Doorbells and Sleigh Bells and Schnitzel with Noodles

As you may have guessed from this post's title, I was in the German-speaking Austria this weekend - Vienna, Austria to be exact! The traveling is really picking up. But, before I start going on and on about my fabulous weekend, I have you tell y'all about my week in Rome!

Tuesday morning I had my Roman Catholicism class on-site. Our focus for this class was relics! We started class at San Giovanni in Laterano, which is the cathedral for the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope) and contains bones of St. Peter and St. Paul.

Our next stop was at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. This church was built by St. Helen on her family's property. There's a special chapel that contains relics she collected from her journeys to the Holy Land, including relics of the true cross, the crown of thorns, one of the nails, and the doubting St. Thomas' finger.

We briefly saw the Santa Scala, or the staircase that Jesus walked up and down after being questioned by Pontius Pilate (also collected and brought to Rome by St. Helen). I plan on coming back to climb the staircase on my knees during Lent like so many Christian pilgrims.

Last, we visited Santa Maria Maggiore. This beautiful basilica contains relics of Jesus' manger. 

While I usually go out exploring on Wednesdays, I decided to sleep in and get ahead on homework. That evening, everyone met up at the soccer fields to play some calcio. My team won our game, and I scored two goals despite not having played soccer since third grade...

My Writing Rome class was on-site Thursday morning. We met at the Tiber Island, which has been known as a place for healing the sick even since ancient times. Today, there are multiple hospitals on the small island.

Our class continued on towards Trastevere, exploring many different churches. When we visited San Benedetto in Piscinula, the parish pastor saw us enter and gave us a tour of the small church. Previously, it had been the home of St. Benedict's family; once Benedict developed a strong relationship with God, his family turned their home into a church. Below is a picture of my class with the priest (I'm on the left)!

By the end of class, we had made it to a piazza on top of one of Rome's hills where a cannonball is shot off every day at noon to commemorate Italy's unification. We were lucky enough to be there to see it go off!

For dinner on Thursday, Audra and I went down Monte Mario to the well-known Pizzarium, one of the best pizza places in all of Rome. It was absolutely delicious in a different way: the bread was so thick, unlike most pizzas I've had thus far.

Friday morning began my weekend in Vienna, or Wien (the correct German spelling), to meet up with my amazing, beautiful, fun (you get the picture) Kappa sister Shannon! Since I arrived a few hours before she did, I went on a self-guided walking audio-tour thanks to good ole' Rick Steves. I was able to see all the major sights of the city. 

I was also pleasantly surprised at how much English everyone spoke. The best part was, they all had such a funny German accent when speaking English, which really reminded me of the guy in the mountain lodge from Frozen!

After resting in a Starbucks (a foreign concept in Italy, and I got hot chocolate NOT coffee), it was finally time to meet up with Shannon! Running to meet her outside the train station was so fun and definitely like a movie. I couldn't believe we were actually together in a completely foreign city for both of us!

After checking into our hostel, we set out to grab a bite of authentic Austrian food. We ended up at a totally local restaurant. Shannon had a veal dumpling soup and I had typical Austrian wiener schnitzel (with beer of course), which was so yummy! After dinner, we walked around the historic part of town for a bit and then called it quits in order to catch some necessary Zzzs.

Saturday was probably the most fun and full day I've had this whole semester! First, we were looking for a cafe and happened to stumble into Vienna's oldest coffee house, Cafe Frauenhuber.

On our way through town, we stopped in Vienna's most famous chocolate shop, Demel, and bought some chocolate bars to snack on later.

We went to the Hofburg Palace next, which houses the Imperial Apartments, the royal silver and porcelain collection, and an exhibit on Empress Elisabeth, Franz Josef's wife. The beauty of the building was beyond impressive. 

Shannon and I then split up to tour different museums that interested us. Shannon went to Haus der Musik while I explored the Treasury Museum, also in the Hofburg Palace. I saw numerous jewels and crowns and priestly garb (and more relics!); Shannon got a special glance into the lives of famous Austrian composers, including Mozart and Beethoven. 

For dinner, we ate at yet another Viennese restaurant and both enjoyed veal meatballs with some of the best white wine I've ever had.

Next up was the opera! We snagged standing room tickets for 3 euro each and saw the first act of "Adriana Lecouvreur," which was in Italian. Not only was the singing beautiful, but the orchestra was phenomenal, reminding me of the Nutcracker ballet I see every year.

Just outside the opera house is the Sacher Hotel, which has been serving the original sacher torte for the over 150 years. My mom was even the one who recommended we try it! So, of course, Shannon and I popped in to eat one (it was incredible).

To end the night, we walked past the Hofburg, emerging to view countless stunning buildings (most of which are museums today). I easily picked out my favorite building, which I started calling "the castle," but is actually Vienna's city hall. Once we got close, we realized there were ice skating rinks and trails just in front of the magnificent building. So I grabbed a pair of skates and skated my heart out (without falling)! Shannon played mom and took pictures of me!

And that was thankfully it for Saturday! I'm not sure my feet could have taken much more...

Sunday morning was complete with coffee, pastries, and Catholic mass in German! Since Vienna's main cathedral St. Stephen's requires a fee to enter, Shannon and I decided we'd kill two birds with one stone and just attend mass there! Because the order of Catholic mass is universal, we easily followed along despite the intense language barrier. Plus, the mass featured a full choir and orchestra that performed Mozart. 

For lunch, we followed the advice of Rick Steves and had a wurstl, Käsekrainer to be exact, off a street vendor. It was actually the best sausage I've ever had. 

With the remaining time we had left in Vienna, Shannon and I walked around the historic buildings. It was a gorgeous day so we got some great photos! 

From the balcony of this building, Hitler gave a speech declaring Austria a part of the Axis powers in WWII. 

After getting to the airport and through security much faster than is possible in the US, it was time for Shannon and I to say goodbye. I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend the weekend with nor a better city to explore!

Arrivederci!
Gina