Bagels, Mauthausen, Musikverein, und mehr!

Hallo!

The past couple days have been crazy because we are in the middle of midterms!  I don't know why, but on my program they make a huge deal out of midterms...they're worth the same amount as my finals.  (Ew!)  But before midterms started, I got to do a couple neat things.  Last Saturday, I went with my friends from Emory to one of the only bagel places in Vienna, Bagel Station.  Everybody working there spoke English and we all got everything bagels with cream cheese.  The cream cheese tasted a little different, but the bagels were SO delicious!  Such a welcome and familiar taste!!

Bagel Station!

Last Sunday, I went on an excursion with my program to Mauthausen, which is a concentration camp about 2 hours outside of Vienna in a small market town.  One of the strangest parts about the whole thing was how beautiful the entire area of the camp was...it didn't seem to fit with what happened there.  The actual camp itself was extremely eerie.  We saw the entrances, the watchtowers, the barracks, the housing of the officers, the memorials in the front of the camp, and the quarry where prisoners were forced to climb up the hills with 100-170 pound rocks.  One of the professors who came with us said that the tour of the camp was the coldest she had ever been since she had lived in Austria, so I guess we got a little sense of how miserable the winters were for the people in the camp.  I can't imagine how they worked in that weather in almost no clothes!  It was a pretty humbling experience.  After we all froze on the tour, the bus stopped at McDonald's so people could get coffee and American food...how European of us!

one of the memorials outside of the camp

the quarry that the prisoners had to walk up and were forced to jump off of

the camp itself was beautiful...very strange

the entrance to Mauthausen

the view from the watch ledge of the main area of the camp

the barracks

another view of the barracks

Then on Tuesday I experienced what is probably one of my favorite things I've done so far...I got to see the Vienna Philharmonic!!!!!  There is a 6 year long waiting list for a concert during the week and a 13 year waiting list to see a concert on the weekend.  But somehow, someone on my program found some special student tickets (for only 10 euro!) because it was a holiday.  We didn't even have to stand!  (A welcome change from the opera!)  The philharmonic played two Brahms pieces, a trombone concerto, and Dvorak's Ninth Symphony.  The trombone concerto was a little strange, but I had never heard one before so it was still pretty cool.  Dvorak was AMAZING though!!! So dramatic and intense!  And I've never had so much fun watching a conductor before.  He was literally jumping up and down on his podium and dancing the whole time.  I have no idea how any of the symphony members followed him.  I though he was going to need the bar behind him on the podium!  Also, before Dvorak started the conductor was having the symphony wait a long time before it started and nobody could figure out why. All of a sudden the stage doors opened again and the principal bassoonist ran on stage...I have no idea what he was doing but he was definitely in big trouble for being late!  Then if that wasn't bad enough, they still weren't starting, and the bassoonist got up AGAIN, knocking things off of other people's stands as he went offstage.  He came back about 20 seconds later with a folder with his music!  I cannot even imagine the scolding he got from the conductor after the concert!  It was pretty funny though.  The concert was in the Musikverein, which was absolutely gorgeous.  It is right in front of Karlskuche (St. Charles' Church), which is one of my favorite churches, so we saw a beautiful view of the city before the  concert.

the beautiful Musikverein!

THE VIENNA PHILHARMONIC!!!! (notice it's almost all men)

in front of the stage!

Before the concert, I met up with the 2 girls I was going with down in the U-bahn outside of the opera bathrooms.  This was an experience in itself!  I had never stopped to look at the bathrooms before, but I always noticed the music playing outside.  But I spent a good 15 minutes waiting outside of them on Tuesday, so I got quite the tour of them.  The Danube Waltz is BLASTED from the bathrooms on repeat...the song never changes!  The men's bathroom is designed like an old piano bar with an actual old piano and the urinals look like bar stools...it is extremely strange.  (There are pictures outside of the bathrooms, that's how I know what they look like!!)  The women's bathroom has stalls that look like old theater boxes.  You have to pay to use them though, so I will probably never actually go in there.  It was an interesting experience to see them though!

It's started to not get above the 40's during the day...I've been wearing my coat every day!!  The trees are still beautiful with the leaves changing colors, though, so I don't quite mind the cold yet.  I have such a pretty walk to school that I even stopped and took a picture in Stadtpark today.  Other than that, I've just been cramming for midterms and scrambling to finish a paper.  Mom and Dad get in at 3:15 this afternoon, so I'm going to meet them at 4:30 at their hotel today!  I'm so excited!!  I'm sure we'll have lots of adventures that I can write about in a couple weeks. :)  Auf Wiedersehen!!

Stadtpark

my walk to school

Zwei Wochen in Wien

Guten Tag!

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I've posted, but the week before last was a pretty quiet week.  The highlight of my week (even though it was not necessarily a good thing) was probably what happened to me on my way to school on Tuesday.  I was waiting to cross the street while a Strassenbahn (Vienna's streetcars) was going by in front of me.  All of a sudden, I heard a huge thud and the Strassenbahn had gone off of the tracks!  I couldn't figure out why that would happen, so I walked around the streetcar to cross the street and saw that it had smashed straight into one of those giant tour buses!  It was crazy...there was glass everywhere and the front window and door of the tour bus were completely smashed in.  Luckily, there were lots of construction and city workers everywhere who had the door pried open and people out within minutes, and nobody was hurt.  But my German professor told me that a Strassenbahn accident happens very rarely, so I saw something that doesn't happen often in Vienna!

the Strassenbahn accident

On Friday night, I went to a brewery with a couple of my friends.  We went to the Ottakringer Brewery, which is one of Vienna's most popular local beers.  The brewery turns into a sort of night club about once a month, so there were 5 floors of dancing with a different genre of live music on each floor.  We stayed on the Rock floor, but I'm sure the other floors were really cool, too.  (There was a hip hop floor, a techno floor, and I forget what else.)  It was a really neat place to see and it was fun to go somewhere different on the weekend.  Other than that, I had a pretty uneventful week.  Even though it was somewhat quiet, I still had a fabulous week in Vienna!! :)

This week was a little more eventful.  Last Wednesday, I went on another walking tour with my Vienna: Past and Present class.  We visited St. Stephan's Cathedral, which is probably the most famous church in Vienna.  We also saw the Jesuit University, which is still located in the city center by St. Stephan's.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen here yet.  After that, we went inside the oldest pub in Vienna, which is a cute little restaurant that has signatures on the ceiling of famous people who have eaten there, including Mozart!!  It was pretty cool to stand in a pub where Mozart had eaten!

the inside of St. Stephan's

This is my professor...Dad wanted me to take pictures of my crazy professors!

the inside of the Jesuit University

On Friday night, I went to The Barber of Seville at the Opera House.  I went with about 10 other people from my program at 5:00 to wait for standing tickets to the 8:00 show.  It was totally worth it though!!!  We got standing spots in about the 20th row (in a HUGE opera house) and had an incredible view!  Once you tie a scarf around your seats, you are free to leave, so we went to the grocery store and bought food and chocolate and ate a yummy dinner before going back to the opera house.  The actual opera was amazing!  It is one of the few that I learned about in my opera class, so it was nice to know what was going on and recognize some of the arias.  It was definitely one of my most memorable nights here so far...it felt like a typical Viennese night!  After the opera, we went over to someone from my program's apartment instead of going out to a club.  We all had so much fun because it felt more like we were at home at a friend's apartment instead of struggling to brave a foreign city and foreign nightclubs.  We all agreed that a quiet night of hanging out was a nice break from the crowded nightlife of the city.

the inside of the Opera House...we were so close to the front!

This morning (Saturday morning), I went on an all-day excursion with my Vienna: Past and Present class.  We took a charter bus to Klosterneuburg, which is one of the most famous monasteries in Austria.  The bus ride took us about 45 minutes outside of Vienna, so we got a beautiful view of the mountains.  We went on a 3 hour tour of then entire monastery and then drove about 15 more minutes to Castle Kreuzenstein where my professor gave us a tour of all the rooms of the castle, its courtyard, and its weapons room.  That castle was used in the movie The Three Muskateers and now makes most of its money by being used as a movie set.  After the castle, we went to a Heurigen, which has traditional Austrian food and Austrian wine.  Everyone was required to order a drink and something to eat, so I had a piece of bread with this delicious orange cheese spread (I can't remember what it's called!) that tasted kind of like the Hawaiin cheese dip that Mom and Grandma Sandy make and a glass of white wine.  The wine was super bitter, but it was apparently really fancy Viennese wine, so I felt very authentic. :)

one of the areas of Klosterneuburg

the outside of the monestary...it was so pretty!

the outside of Castle Kreuzenstein

the courtyard in the castle

Other than that, I'm just going to be working on a 45 minute presentation that I have to give on Thursday and I haven't even started...gotta love studying abroad!  And my foot is almost back to normal, so no more hobbling around Vienna!  All in all, it's been a good couple of weeks :)  Auf Wiedersehen!

Lange Nacht der Museen

Hallo!

It has gotten so cold in the past week!  I am sitting in my kitchen with the tea kettle on while wearing a fleece, a sweatshirt, a scarf, and sweatpants!  On Friday (October 1st), the gelato shops closed and pretty much the whole city turned the heat on.  But lucky for me, the gelato shop by my apartment is open through the end of October.  The main event of my week was probably my Vienna: Past and Present class on Wednesday.  My teacher took us to a couple of main places in the city center that I hadn't seen before.  We saw some of the oldest churches in Vienna, the Jewish Square, and even the building where Mozart gave his first concert!  I think that class is going to be my favorite because we just walk around the city most of the time.  My professor even bought us all chocolate at one of the museums!

a square in the city center

where Mozart performed his first concert!

a cool church where some Viennese monks are buried

The most exciting part of the weekend was definitely Saturday night, which was die Lange Nacht der Museen.  From 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. there were 105 museums open all over the city.  We paid one fee at the first museum we saw and then had a ticket to almost every museum in Vienna!  The whole city was insanely busy until about 2 in the morning.  I went to the Albertina Museum and saw the huge Picasso exhibit, which was AMAZING.  I would guess there were about 30 original Picasso drawings and paintings.  The exhibit was all about Picasso during the war, so there were a lot of interesting paintings and things to read.  We also went to one of the old libraries in the city center, which was absolutely beautiful and reminded me of something from Harry Potter.  Then we waited about an hour to get into the Museum of Chocolate where we got to sample some Viennese chocolates and got a wafer to put either milk chocolate, white chocolate, or dark chocolate on.  Our last stop was the Alt-Wiener Schnapsmuseum, which is a famous Schnapps Museum in Vienna.  We waited about an hour there, too, only to find that the entire tour was in German.  But everybody got to try a little sip of whatever kind of Schnapps they wanted, so I tried a flavor of my favorite type of Viennese cookie...not as pleasant as you would think!

the library...so pretty!

two of the mini chocolate fountains at the Museum of Chocolate

chocolate statues

part of the Schnapps Museum

another part of the Schnapps Museum

The night of the museums was a little difficult because I hurt my foot pretty badly on Friday night, so I was kind of hobbling all over the city.  But I'm going to keep sightseeing anyways even though I look a little ridiculous!  We will see how it goes...

Hope everything is going well at home!  Auf Wiedersehen!

Oktoberfest!

Grüss gott! 

I just got back from München (Munich) and Oktoberfest.  It was crazyyy, but so much fun!  Other than that, I had a pretty uneventful week.  I don't mind though because it gave me time to adjust to starting classes again and getting back in the swing of things in Vienna.  I've gotten to really like all of my classes, so I'm relieved!  And I don't think they'll be too much work.  It is such a welcome change to get to learn about something that I always understand and have always loved.  Today in my Mahler class, we were lectured about what Mahler's intentions and thoughts were when he wrote his second symphony, and then a bunch of people from my class went to a performance tonight of the symphony in this beautiful Konzerthaus.  The concert actually turned out to be a youth orchestra, but they were AMAZING.  Youth orchestra in Vienna is a whole different level from the United States, that's for sure!

das Kanzerthaus for the Mahler concert

Ian and I at the concert

But the highlight of my week was DEFINITELY Oktoberfest.  I didn't think I would have that much fun since I don't particularly like beer, but it was amazing!  On Friday night, Carrie, my friend Amanda (who is from Minnesota and has an accent even thicker than Grandma and Grandpa and Anne's!!)  and I went over to Ian's apartment to put on our dirndls and braid our hair.  It turned out that Ian's roommates were on the same train as we were, so we all got ready together and ate and waited for our train.  We took the midnight train out of Vienna and into Munich.  That in itself was an experience!  None of us were sitting together and we were each in a compartment with 5 other strangers.  I just went to sleep until about 5 in the morning when I couldn't sleep anymore.  It actually turned out to be really fun though because 3 of the people in my compartment couldn't sleep anymore either and they turned out to be really interesting.  They were 3 Colombian students studying abroad in England, so they wanted to practice their English with me.  It is so fun meeting so many interesting foreign people all the time!

After the train, we got to Munich at about 6:15 in the morning.  We headed straight for the festival since we didn't have any reservations or anything.  It was pouring rain and freezing cold, but we didn't care because we were all dressed up and ready to be in a tent for the rest of the day!  We were some of the very first people in line for the tent, so we didn't have a problem getting in, but it turns out that the first tent we were in is one of the most famous ones and one of the hardest to get into, the Hofbräuhaus.  It was absolute chaos when they opened the doors of the tent and everyone tried to rush in.  At one point, I'm pretty sure my feet were not on the ground and I was just being carried by the crowd!  But we finally all made it inside and found each other and sat at a table.

After we sat down, the tent filled up with hundreds and hundreds of people within about 30 minutes.  People were chanting and music was playing and everybody was impatiently waiting for the beer to be served starting at 9:00.  (We got into the tent around 8:00.)  The waitress came and we all ordered a liter of beer (the smallest amount you can get!) for a hefty 10 Euros.  Finally, the first tray of beer was served and everyone went CRAZY singing all kinds of songs and chugging their first beers.  Our table did not participate in the chugging, but we were all pretty excited, too.  After we got our drinks, we ordered two of these HUGE pretzels that were so enormous that they fed all 9 of us!  Over the course of an hour, we downed the pretzels and I even finished my liter of beer!  We saw a couple of people from our program in our tent, so we said hi for a little bit and then moved onto another tent.

the Hofbräuhaus

some of us with our liters of beer!

Amanda and I in our dirndls :)

part of the giant pretzels

das Bier

We waited for about 30 minutes to get to another tent, but it had stopped raining by this point so it wasn't too big of a deal.  We went to the Paulaner tent and could only get in if we ordered more beer, so we sat down and immediately paid 10 Euros.  I couldn't drink that one, but it was still fun to sit at a different tent.  I even saw somebody from Emory when I was waiting in line to go to the bathroom!  (It took about 30 minutes in the lines for the bathrooms!)  We met a couple of Austrian people at the Paulaner tent, too, so it was really fun.  After the second tent, we went to a famous church right by the fair grounds, but none of knew what it was because we didn't have a tour or anything.  After the church, we got some dinner and were so exhausted from being up all night that we fell asleep in the train station waiting for our train home.  Finally, we got back on the train at midnight.  This train was not nearly as smooth as the way to Munich.  First of all, the lady across from my friend had a dog that climbed all over us, so we were constantly waking up to a wet nose and the dog jumping on our legs.  Secondly, the ediquette for the midnight train is to turn the lights off and not to talk, but apparently the dog lady and the weird guy across from me were unaware of this.  They jabbered on and on in a strange combination of German and English from midnight until 5:30 in the morning!  But finally, we got back to Vienna around 6:00.  I took the subway and made the cold, rainy walk back to my apartment (still in my dirndl!) and was home by about 7:00.  I brushed my teeth (since I hadn't been able to since Friday night!), took a much-needed shower, and slept until 1:00 in the afternoon the next day!

the Paulaner tent

our Austrian friends in their lederhosen

I am totally rested now and ready for another week in Vienna!  Our first week here, they gave us a presentation about culture shock and told us that we were in our "honeymoon" stage of our trip and that we would soon go through a homesick and depressed stage.  But I am still waiting for the honeymoon stage to end because I still feel so lucky and so happy every day that I am here!  I can't wait for Mom and Dad to come, and hopefully Sarah and/or Leah, too!!  (Keep your fingers crossed!!!!)  I miss you all lots and lots and wish that you could be here with me!  Hope everything is going well in Amerika!  As we say at Oktoberfest, "brost!"  Auf Wiedersehen!!

Opa!! (Griechenland!)

Yeia sou!

That's Greek for "hello," but I had to look it up on the internet because I still don't know any Greek except for "thank you!"  But I just got back from Greece last night after a week of amazing sites and INCREDIBLE food.  On Saturday morning, Carrie, Katie, Ian, and I took a train from Vienna to Budapest and spent the day walking around Budapest.  We decided to walk to a synagogue because the synagogue in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world.  The bad part is that we got to the door and couldn't get in because of Rosh Hashanah services going on.  So we went to get some traditional Hungarian food and realized that we had no Hufrus, the Hungarian currency.  To get us even more frazzled, it had started to downpour right when we left the train station.  So after walking for about 45 minutes and getting completely soaked, we decided to take a bus tour of the city since we wanted to see as much as possible in one day.  Once we saw that the bus tour was an open-air bus that gave us ponchos and would not actually keep us dry, we realized that Budapest was going to be a wet day and we decided to laugh about it and work the ponchos!  The bus tour ended up being really incredible and we got to see so many beautiful churches and buildings.  After the tour, we went to a delicious restaurant that accepted Visa cards since we had no money.  I got an amazing chicken sandwich that came with salad and tomatoes and fresh mozerella...so good!  After lunch we went to the Saint Michael church, which is one of the most beautiful churches in the city.  We saw a wedding going on and it was absolutely incredible!  By the time we had eaten and walked around a little bit more, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Corfu.

the 2nd largest synagogue in the world

the 4 of us in front of a view of the city...it was really dreary but it was much more beautiful than the pictures show!

in front of the Saint Michael church

my chicken sandwich!!

On Saturday night, we got to Corfu and someone from our hostel picked us up and brought us to Sunrock Hostel.  It was completely dark, so we had no idea what Corfu looked like at all.  After showering in the hole in the ground that they used as a shower, I went straight to bed after a long day.  I woke up the next morning to one of the most incredible views I have ever seen.  Our hostel was right on the ocean with rocks and islands everywhere.  We got breakfast and dinner for free, so I had french toast every morning while looking at the ocean.  On Sunday, we hiked "up the hill" to a bus to take us from our hostel into Corfu town.  "Up the hill" turned out to be basically climbing Mount Everest, but it was compensated by the incredible views the whole walk up.  Corfu town was amazing too...cute little shops everywhere and an old fort that had one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.  After going to the main museum and exploring the town, we ate at a restaurant in the middle of the town square where I had my first encounter with real saganaki...no words can describe the deliciousness.  The cheese was absolutely incredible.  They don't serve it with any kind of bread, but the cheese is so amazing that I had no problem eating it plain.  After lunch, we went back to the hostel to watch the sun set on the beach.  After sunset, everybody in the hostel eats together.  Each dinner includes a Greek salad and a main dish. Even though it was hostel food, I have never had a better salad or chicken in my life.  All of the food was indescribably delicious...I have been so spoiled!  After dinner, we just hung out at the hostel and looked at the ocean.

view from the patio of our hostel

view from the fort in Corfu town

a small street in Corfu town...we loved the Greek flags!

Sunset...so pretty!

On Monday, we spent the entire day on the beach at our hostel.  We got to take a boat ride with a guide who showed us a couple of nude beaches, a beautiful private beach, and a really cool cave.  I even got to drive the boat for a little bit!  The boat ride was probably my favorite part of my whole trip.  After the boat ride, we got another delicious lunch, laid out some more, watched the sun set, and ate yet another incredible dinner at the hostel.  (This time a Greek salad and a cheesy pasta.)  After a lazy but beautiful day, we sat on the porch again for the night and tried the homemade Greek wine that the hostel had...very delicious!  (Two ladies staying in the hostel heard us talking about how little money we all had and they bought us each a glass of wine...so nice!)

the hidden beach our guide showed us

The water was CRYSTAL clear!  And the beach was all small stones, no sand.

Katie, Carrie, and Ian at sunset

On Tuesday, we had our usual breakfast, packed our backpacks, and headed into Pelekas town to look around for a couple of hours.  We saw a really neat Greek church, which looked much different than the churches in Vienna and Budapest.  Then we ate at a restaurant where the saganaki was feta...very interesting!  I am definitely a saganaki conoisseur by now.  After exploring for a couple hours, we went back into Corfu town (this time getting a van up the "hill") and caught the night bus to Athens.  We stopped at a cheap bakery and a couple rest stops while we were on the bus, so we had things to munch on, but it was pretty difficult to sleep.  The plan was for the bus to ride all night and get to Athens around 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, so it is not difficult to imagine our surprise and panic when the bus pulled in at 4:00 in the morning and we had no place to stay and no idea where we were going.  We decided to take a taxi to our hostel, but our taxi got lost.  It was amazing though because when we got lost, we were at the bottom of a hill that had a beautiful view of the Acropolis all lit up!!  But one we finally got to our hostel, the workers said they had no rooms available until 10:00 in the morning and nowhere that we could sleep.  They handed us a map of the city and said see you in 6 hours.  We headed to Syntagma Square and slept for about an hour like homeless people until we decided that we might as well watch the sun rise over the Acropolis if we were going to be awake for sunrise.  We headed over there and slept on a rock for a few hours until the sun rose, then slept again until 10:00 and went to our hostel to sleep for a few hours.

a street in Pelekas town

the restaurant in Pelekas

the Acropolis at night

our homeless crew...we were even followed by a stray dog!

After our adventurous homeless night and morning, we stopped for a delicious 2-Euro gyro (they always put french fries on them in Greece...so good!) and then went to the Acropolis Museum and the National Archeological Museum.  Both places were really cool and told us a lot about the Acropolis and the Parthenon.  Once we finished at the museums, we took a bus tour around the city to see everything in a nutshell.  (We are all big fans of bus tours by now!)  The weather was so beautiful and everything was so ancient and amazing and we could not have asked for a better first day in Athens.  After exploring, we went out to a dinner of chicken and potatoes (YUM!) and then went shopping at all the vendors along the streets.  We were still pretty exhausted, so we went to bed pretty early.

the cheap gyro place (chicken gyro for me!)

the very first Olympic stadium

the Parliament building (love the Greek flags!)

On Thursday, we got up really early and went to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.  I was glad we went to the museums the day before because I knew what I was looking at a little better.  There were so many neat things to see and the top of the hill had a beautiful panoramic view of Athens.  After that, we hiked up another hill to some ruins that none of us knew what it was, but it was really neat looking!  That's part of the cool part of Athens, everywhere you go there is some sort of cool ancient ruin.  After the hike, we had more 2-Euro gyros and chicken souvlaki sandwiches with french fries (soooo good) and we went to the Agora, which has a museum and the most well-preserved ancient Greek temple.  The last part of our ruin exploring was Arch of Hadrian and Zeus's Temple, which were both really cool and right by our hostel.  They are also right by the National Gardens, so we walked around there for a while before we went back to get ready for dinner.  We decided that we wanted to splurge and have one nice dinner for our last night in Greece, so we went to this little place that we had seen the night before that had lights and music.  I had one last saganaki, but it was definitely the best of the trip!  After dinner, we went to a performance of traditional Greek dancing that had live music and really cool costumes.  It was really different than any other kind of cultural dancing I had seen, but very neat.  After the performance, Carrie, Ian, and I went out to a street of clubs in Athens and met some other Americans who were studying abroad in Athens.  They took us to a couple of really cool places...going out in Greece may even be more fun than Vienna!  (Close call though!)  Everywhere had really cool lights and music and we got free water and a bowl of bugels, barbeque potato chips, and egg rolls (a very eclectic combination of food for one bowl of snacks).

a ruin by the Acropolis

view of Athens from the top of our hike

my yummy chicken souvlaki sandwich

Carrie and I at our splurge dinner

my last saganaki! (with a lemon on it)

traditional Greek dancing and costumes

the musicians at the Greek dancing

On Friday, we took the train out to the 2004 Olympic Stadium before our flight back to Vienna.  The whole village was totally deserted, but it was still really cool looking.  None of us could believe how poorly it was kept, but I'm sure it was beautiful when it was brand new.  We saw all kinds of pools and the outside of the main stadium, which were both really neat.  After exploring the old village for awhile, we found a mall by the train station and had one last gyros sandwich.  Then we went to the airport and came home.  On the plane home, we were served a huge dinner of Greek salad, cheese, orzo, beef, crackers, bread, and some kind of Greek pepper with sour cream.  It was the perfect way to end the trip.  We all had an AMAZING time in Greece, but it felt so nice to get back to Vienna.  It was nice to hear the somewhat-familiar German as opposed to the completely foreign Hungarian and Greek.  Needless to say last night was an early night for me!  Anyways, I know this was a long post but Greece was all I could have asked for.  Miss you all lots and hope everything is going well!  Auf Wiedersehen!!

part of the 2004 Olympic stadium

one of the practice pools...Michael Phelps was there!

my last gyros sandwich

the Greek sign at the gyros stand