Gratitude 5

I am thankful for the incredible churches and cathedrals of Europe.

Blast to the past...Sept. 3rd: Today was spent at St. Stephan's Cathedral in the very heart of Vienna. The rest of yesterday was spent relaxing at the apartment. I watched Gilmore Girls in German. hehe! Quite hilarious. In the evening, Katrin and Martin took me to get an ice cream sundae. Of course, I had to order the Mozart one! Then, we rented the movie Juno, which was actually quite good surprisingly. As for today, I made my way to St. Stephan's, and oh is it beautiful! And...it is where Mozart and Haydn both had their weddings and when Mozart's funeral was. Surprise, surprise! hehe! I feel like I have become a Mozart-hunter! (A new twist on Ghostbusters!) I also went to mass at noon. My first German mass. It was neat. The organist was a showoff, though. (And not so good actually.) In between seeing the cathedral and mass, I wandered down all sorts of winding, cobblestone streers, exploring. I seem to have taken to the habit of doing that. This time, I found all sorts of crazy things...a smurf statue, a neat book store, silly souvenir shops, and a beautiful religious store, Mozarthaus, etc. Such fun! Then, I popped into Aida for some treats. Mmm! Lynn was right. Sehr gut! After Aida's I got lost but then found my way about 50 times trying to get to the Universität für Musik. When I got there, it was all very strange. Some guy led me upstairs somewhere and sent me to an office where a lady said I could look around. Then, I ran in to another office, which gave me some heavy book about the school and then shoved me off. I am not exactly sure what really happened. (And I am pretty sure they cursed me out after I left but whatever.) I ended up sitting in Stadtpark for awhile waiting to meet Katrin and Martin, and there was a dead Mozart lying beside me. (Not really...the guy was sleeping...but it was pretty funny!) When we met, we went up to a vineyard for the evening. The trip was great fun! An American friend of Katrin and Martin's, Brandon, joined us. Martin's plan was to hike around first, so that we...sort of...did. We ended up wandering around on people's property hoping not to get shot or arrested, and then the place ended up being closed. However, we did find one later.

Oh, we had such a good time! We must have been there for hours chatting away. We met this sweet old couple that took our picture for us and talked with them about singing and the U.S. It was probably the best evening here. :)