Update

So my internet was out forever so I haven't updated this in a while!


Random Quote from Kellie Having Typing issues:

that iskin of hilariou.
that is kind of hilarious.
my stupid keys are sticking and making me look like a stupidead.

hehe she called herself a stupidead


Anyway, since the last post I have kept pretty busy! I turned 21! My birthday was quite good. I went to class and Jasmit had made me a cake for my birthday which was quite good! we all ate cake and they sang to me. Afterwards, I went home for a bit, then went over to Jasmit's. She let me use her phone to call my parents (since mom had emailed my school and asked them to tell me to contact her. my internet was broken as said above). which was nice. we then watched a movie and headed to meet everyone for dinner! That is when I had my run in with the law. ok so not exactly a run in, I just almost got a ticket for forgetting to validate my ticket. I was used to buying a week ticket which I didn't have to validate, or a one way ticket so when I bought a 24 hour ticket I didn't think about having to validate it. So when the ONE time I've ever seen someone checking for tickets (and anyone else including those who have lived here for a year or more and have never had someone check) was the one time I forgot to click my ticket! The guy was very rude and just kept saying "70 Euro. You must pay 70 Euro" (rude for other reasons too). However, I was practically weeping (ok not really but there were tears), Nayeem said "it's her birthday and she just forgot. we were there when she bought it!" he said "ok fine 2.20" which is the price if you don't buy the ticket in a machine but buy it on a bus...so thank heavens I didnt have to pay 70 euro! So after the near trauma, we then headed to dinner at a restaurant on the Donau which was very nice. the food was good and the view was great! Nayeem, Jasmit, Liviu, Hyojeong, Alina, Loedia and Ernst joined us. It was a lot of fun. So overall my birthday was very good!

The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. It was really cold and rainy all week. Last night, Nayeem, Jeremy, Liviu, Alina, Hyojeong, Martin and I went bowling again. It was fun. I totally got a 93 which was very exciting. haha. We also went to dinner and wandering around the Prater afterwards until we were all freezing to death and headed home.

Grant has finally admitted that I am NOT a drill seargent. yesss. he went to a Marine training thing yesterday and said to me "You dont make me do push ups while yelling "pain and discipline"' finally after about 15 years of being nicknamed "Drill Sargent Four!"

Also, Adrienne almost thought I was psychic when mom sent me a picture of her. She was wearing my flip flops so I said through mother "Adrienne take off my flip flops" and she said "whatttt?"

anyway, that is all for now! Hopefully I will get some pictures up on here soon!

Weekend

Well yesterday I slept in a bit then headed out to wander around Vienna. I decided to go inside Votivkirche, since I went to the outside during my first week but never returned. It's very beautiful with a lot of stained glass windows that made the light in the church quite beautiful. Right when I walked in the organ started playing. I was pretty sure I was going to be deafened. It was reallllly loud and you could feel it playing. But still kind of cool. After the organ stopped playing, a choir started to sing which was really cool. Afterwards, I decided to take the public transportation to make good use of my weekly ticket. While in the subway, it broke down. I was in it for about 15 minutes before they let us off. Not too bad except someone stepped on my foot and left this very black mark on my foot which was kind of gross (Though not as bad as at the Cliffs of Moher when someone was wiping off their foot with a handywipe and it flew out of their hands and directly in between my flip flop and my foot. that was a bit more gross). Luckily it broke down at a stop rather than in between two stops. Afterwards, I bought butter at the store so I could make my Macaroni and Cheese that my parents sent to me in my care package. I then called mother on Skype after chatting with her on AIM for a bit. We were having a bit of trouble because her sound wasn't working. I could hear her but she couldn't hear me through her headphones. So as she was trying to fix the sound (while talking to me and me typing responses) I jokingly said very loudly into my microphone, in a Phantom of the Opera type voice, "CAN YOU HEAR MEEEE." Which of course when her sound decided to start working. However, her headset was muffling my voice so all she heard was my disembodied voice coming through the main computer speakers saying "CAN YOU HEAR MEEE." Oops. Why, you might ask, did I even say it like that? Well, because I didn't think anyone could hear me obviously!! So, naturally we were both laughing hysterically. Also, apparently my disembodied voice disturbed my cat, Zach. Who was "sleeping" with his ears pointed backwards as I was talking. After talking to her, father and Grant (since Adrienne's at the Cloud's cabin on Mt. Rainier) I headed over to Hyojeong's. We ate Sacher Torte at Hotel Sacher with Martin (which was very good but expensive so definitely something to just do once) then invaded his roommates picnic on the roof which was fun. haha. Afterwards, I headed home, talked to mother again then went to bed. Well supposedly went to bed. Loedia lent me her book, which I decided to start before bed. But ended up reading 11 chapters.

Today I decided to have a lazy day. However, will tell you all about my weird dream I had last night. Basically, Kellie and I were gymnasts training for the Olympics because we did not make it in 2008 (For those of you who are reading this who may not know us, we are definitely NOT gymnasts) . When suddenly, an alligator came into our gym and attacked the two of us. I was hardly injured but Kellie's leg was almost bitten off. In my extreme worry for my dear friend I transferred her injury to my own leg. But did she have the same worry? No. she just let me wander around walking on my half eaten leg without calling for any sort of medical attention. Now How exactly would I interpret this? Obviously I am such a loyal friend that I am willing to carry Kellie's pain and would rather bleed to death than see her in pain, but when it's her turn to return the favor she won't even call a doctor.



Ok. Just kidding. I love Kellie and I know she'd call a doctor if an alligator attacked me.



and at last pictures from Salzburg are on photobucket!
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Salzburg/

Strange Duck?

Well today I went to class as usual. We had the day off yesterday which threw off all my days and I came to class thinking it was Monday when it was actually Friday. Must have to do with my accidental sleeping in yesterday. One second it was 9 AM and I was thinking "I'll get up in a couple minutes" the next it was 1 PM and I was thinking, "wait, what just happened?" Apparently I was exhausted. Understandably though since I woke up quite early on Saturday and Sunday and didn't really have time to recover from the trip. After class I grabbed lunch quickly with Nayeem and Jasmit, dropped off my books in my apartment and headed to Schonbrunn Palace to look at the gardens. When I went in April the gardens were still rather dead. I walked around the gardens which were beautiful of course. Lots of roses and fountains (I found a couple bigger fountains I hadn't seen before.)

I also found a very strange duck. AKA I think it was a duck. It had a ducks body with a strange head. As if another bird's head was added on later. Sort of like a mix between a Puffin and a Duck. But quite pretty. So I, obviously, took about 50 pictures of this duck.

and a couple of it's girly-friend.

I also witnessed a duck fight. Two male ducks were fighting for the one female duck in the pond. Apparently there were too many ducks in the pond, which is why the Mrs was of course, hiding from the rest of the ducks.

Occasionally checking whether or not the other two had left.

and eventually coming out when the coast was clear.

After taking pictures of the ducks and fountains, I headed home. I

decided to make dinner, which required some milk. Only to discover that my milk was frozen solid. I think, THINK, there is something wrong with the refridgerator settings...now I have to defrost my milk and apples.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVEEEE WTH THE SOUND OF MUSIC

I WENT TO SALZBURG! It was WONDERFUL! The city is sooo beautiful. I loved it. And of course I went on the Sound of Music Tour today. However, the city made me want to sing the Sound of Music way before I took the tour! So we took the train to Salzburg on Friday night. The trip was uneventful. The woman sitting next to me hummed for the entire 3 hours which was rather obnoxious but not too horrible. Also, the trains between compartments decided they needed to shut on me, which hurt a little bit. When I got to Salzburg, I realized I'd forgotten a pajama shirt! oops. But the hostel was very nice (the YOHO) and clean. I didn't sleep particularly well since I was in a room with 4 people I didn't know but it was still a nice place! Hyojeong and I got up very early in the morning and headed out into the town around 8 AM. We wandered around town for a while. Nothing was open til about 9 AM so we just looked around. Salzburg is so beautiful! We found some great little side streets and the buildings along the river are wonderful. We wandered over to Mozart's Geburtshaus (his birth place) which was very cool! we couldn't take pictures inside but it was very cool to see...and I may or may not have sneaked a picture of a room ;-)


After that, we went to his Wohnhaus. Salzburg is much smaler than I thought it would be. Everything was very close together which was quite nice. The Wohnhaus was also pretty cool, though apparently not the original. The original either was bombed or burned down, I'm not entirely sure. But it was still nice. We could listen to Mozart as we went through the rooms.
Afterwards, we headed over to one of the churches, Salzburg Cathedral. It was very beautiful! we looked around inside then wandered around some more in the courtyard.



We then walked through some arches and saw this:


I'm not entirely sure what this is. But it's kind of funny. This fountain was also in the same courtyard, along with this giant chess game. Also I sneezed which is really unusual but it was caught on camera this time.





Afterwards, we hiked up to the castle! which by the way, is a very steep climb! Not as bad as at Durnstein though. But the view up there was incredible!! I looked around the castle a bit, met a nice couple from Texas who were touring Europe for a while, and looked at the Museum and the views there. It was great.






Afterwards, we headed for lunch. We ate at a sketchy restaurant. we both ordered Schnitzel...it was less schnitzel and more giant chicken nugget. haha. oh well...After that we headed to see if the Huge Church. However, due to some sort of Mozart concert going on inside, it cost 20 Euro to get in so we didn't go in. Afterwards, we went to another church and hiked up towards it. We then continued on from there to the view from the Museum of Modern Art. We didn't go see the museum but we got drinks at the cafe and enjoyed the incredible view from up there.



After climbing to the church, we walked around town for a bit. We decided to wait for the sunset, but it set behind a hill so we didn't manage to see it. We decided then, after 12 hours of walking around Salzburg, to head back to the Hostel. However, on our way, we accidentally stumbled across Mirabell Gardens. Where they filmed much of the "Do-Re-Me" song in the Sound of Music. So of course, we had to walk around the gardens! Highlight pictures: You may need to watch the movie again to recognize some of the places but that's ok
(this is the fountain they dance around...)
The gardens they run around in

-The steps they hop up

-The Archway they run through (Imagine people walking towards each other pointing)
We then returned to the hostel. My feet hurt a lot and I also realized I'd only brought 3 socks along with me which was a bit of a problem. And my shoes had turned my toes black. But that's ok. Haha. Hyojeong and I were quite exhausted so we chatted for a bit then headed to bed. while getting ready I noticed a sign that said "No farting in rooms" which I thought was rather funny...though unnecessary. Unless there were complaints that made it necessary. Sunday we did the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!!! Which was amazing. The only issue I had was the fact tha the tour guide was rather annoying...he reminded me of the guy from friends that Rachel goes on date with and he keeps weeping about everything. He kind of talked in that same way. But that's ok because the tour was amazing. The first place went to was the lake that was at the back of the house in the movie. The scenery at that lake was breathtaking, the back of the actual palace on the lake (not shown in the movie) was beautiful, the gardens were great, there were mountains in the distance. It was quite wonderful.


We then headed to where the gazebo is now kept.



It was moved from by the lake because tourists kept jumping over the wall to dance and take pictures in the gazebo. and now the gazebo is locked because too many people were injured trying to recreate the "16 going on 17" dance...including an 80 year old woman who broke her hip trying to jump from one bench to the other.


We also drove by the grove of trees where all the kids hang out and the palace that was the house in the movie...thought it was a pedestrian street so you can't drive up to it...


We then drove to the monastery where they filmed the scenes where the nuns remove the car parts from the Nazi's cars. You can't tour the monastery but it was still quite cool to see.

Afterwards, we drove into the countryside (an amazing drive btw) and to several of the lakes shown in the panoramic view of Austria. The First overlooked the town of St. Gilgan and Wolgangsee (Lake Wolfgang) which was gorgeous.


We drove by a couple others and then to the town of Mondsee. Mondsee has an amazing lake and is also where they filmed the wedding scene in the Sound of Music in the church there. also it's the cutest town ever.



Afrer that we returned to Salzburg. We returned to the gardens (see above pictures) and then headed to the train station. It was in walking distance so easy to get to. even though the weather was rather hot. ha. The train ride back was interesting. There was a group of very loud teenagers on the train. I was attempting to sleep, but the bits of their conversation was slightly ridiculous. At one point a guy was talking very emphatically about the best schnitzel he'd ever had and how it was soooo tasty. hahaha. Other than that, nothing too much happened on the train ride.


Last night, Jasmit, Loedia, Nayeem and I had a girls night. We chatted for a while at Nayeem's place then went and had sushi, which I haven't had before. It was quite good and we had a great time. I ate eel for the first time. mmmm. The only issue I had was my purse getting knocked to the ground and a pen stabbed my LCD screen on my camera. The camera is still workable but the screen is broken. Lame. I can use the viewfinder without a problem but MY CAMERA. The night was still fun though. Other than that, I have been going to bed early, having strange dreams (like the one where I met all the members of the Spice Girls?) and last night for the first time in the 3 years since I've had braces I took out my retainer in my sleep. I know this because I woke up and was laying on it...it's not broken though so not a problem! haha. Today, Loedia and I went to see how much fixing my camera would cost. They said it was very expensive, so I didn't. We got some ice cream and went to the Naschmarkt. Tomorrow, I intend to go to Schonnbrunn and look at the gardens now that they should be bloomed!