! We then boarded our bus for a four hour bus ride and we are back in Prague. I'm quite tired, a little bit flustered, and not really paying attention to my writing. Sorry if it's confusing... it's time to go to bed early! Tomorrow I hope for good God time and relaxation... oh and a pro soccer game in the evening! Pray for me. It's hump week for me here- and though I'm not working, in ministry, or really going to school, the monotany of life here is starting to wear on me a bit. I'm missing my family and community... the fellowship and worship. I'm so thankful to have Christie with me! Oh! I also discovered another sister in Christ on our trip! I suspected but it was confirmed today. I love how God places His body of believers strategically around the world. Speaking of that, I must mention that today we (Christie, Nick, and I) met an older missionary couple who just picked up their things and left for Budapest to live and start Bible studies. We had a great conversation in front of Starbucks this morning. Loving how God so divinely places people!
In conclusion to this long and somewhat informal update... Vienna is all that you imagine it to be and more. It was such a beautiful weekend! Maybe some day I will visit again...