I never lack for a good story.

This all happened a few weeks ago. All of these conversations were with the same patient on the same day...

Nurse: Ok, I will go get you some Tylenol for your headache.
Patient: Ok. Oh does that come in chewing gum form?

Patient: I need you to go get an ambulance for my mother because her heart stopped working!
Nurse: remember your mother and father died many years ago.
Patient: she is right there!
Nurse: no she's not. She died many years ago.
Patient: I know she died many years ago, but she is right there. Don't you believe in miracles?! Don't you believe her heart could start working?!
Nurse: Where are you right now? Do you know what day it is? 
Patient: I am in the hospital and today is September 2 and I need to get a ambulance for my mother.
(Well 2 out of 3 I guess).
Nurse: I do not see your mom.
Patient: She's right there! Mother! (she looks at the side of the room) ...She's not there. She was there before. Now that's just spooky. 

Patient: you all get d minuses. Some people have a schedule to keep!
Nurse: where are you going?
Patient: I am going to get up and go in to the other room.
Nurse: you can't walk.
Patient: oh not this again. I CAN walk!
Me: no you can't.  You haven't walked in months.
Patient: I CAN walk. I went to the movie theater last night! You don't believe me because you didn't see me!

Vienna to Prague!

We woke up Sunday morning in Vienna and took the metro to the center of town to go see the Hoffburg palace and the Volksgarten by it. The gardens were beautiful. There were tons and tons of roses. There was a group of Asians doing Tai Chi in the garden. There wasn't much to see in the castle but the outside of beautiful. 

Tai Chi

The Hoffburg

There was some sort of private event inside the palace and there were police everywhere. 

Then we got breakfast at McDonalds...because McDonalds is always better in a foreign country...and because that is all we had time for. Then we got on the tram to go to church. We got off at the right stop but we had trouble finding the building at first. We were able to find the building just in time! We went to the German speaking ward because the English speaking ward was too late in the day for us. The people were really nice and welcoming. They asked us if we wanted them to translate for us but we didn't want to be a bother so we just listened in German and tried to sing along to the Hymns. :-) We sung "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel". It was so fun to sing that in German! :-) This adorable little Austrian boy gave me one of his pretzels. He was so cute! He had thick glasses and a Winnie the Pooh tie. Even though I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying I could still feel the spirit and I felt so at home. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. After church while we were waiting to get back on the tram we talked with a father and his kids from the ward. The dad was from Vienna but served his mission in Mesa! Small world! He, his wife, and their kids lived in Provo for about 14 years. His wife is also from Vienna and they moved there family back there about a year ago. The oldest boy was a deacon and then there were 2 girls younger than him. They all speak fluent German and English. Pretty cool!

We went back to our hostel, got our bags and took the metro to another train station (not the one we came in on). While we were waiting for the metro we happened to run in to these people on a study abroad from ASU who were going back to Prague also. One of the guys was pretty cute but then he said they were mostly drinking the whole time they were there. I just don't get that. Why do you spend that much money to go this amazing country and then spend the whole time drunk. They can do that at home. 

After we got our train tickets we found some food. We found another middle eastern sandwich shop and had kebab's which is a middle eastern sandwich with Gyro meat. At least I think that is was it is. It was good. The guy that made mine tried to hit on me. He asked me where  I was from. I told him the U.S. and he said, "You speak Turkish?!" Then his coworker hit him on the shoulder and said, "No, no, no." It was pretty funny! While were waiting on the train platform we met this family (mom, dad, and their 2 girls who looked about 8 and 10 years old) from Virgina who were also traveling to Prague and then they are going to Salzburg and Obertraun and then back to Vienna. Very similar to what we did. :-)  They told us we looked like we fit in and we didn't look like tourists. He didn't think we were from the states at first. Awesome!!

Since I was sunburned we decided I needed a picture with this man, I really don't know what it says or what is is for, but we saw it everywhere. 

I gotta pee!

We look like sister missionaries! 

Once we were back in Prague we ate dinner at this Italian place sort of by our hostel. It was really good, but we didn't get enough food so I was still hungry afterwords. One of the dishes we got was 4 cheese penne. I told everyone I wanted to be buried in that sauce. It was that good!! We saw them making this dish that looked like spaghetti noodles with marinara sauce and then they dumped it on this big block of Parmesan cheese and mixed up the spaghetti as they scrapped the cheese from the block. It looked incredible! I want to try it! I think the restaurant was owned by an Italian family. The family was sitting at the table behind us doing bills or something of a sort. The cute little grandma kept talking to me in Czech...at least I think it was Czech, it didn't sound like Italian. I couldn't understand a word she said but she was adorable. 
We stayed at the Charles Bridge Economic hostel again this night...because that was our favorite hostel. I wish we could have stayed there the next night but there were no open rooms. :-(

Vienna

We started our day in Vienna by taking the underground to the center of town. We were kind of confused on where we were when we got off the underground, but we figured it out. We found some breakfast, very important, and then found the tour we had booked the night before. The tour goes around the city and you can hope on an off the buses when you want. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what most of them were. We learned that during World War II many of the buildings were destroyed. When the war was over the city was in desperate need of housing so they had to build a lot of inexpensive housing. So, as you drive around the city you see these beautiful ornate buildings right next to these very plain and inexpensive buildings. It was interesting.

Cathedral - Parts are black from a fire many many years ago. 

Inside of Cathedral

random street with pretty buildings

We spent most of the day at the the Schonbrunn palace. It is on the outskirts of the city and was built during the Austrian Hungarian empire. It was the summer home for the Hapsburg dynasty. Marie Antoinette grew  up there. Which I was really excited about when I learned because when I was in high school I went to Versailles. :-) The Schonbrunn palace was originally pink and blue but it is now yellow. They are unsure when it was painted yellow but this specific color yellow is called "Schonbrunn yellow". We did a tour of the palace, the gardens, the garden maze and labyrinth, and the Gloriette. They were all incredible and beautiful. The labyrinth had a kinds of cool toys and the maze led to a lookout over the maze. It took us a little while to get through the maze but we eventually figured it out. The walk to the Gloriette was a bit of a hike because it is on a hill at the back of the property but it was worth it! From the top of the Gloriette you have an incredible view of all of Vienna. 

The Schonbrunn Palace!

The Gloriette on top of the hill. 

In front of the palace. We asked this random guy to take our picture. He didn't speak English very well so he asked Katie if she spoke Russian, which she does! He was pretty excited! 

The Maze. We got lost a few times...

The lookout over the maze. 

Rocky!

The view from the top of the Gloriette. 

We spent so much time at the palace we missed our bus but we figured out how to take the underground to the next spot of the tour and were able to get back on the tour bus. We saw a few more things on the tour and then found dinner. We ate at this place called the "Zwolf Apostelkeller." We were so glad we went! It is this authentic place that our friend Jessi Hansen, who did a study abroad in Vienna told us to go to. It was so good! It was in the basement of this building and it looked a little sketchy at first but it was so good and so much fun! I got traditional Viennese schnitzel, which is breaded and fried veal. It was absolutely delicious! Until I came to Austria I thought schnitzel was hot dogs, probably because of the restaurant "Wiener Schnitzel" in the states. They call hot dogs here frankfurters. They also do schnitzel with pork, which is what Bethany got. Katie got this plate with frankfurters and black pudding with some other kind of meat served over sauerkraut. I tried the black pudding. It wasn't at all what I thought it would taste like. It was good but I don't think I could eat very much of it in one sitting. When we were done eating, these 2 older men with a violin and an accordion came to our table and played music for us. We thought they would play Austrian songs for us but they asked us where we were from and told us they wanted to play American music for us. :-) They played "Home on the Range", "I've been working on the railroad", "Edelweiss" from Sound of Music (that is an American song, it's not Austrian), and "Do Re Mi" from the Sound of Music. I kept thinking they were going to stop but then they would think of another song and keep going! It was so funny! I'm pretty sure the man with the violin was looking at me almost the whole time while he was playing and he kept asking me if I wanted to play his violin. What can I say, old men love me! ;-) And I love them! (like I love my grandpa) ;-) This restaurant was probably one of my favorite things of our trip. It was so much fun! Thank you again Jessi!

We love schnitzel!!!

My boyfriend ;-)

After dinner we went to the gelato place that Jessi told us to go to. It's called Zanoni and Zanoni. Apparently they were the first ones to bring gelato to Vienna from Italy. They are supposed to be the best gelato in Vienna and they did not disappoint! I got a scoop of melon and a scoop of raspberry. It was amazing!! We ate our gelato in front of one the beautiful cathedrals and met a nice lady and her mom who were also traveling.

We took the underground metro back to our hostel. We left the center of the city about 945pm which is the latest we had been out since we got to Europe. I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary getting back. Mostly because when we got of the metro we were standing in the station trying to decide which street to go up to when this really scary lady with makeup smeared all over face and totally high on who knows what, probably multiple things, came up to me and started mumbling something. I started walking so fast and telling Katie, Liz, and Bethany to follow me. Man that lady was scary! I walked so fast the rest of the way to our hostel. It seems as if all the scary people come out the second the sun goes down. We made it back to our hostel safe and sound. I was so grateful! I was also so grateful because when we left this morning I had accidentally left my phone plugged in on the night stand. I was so worried about it the entire day. I was worried that it was going to stolen or fried from being plugged in. I had a silent prayer in my heart all day and told Katie, Bethany, and Liz to also say a prayer for it. I was so happy to find it safe and sound when we got back. More proof Heavenly Father was certainly watching over us the entire trip. We could feel Him watching over us every day.

It's Gotta Be A Good Life!

We rented a little motor boat in Hallstatt. It had two speeds, slow and slower, but it was so much fun! We went across the lake to get a closer look at the little castle. It was originally built by a sword maker and now privately owned by a architect and is undergoing renovations.

Sun Shade!

My feet and a castle. No biggie. 

The boat had a radio that we listened to. The first song that came on was, "It's gotta be a good life." We couldn't have planned it better!!

After the boat we walked up to the catholic church to see the cemetery. Most certainly that prettiest cemetery I have ever been to. The grave sites were beautiful. Every grave had a little flower on top of it. We went in this little house full of painted skulls. This is how they used to bury their dead because they didn't have enough room. About 10 years after the person was originally buried they would dig it up, preserve and bleach the skull, and then paint it. Each painted had special meaning. It was very interesting. The last skull placed in the hut was in 1995. It was a woman who requested she be put there.

Hallstatt Cemetery 

We got more delicious ice cream and sat in the center of the town to eat it. We watched a dad teach his son how to lick the ice cream so it didn't melt all over his hand. The little boy lost interest pretty quick because there was a fountain. :-)  I don't blame him. Fountains are cool.

Yummy!

Random lady that was watching everyone...and talking to herself. 

 We took the ferry back to Obertraun and walked to are bags to the train station. We took the train from Obertraun to Vienna. We noticed when were riding all these trains that there are a lot of young kids, like junior high age, riding without any adults. We were curious about this.  We really wanted to know where they were all going but we never figured it out. C'est la vie.  La vie.  ;-)

Sun shade! :-) 

Getting off the Ferry. Auf Wiedersehen Hallstatt and Obertraun. We love you!!

 Once we got into Vienna we were able to find our hostel without too much difficulty. We stayed at a place called "The Happy Hostel". We nicknamed it the "Unhappy Hostel". The lady who checked us in wasn't very nice and she spoke hardly any English. The room was our least favorite. Once we dropped off our stuff we were starving. We stopped at a pizza/Chinese food place. Yes, it was both. :-) I did not feel brave so I just got cheese pizza. Bethany got pizza with corn on it. We had seen this a lot of places so we had to try it. It tasted weird. Liz got pizza that she thought was sausage, but it wasn't sausage. It was tuna fish and onions. GROSS! I didn't even taste it because it sounded too disgusting. 
After we finished our not so good dinner it started raining so we stopped in this Italian Gelato place to wait out the rain. So glad we did! It was delicious!

What Heaven Looks Like

We spent day 4 in Hallstatt. I don't remember being in Heaven....but I'm pretty sure this is what it looked like.  :-)

The Meinenger Hostel in Salzburg was not our favorite but it certainly won the award for best shower! Our shower in Hallstatt was the most difficult. The shower curtain didn't reach around the whole shower so everything outside it got very wet! But, everything in Hallstatt and Obertraun was so beautiful it more than made up for the shower! Everyone in Austria has beautiful flowers and gardens. All the houses have flower boxes outside their windows. I love it!!

We ate breakfast at the hotel and did a little bit of laundry in the sink . We found out it was a bank holiday this day and there was not a ferry running from Obertraun to Hallstatt. So we walked from Obertraun to the Hallstatt train stop which is where you catch the ferry. The walk takes about 30 min but it is so beautiful! We were going to rent bikes and ride around the lake but then we decided not to. It ended up being better in the long run that we didn't rent bikes. It would have been hard to keep track of them while we did everything else. 

Walking to the ferry

Walking to the ferry

Once we were in Hallstatt we walked down the main street and went into a ton of little shops. While we were walking around all of the sudden this parade came toward us. They had a band and they were all dressed in traditional clothes. They were celebrating the holiday which we were told was a "party for Jesus". We later found out it was a celebration for the institution of the sacrament in the catholic church. Some of the statues in the town were also decorated with flowers and ribbons for the celebration. It was so fun to be there for this!

Hallstatt is an old Salt Mining town. Part of the mine is still a working mine but the other part they have open for tours. We took the funicular up to the top of the mountain and then hiked a little ways to the house where the tour starts. The view of the town and lake from up here was breathtaking! It cost a total of 24 euros for the ride up, the tour, and the ride down. Money well spent! The tour was awesome! We had to wear special outfits over our clothes to keep the salt from getting on our clothes. Miners have been mining here since prehistoric times. I think they said about 36 miners still work there. There are 2 slides in the mine that we got to slide down. The miners used these to get to the different levels of the mine. Before we went on the tour a friend from home had told us the slide wasn't all that impressive. After the first slide we agreed with her. It was fun but nothing spectacular. Then we found out there was a second slide and it was awesome! Liz and I went together on the second slide. It's like Disneyland. The take your picture and clock your speed as you go down! Liz and I slid down at 30.3 km/hr. I think we got the fastest in the group! Well, expect our tour guide. She slid down at 36 km/hr. 

Wax miner that scared Liz!

We got some delicious ice cream when we went back into town. So yummy! We also got a sandwich at this little shop on the street. I think it is middle eastern or Greek. The guy running the shop asked us where we were from. We said the U.S. and he asked us if we liked Obama. We said, "ehh." Then he asked us if we liked George Bush and we said the same thing. He laughed and said, "American polictics are crazy!" It was pretty funny. :)

That evening we took the Ferry back to the Hallstatt train station and walked to Obertraun. We saw some cool Austrian slugs. I named one of them Fredrick. Because of the Sound of Music of course. We had dinner at the hotel. We were very lucky with most of the food on our trip being fabulous. We were less impressed with this food but it was ok. After the dinner we went out to the dock and put our feet in the water. The water was freezing!! We found out later that the water comes from glaciers in the Alps. No wonder it's so cold! But is was still so fun! 

Castle :)

On the ferry back to Obertraun

Obertraun

Swans!!

This slide looked like so much fun! Too bad the water was so cold!

There was a playground by the lake. It had a zip line and a merry go round! You can never find those things in American playgrounds because people are too sue happy! We decided Austrian children are much happier than American children because of this. 

Blurry picture of Katie on the zip line

.