12.14.2008; Things I will surely miss

glorious st stephens mosaic

best vista of them all, see wien from stephensdom

naturhistorisches museum. a palace, now museum. beautiful.

rathaus mit weihnachtmarkt--christmas season envelops Vienna.

Votiv kirche in its glory

home.

great people.

einunddreizig goldhammergasse, so viel lieb.

stunning architecture and detail

graffiti!

It seemed only appropriate to include a few pictures before I depart of this place I have come to love so dearly. I am speechlessly grateful for the opportunity to have been here; it has been amazing. I know that I cannot sum these feelings up in words, so I’ll just include some heartfelt and fond photos. Mahlzeit! (Enjoy, bon appétit type word.)

12.6.2008 Ski Trip

Peace. Love. Alpine powder.

Alpines!

The water bottle attached to my backpack somehow partially froze? Delicious wasser.

I would say this typifies the whole trip.

Sunset in the Alps. Best thing.

This was taken while moving, amazing, I know, we were on the tow rope, and it was so high tech--you sat on a little rod thing and it pulled you up!

Double trouble.

The group. Awe.

I figured that since it is now snowing in Utah, it is appropriate to post these pictures of our ski time last weekend.

We got a great student discount (being a student here rocks, museums, shows, galleries, movies, transportation, essen...most everything comes at a reduced rates with student id!) for the bus to the resort. Okay I’ll tell you. We paid €46 euro for the hour ride there, hour ride back, AND lift ticket! Can you believe that? Neither could we. So we left early morning, and got there pumped to ski. We also got great prices on our gear rental, and were off. The snow was great, and the company was better. It was so beautiful; actually—again—strangely reminiscent of Utah. What? The Alps were great. I’m thrilled to have skied down them; it is an experience I would strongly recommend to anyone with the opportunity. Enjoy the photos.

P.S. Oh, whoops, they didn’t rent gloves. We’d heard they did. So Brad, Nick, and I didn’t have gloves… all day. It was classic! Actually, it was a Christmas Miracle because my hands were strangely un-cold--unless I wiped out, then that was wet and yugh. What a funny experience though, no? No gloves in the Alpines? Yikes.

11.27.2008

Kaylynn, if you're reading, this reminded me of our childhood years. How oft did we watch Land Before Time? Too many times to count. I smiled at those memories. Love you, Sista.

Terrible picture really, but this guy was larger than the room. He had to wave his body in order to fit. SO LONG!

Me and Venus! She's a small little one.

From Wikipedia: "Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11.1 cm (4 3/8 inches) high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been created between 24,000 BCE – 22,000 BCE. It was discovered in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the city of Krems. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre.

Heinz Kröll (my wonderful Fine Arts teacher here) told us her voluptuous body is representative for fertility, and that a Shaman created this as a plea to to God's for a good harvest.

Imagine this bad boy swimming around. Yikes!

No words.

For you, Will.

A crab! Kristen you'd be loving this with that drawn butter!

Naturhistorisches Museum—one of my favorite museums of all time! Here are wide-ranging
collections thoroughly exhibited, including archaeological, anthropological, mineralogical, zoological, and geographical displays. There are casts of dinosaur skeletons, the world’s largest display of skulls illustrating the history of man, one of Europe’s most comprehensive collections of gems, prehistoric sculpture, Bronze Age items, and extinct birds and mammals. It was a zoo times one million basically. Not only was the entertainment to the maximum capacity, the architecture is mind boggling. It is built as the twin of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (the art history museum—this one housing the creations of man, whereas the Naturhistorisches houses the creations of God); they are long and palace-like; the interiors are stunning! I will surely miss the ornate décor in every-day buildings.

For Will and Grandpa: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum.

Welcome.

The gorgeous architecture still astounds me.

Will have you been here? Grandpa? If not, it is a must-see. Basically, this is a gigantic War museum, filled to the brim with anything and everything. We even saw the getup Franz Ferdinand was wearing when he got shot—and yes, there is still blood on it. Just wanting to show the few pictures I have in case you haven’t been there.

Z & Z

Promise they aren't both mine.

Will and Kristen, how tragic it was that I was unaware of Zanoni and Zanoni’s whilst you were in Wien. It is Stephansplatz, right on the square we were at, and the gelato is ouuuuut offffffff thiiiiiiiiis worlllllllllld. So good! Just a few licks and you’re hooked. So many reasons for you to find your way back to Wien someday.

Vienna Philharmonic 12.1.2008

Pardon, slightly blurry Groβer Musik Vereinssaal. A stunning building.

Illegal photo! But only just so.

After the trio, before the Quintet.

A gal in the group somehow weaseled in and got us über cheapo tickets for the Philharmonic last night. I sat in on a Quintet, and was in paradismo. 100%. These men were incredibly skilled! I didn’t recognize any of the pieces they played, but I did recognize the tranquility I experienced sitting there basking in their talent. Grandma, I can see why your heart tugs towards classical music as it does; this was one of the higher points I’ve experienced musically in Wien. Who am I kidding, one of the higher? It was superlative no doubt!

Ode to Will

Will, I was in a bookstore the other day and I saw this poster of a cat’s life. It made me laugh, so I foto machen-ed it. Ha, enjoy.

1: Fressen
2: Schlafen
3: Nervos herumtigern
4: fressen
5: herumlungern
6: Schlafen
7: Arrogant guken
8: Schlafen
9: Fressen
10: Schlafen

It's basically eating, sleeping, and a few other activities. Ha.

Thanksgiving

Quickly, a photo from Thanksgiving. Pie time. How neat it was to cook something other than soup, steamed vegetables, and pasta. Also, a quick fun note, on Sunday morning, at the temple, a few of us made French Toast for the group, and let me tell you—what a gratefully received meal! We are certainly missing the essen from home a little bit. :)

Deutschland 11.28-30.2008

scenery on the way home..

ah! more..

Ah! Temple far left, back middle is the hostel, and the chapel is far right.

look at those clouds. :)

our blessed hostel. it was quality.

there's a little brewer in my coat.

this is what greeted us when we pulled up on friday night. can you keep from smiling?

Döner time!

(I've decided to include some of the many eats we partook of in the Weinachtsmarkts of Dresden)

First: a waffle with _____. Mystery fluid. Creamy goodness.
*****

(five stars)

Chocolate covered apple. Or was that manna in chocolate form? You tell me.
*****
easily.

Zero stars.

**************************

26 stars.

What was this?! It was gekochte apfel--aka a cooked apple. The inside was mixed up with cinnamon, sugar, and cream, then topped with vanilla saucy-stuff. It was divine to say the least.

Frau Alfons said she'd show us how to make them as a departure gift.

Weinachtsmarkt!

The town of Dresden=quaint.

Karl Gottfried Mäser

This past weekend we bussed it up for neun Stunden nach Deutschland. Aka—we went to Germany! The drive was scenic and picturesque. We got there late evening, and found ourselves at the best hostel in all of Germany…FREIBERG TEMEL HERBERGE! Translation: we stayed in a hostel on temple grounds. As you can see from the photos, everything is in walking distance. The temple and hostel are even connected by an underground tunnel, which we took on Saturday morning as we made our way to the Baptistry.

In the London temple, we were tasting home with the English words. Here, we had the full experience auf Deutsch. I couldn’t help but reminisce of the time we talked in Rumbi about the spirit being the same no matter what language. We were in Freiberg, doing Spanish names in German. The entire experience was beautiful and so gratifying. I cannot get over how blessed we are as a people in Utah to have such a number of lovely temples unbelievably close! I’ve spoken on this before, so I’ll just end by saying it was remarkable and that the church is true.

After temple time we bussed into Dresden for some classic site-seeing and night life. Dresden is mind-blowingly chocolate box. We were all ooh-ing and awe-ing as we drove down the windy gasses (“gass-ehs,” little streets) pinching ourselves to see if we were dreaming. We got into the main town square and stood in wonderment before Frauenkirche. Last week, in my arts class, Heinz Kröll told us about this church and its total destruction at the conclusion of World War II. He got emotional as he showed pictures of the ruins; it was not rebuilt for years, the rubble was a memorial for what the British and Americans did. When it was rebuilt, much of the old materials were reused, thus some of the bricks are blackened while others are ivory. Frauenkirche wasn’t the only building to get utterly demolished, all of the buildings in the town center were, and all were later built up according to how they had once stood. There is a sort of reverence there which is hard to explain—those of you that have stood there are aware of that indescribable feeling. Just up the stairs and around the corner was the jolliest Weinachten Markt I’ve been in since they’ve sprung up. Fyi: these are fun little Christmas shops set up similar to flea-markets. We spent a good four hours going from one Markt to another, sampling heavenly food, and seeing fun trinkety souvenirs. I even ate what was said to be the best Döner—a sandwhich thing super popular in Deutschland—and many other delightful foods. This is irrelevant. We bussed back to Freiberg, and felt amazing as we slept on Temple grounds for the second and last time. In the Morgen we went to church in the chapel twenty feet away, and marveled at how much easier the German Deutsch connected from ears to brain—Austrians talk in suchhhhhhh a strong dialect! After last minutes, we made our way back to Wien, again enjoying the dazzling landscape.