A.E.I.O.U! (And sometimes Y)

Just so you know, that means “Austria shall rule the world”. Just sayin’. Anyways, it was a great week! Without further ado let’s move right into the categories that we all know and love. I may or may not be running out of creative titles.

Die Kommunikation

Well, this week I think I reached a critical point that occurs when going to foreign countries. I feel so, SO very frustrated at my inability to communicate. I hate that moment when someone asks me something and I just stare back blankly at them. It is humiliating! Even though I know how to say I don’t speak German, or to ask them if they speak English, I just feel so embarrassed at my lack of knowledge. Especially since virtually everyone here is bi- (or tri!) lingual, I just feel like a dumb American who expects everyone to learn my language. It is seriously like drinking from a clear spring when someone walks past me speaking English. Aren’t we this way with things that are familiar to us? We take comfort in familiarity. This frustration is reminding me of how grateful I am for music, and my ability to communicate with absolutely anyone this way. It’s truly a blessing. It also makes me wonder if Heavenly Father ever feels this frustration with us; with the inability to communicate with people who cannot (or will not) understand or listen. I need to be sharpening my communication skills in just about every way, be it with the Spirit, as a musician with the audience, with friends and family, and with all these beautiful people whose language I don’t speak. Anyways, those are just some recent thoughts on that.

We are getting better and better in our German class, but the more I learn the more I realize I don’t know. I think I have numbers down, though! J Currently the favorite phrase is “Ja, natürlich!” which we say to everything, and it also happens to be the brand of our favorite yogurt (one of our staple foods). I reached a milestone this week, too! On several occasions I said something to someone in German, they replied with a question in German, and I answered in German (and actually understood the question!!) I was thrilled about this. But we won’t talk about the fact that I usually only understood what their question was because they were using hand signals. And my answer was usually either “nien” or “ja!”…BUT in church today I managed to hold actual conversations in German with people on several occasions. I picked up way more words in church than the last time we were in our ward, and on the whole felt much better about things. In Sunday school the teacher asked us (in German) if we spoke German, to which I replied “Nein!” She looked a little puzzled and said (in German), “Oh, but you speak a little bit, right?” To which I replied “Nein!” She and the rest of the class laughed (because I had just understood her and replied in German haha) and then she got us an interpreter, which was super nice. But every time she addressed me she spoke German, and I could understand her and reply! It was a happy and one-time thing…J

Die Singen

This category is just singing because there weren’t a lot of concerts this week so we just went to Faust, a French opera at the Staatsoper. It was a fantastic opera—at least the music was! Let’s just say that something possessed me to accidently get the wrong stehplatz level (the VERY top) and we were so baffled once we got up there and there were so many people rushing about putting their scarves on the railing, that we got the absolute worst spots in the whole house. To say the least we could see less than half of the stage (the right side) and I didn’t believe it was possible but almost the entire opera was cast on the left side. So we read what they were singing, listened to the amazing music, and tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to understand what was happening. It was a beautiful opera, and very well performed! Here is the picture of our lovely view, and us bemoaning our fate. What can I say, I was born with a great lower lip.

Also in the category of singing is my own singing! This week I decided to go back to my old choir (the one that I loved, everyone was really friendly, we all have to take our shoes off, and they invited me to go get drinks afterwards). Well, I showed up at the school after 40-minute travel time in a total blizzard, and found the building completely dark. Since I was only 15 minutes early, I smelled a fish (as I mentioned, there is no Mormon-Standard-Time here. Everyone is super early to everything). So luckily I brought the phone number for the director (miraculously, more like), and called him up. He said that he had tried to contact the school to tell me, but that rehearsal had been moved out into the boonies somewhere 45 minutes away. So, as he passed the phone off to someone who spoke better English, I sprinted through the snow back to the U-Bahn station while jotting down on soggy paper the street names and directions to the new place, all of which started with an H and had 15 letters in them. Praying that I would find the place in the dark, I took the station and had my first experience with a train. When I arrived at where the stop should be, I wondered what I was getting on, where I was going, and if I was doing any of it right. I wasn’t sure if I had to pay an extension, so to be safe I bought a ticket (I ended up not needing to…L) and waited for the train. Once I sat down I decided to try to figure out where I was, and where I was going. I got out my trustworthy map and turned the page to where I was, only to find that I was off the map. Wow. Now I felt truly panic-stricken and felt like bursting into laughter at the same time. For all I knew, I was on a train leaving Vienna. Which is totally against all rules. Well, I followed the directions given to me (which I completely misheard) by following street names and stations that sounded even remotely like what I had written down (which can I just say, is very dangerous and risky in Vienna because all the streets have the same name with one letter changed). I ran through the snow battling my now 16-day headache, and the urge to cry and laugh at the same time. By miracles and mercies alone, I made it to the rehearsal 30 minutes late! The choir members are so nice, and even took me to the U-Bahn station to get home. I still love the choir—they are amazing. We even added “Lollipop, lollipop” to the repertoire! It’s awesome. It’s really fun because they help me with the translations and pronunciations of the songs, and I help them with meanings and pronunciations of the ones in English. It’s great fun. I look forward to it every week.

Die Abenteuer

Lots of adventures this week. In class we toured St. Stephan’s in greater depth, and learned lots of cool things about its interior. We also went back to the Kuntshistorisches Museum where we saw lots of very famous and beautiful paintings. I nearly died because I saw a lot of paintings that I had to write papers on for tests in Music Civ last year, and that was really neat for me to see the originals.

(Julia loves taking pictures in front of pictures, mimicking them)

Also this week we toured the Imperial Treasury, a vast collection of treasures from the Habsburg family. Everything was so cool! Lots of precious jewels and stones, and amazing dresses and robes. I wouldn’t mind being royal for a day. But just a day.

They also had a little display with things they claim came from Christ’s time. They have a piece of Christ’s manger, a piece of the tablecloth from the last supper (pictured below), one of John the Baptist’s teeth, etc. It’s really cool if it’s real…! J

After this we went to the Butterfly House by the Imperial Orangery. We all had to admit that we were a little disappointed…we paid more than we thought it was worth. Maybe we just didn’t know where to look but to us, it seemed like a very small room with like one kind of butterfly in it (granted, they were huge and cool-looking, but not worth £4,50). But it felt like we walked right into a tropical rainforest, so that was a nice reprieve from the ice blast! J

On Wednesday our group took a day-trip to Eisenstadt, about an hour out of Vienna, to visit the palace Esterhazy. This is where Haydn worked for most of his career, so it was basically a Haydn day.

It was really neat to see Haydn’s stomping grounds, and imagine him living in this palace, walking around the beautiful gardens while composing. I admit I had to hum a bit of my Haydn Sonata while walking around the frozen ponds and Orangeries.

We got a tour of the rather interesting Haydn museum with absolutely HORRIBLE carpet and wallpaper. Sis Chris would’ve been horrified. I was horrified, and I don’t know anything about design. But apparently the wallpaper is supposed to be an example of what they might have had in Haydn’s time. Wow, their lives must’ve been boring to require such visual stimuli.

We also saw the little palace harpsichord, which excited me greatly as you can see. We also saw the only remaining original music written in Haydn’s hand!

I love Haydn!

Anyhow, after the palace we went to Haydn’s burial place: a church. It was possibly the coolest church I have ever been in. Here’s a picture from the outside, which was super cool, but the inside was even better. It had all these stations where scenes from Christ’s life were depicted in life-size sculptures, of sorts. You had to ascend and descend stairs that symbolized the walk to Golgotha, and there were little crevices with the scenes in them. It was very neat, and actually very touching. I really liked it.

Our tour guide taught us a lot of things about Haydn’s life, and you know—I really like Haydn. He is one of the only “normal” composers who lived a relatively normal life. He was happy, well-off, well-married, well-employed, lived a long life, composed great music, and was appreciated even while he was alive. Just overall a great guy! We learned that after he was buried some student doctors robbed his grave and took his head to study it! When the police caught them, they were tricky and gave back someone else’s head. That was discovered too, but then the music museum somehow inherited the head and had it on display for some time. Haydn was without his head for about 200 years!! They had a grand ceremony when they finally buried him with his head. His resting place is very peaceful and nice.

Whew. Hang in there everyone. So, Kristen and I did another walking tour, which covered a lot of ground. Part of it was visiting the Imperial Crypt where all of the Habsburg family is buried. These had some ENORMOUS coffins that were really neat, and Kristen got to visit the grave of her beloved Princess Sisi.

We also saw one of Chopin’s old homes, and were nearly carried away by our first experience with a HUGE city protest. We weren’t sure exactly what they were protesting, but got a flier to ask Ingrid. They were marching to the palace holding signs and chanting, handing out fliers, blowing whistles, yelling, and wearing super, SUPER creepy masks.

Today we had the pleasure of riding up out of the main part of the city, into the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods). It is beautiful up there! It reminded me exactly of walking in Provo Canyon by Sundance. It looked like a lot of people go there to sled, and we saw the coolest sledding hills I have ever seen. So fun. We’re going to see if Ingrid has sleds…

We went to this little ring of trees called Himmel, where if you’re there at the right time (we were), classical music plays out of little speakers while you walk around looking at the trees. Each tree belongs to a certain couple of weeks in the year and is kind of like a horoscope. There is a little plaque telling about each tree and describing the characteristics of the person that was born in those two weeks. You can see me with my tree J

Das Wetter

You are, of course, all wondering about the weather. It is still pretty cold but it snowed this week! So warmth is flooding in. There were several times that I was absolutely determined not to be cold, so I wore 5-6 layers (Grey and Abs, I am NOT exaggerating). I couldn’t raise my arms above my head, but I was pretty warm! On such occasions Kristen said that if I got cold, she’d pay me. Let’s just say she owes me some money. J

Die Vorrichtungen

There are some very nifty appliances that I couldn’t resist sharing. For posterity sake I just have to show this picture of our laundry drying (they don't have dryers here). I have to say that I am a fan of this system. Our clothes smell WAY better when they air dry, and there is a certain fresh quality to them! I do have to worry, however, about waiting almost a whole day before I can wear what I wash.

Also, Ingrid has this super nifty pot-thing that boils water within SECONDS. We live off that thing. Also she has a very slick bread-slicer that slices bread, cheese, you name it (you can adjust the width) at the touch of a button. Mom, I would say that both of these tools would be worthy investments. J

Die Fressen

Ah, and now für das Essen! Mmm. So first things first, Kristen and I finally went back to the first bakery in Vienna, Grimm’s (or Grimmauld place, Brothers Grimm, or whatever I feel like calling it). When we went in to get warm once I spotted a pastry that I couldn’t forget until it was safely in my stomach. This yummy Krapfen is like a doughnut cut in half (like a roll), and stuffed with lemon-infused European whipped cream. Then the whole thing is glazed. Oh it was so good.

At Eisenstadt I got a HUGE schnitzel that was quite tasty. We also got hot crepes filled with warm nutella to top it off.

Our usual habit of going into every bakery and chocolate shop that we see has increased tenfold with the freezing weather. We go in to get warm and just drool over the delicacies they are selling. The one you see below was in a chocolate shop called “Mostly Mozart” and it’s exceedingly touristy. They had M&M Mozart and Strauss figures playing the piano and violin! Also, those enormous Toblerone bars you see there cost about £89,-. Yeah. We could hardly lift them.

This weird picture of me chomping on chocolate with a crazed look in my eye depicts our adventure sweet of the week. SO GOOD. It didn’t even last us through one day. They’re biscuit-type cookies, coated with coconut-flavored chocolate.

I was just looking for a picture of our bread of the week, but realized that we ate the whole thing so fast that we didn't even get a picture! We thought it was pretzel bread, but it is sweet and has raisins in it. It is especially divine with butter and jam. We were happy to rid ourselves of our bread of the week for last week…it had a lot of Rosemary in it, and was not our favorite choice. Instead I will show our experimental food for the week—a fruit called a Pomelo. I think they have these in the States too, but I’ve never had it before. We did not expect what we found inside! It’s like an enormous grapefruit, but not as sour. Really yummy!

Oh and also for dinner this week Ingrid made yummy noodle soup, then a delicious rice-pork-pickle mixture. Mmm. She even let us eat some leftovers the next day! Also she played classical music during dinner. It was just too marvelous. We have figured out some sort of system where we have a few staple foods that we just sort of cycle through for dinner. Luckily neither of us gets sick of them! We switch off between rice, potatoes, pasta, and soup. It’s so amazing—each of these costs less than a euro! For lunch, we always eat Ja, Natürlich!” yogurt (lots of yummy flavors including chocolate, mango-orange, apple, vanilla bean…etc), plus bread, cheese, and apples. It works out quite nicely. Except when we get Rosemary bread. Now while reading these food blogs every week, you are probably asking yourself how many hundreds of pounds I have gained. That is for me and my happy stomach to know. J You’re only in Vienna once, right? Probably…

Yep, life is pretty good here in the ole Wien. I am so grateful to be here, and am learning so much. A.E.I.O.U!

Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Spangleutsch?

Well folks, who can believe it’s already been another week!? Contrary to last week, this one flew by on the wings of cherubim. I was shocked and pleased to see how many people actually made it through my blog last week, so there is hope that someone might make it through this one! I better just plunge right in to the weekly report, then. Just be warned: words do not properly express my experiences here. Neither do pictures. I will try, but if you find that I am saying “words can’t express” a lot, just know that it’s true. And I tried to find another expression for that, but my thesaurus was not fruitful. Like I said, words can’t express.

Die Sprache

Oh, adventures never cease with this tricky language. You would think it would be relatively straight-forward; rules for what’s masculine and what’s feminine, rules for conjugations, pluralizations, etc. Nope. I was sure that my German teacher misunderstood me when I tried to ask what the rules were for masculine/feminine and she said there weren’t any. So I asked Ingrid how you know, and she also said, “you don’t!” She was further helpful by saying “oh, you just—well die Klavier, it just doesn’t sound right!” Oh, ok. I’ll go by how it sounds then. Bah.

I still find myself trying to speak an odd mixture of Spanish, German, and English (hence the title of this blog post), and am beginning to think I will never fully speak any of the three! J I love my German class and teacher, though. She is so funny. It is really neat to take German from a native speaker; we really teach each other! She asks us for help with English and with American culture—it is really very neat. And she LOVES us. She thinks we are the funniest things—which just makes her even funnier. Every time we make a mistake, she says “oh it is so beautiful! This mistake, it is so beautiful!” Actually, everything we do is beautiful. “Last night I correct your beautiful homeworks! Oh this that you say is so funny, it’s so beautiful!” She’s great.

Anyways, we had some more mishaps with language this week that I would be amiss if I did not recount. Kristen and I went out on some pretty flimsy limbs this week, being brave and attempting to speak to people in German. It has not gone over super well. For one thing, when people are trying to talk to us in German (usually when we’re buying something), we want to get rid of them as soon as possible so they’ll stop speaking to us, so we just say “ja, ja, ja” to whatever they seem to be asking. This is probably not the best tactic. Well, I was debating about sharing this story in the food section or the language section, and since there is a lot more to say in the food section (obviously), then I’ll do it here. Kristen and I decided it was time to go to an actual restaurant in Vienna, so we saved up our money, energy, and courage and went to a little pizzeria that some of our groupies recommended. We walked in and sat right down, not feeling at all courageous about how to do this in German. We looked at the menu, which wasn’t very helpful seeing as it was all in Italian with a German translation. So both of us just ordered what we thought sounded good, based on what we assumed to be key words: “Parmaschinken”, and “Pizzabrott”. Our hope was to receive a pizza with parmesan chicken, chicken parmesana, or some other delicious variety of chicken, and delicious breadsticks that we had heard so much about. Well, we had one triumph, and that was to manage to understand that the waitress was asking us if we wanted anything to drink, to which we managed to convey that we didn’t. When they came over to take our order, it was decided who would order what, and Kristen got the job of the harder word to pronounce. I successfully ordered mine, and then it was Kristen’s turn. She and the lady pointed several times at the one she wanted, and then the waitress began to ask Kristen a series of questions to which we both just blinked and said “ja, ja…” Kristen picked up the words “mozzarella” and “zucchini” in whatever she was saying, and said “ja!”. We did what it took to get rid of the waitress, and when she finally left we breathed a sigh of relief and began to wonder what we had just ordered. I personally couldn’t think of any breadsticks that included mozzarella and zucchini. Well, what you see below is what arrived. Now at this point in the story it is important for me to bring up a detail from my trip to Germany 4 years ago. On day one in Germany, with Abi’s help I ordered a pizza hoping it would be parmesan chicken, only to find that it was absolutely covered in slices of raw-looking meat, which absolutely reeked, was disgusting, and made the car smell all week. I remembered that this meat was “schinken”, so when I came to Vienna I told everyone to steer clear of anything called schinken. But I began to notice that things called schinken looked perfectly normal, so I assumed I must have been wrong. Thus, I ordered the parmaschinken. Anyways, what arrived in front of me was an enormous pizza, covered in thin slices of raw meat, chunks of mozzarella, and a garden-full of weeds. What arrived in front of Kristen was an enormous plate of two huge pizza crusts, sandwiching mozzarella and chunks of zucchini. It was then that I recalled that I had made the exact same mistake in Germany—it was not schinken to steer clear of, but Parmaschinken! Ah. After Kristen and I had a moment of hushed laughter, we tried to eat what was before us. I simply could not bring myself to eat more than a few bites, and began looking around for the nearest exit in case I couldn’t keep it down. I didn’t want to be rude, so Kristen went into superhero-mode and managed to eat almost all of both dishes. I am still proud of her. What she couldn’t eat she brought in a little napkin to My Fair Lady and scarfed it down as we rushed up the red-velvet staircases to our seats. Oh, it was a moment of joy and laughter for some of us. Others of us are still waiting on the passage of time to find it truly humorous.

Die Konzerte

This category is in close competition with Food for what I have the most to say about, without having the words to say it. I guess the place to start would be with our first concert this week. We went to a cello quartet concert at Porgy and Bess, with Kristen’s teacher in it. It was fantastic, and so fun! They did things that I had no idea a cello could do. It was also just a local concert, so it was a close, small group of people and not touristy at all. So fun!

The next concert of sorts was one of the weirdest I have ever experienced. It was Le Concours, an experimental ballet, and was what I would describe as West-Side Story meets Swan Lake gone wrong, plus Agatha Christie, and all in German. It was SO weird, and we didn’t understand the story at all. The dancers were really talented, but it was just so weird. On the plus side, though, the fates seem to be with us because we paid for stehplatz, but almost no one was there, so the ushers let us all sit down! Glorious. In the picture, notice us waiting with our scarves at the Stehplatz, resting our legs before the show. Also, notice the people who totally cheated below us with their scarves. Yeah. Annoying.

The next day we went to My Fair Lady (after cramming raw-meat pizza down Kristen’s throat) and were thrilled that the same thing with the Stehplatz happened! This was a very nice musical, and would’ve been super cool if I spoke any German. It was still great though! The acting was good and the singing was pretty good. It was hilarious to hear all the songs we know so well sung in German, and came home singing “Oh wouldn’t it be Wunderschön? Wunderschön! Wunderschön!” Oh, and one thing we were extremely proud of. We were getting sick and tired of paying to check our coats at the Volksoper every time, since I really wouldn’t mind just keeping it on! But they make you check it. So we put our collective foot down, and decided to try to rig the system…and it worked! For this musical we decided to brave the sub-zero weather, and just layer up in sweaters and long johns so we wouldn’t have to check our coats. It was a beautiful system and they didn’t make us check anything! Never again are we checking coats. Note the lovely picture below—me showing off my layers before leaving. Oh, you can’t even see everything I have on under there…

This morning we made our way through the Russian wind to a little Jesuit church where we attended a mass written by Haydn! It was great, though I wondered how the musicians were feeling seeing as I could see my breath in that church. The musicians were from the St. Augustine choir and orchestra, and sounded great. It must be amazing to play in churches with such fantastic acoustics.

Now the best for last; the miracle concert. This is mostly the one I can’t really describe. All I can say is that Kristen and I both agreed that this is the best concert we have ever been to. And if you think about it, that is really saying a lot. Anyways, it was a miracle because we feel like we were led to it, and we almost didn’t go. We were on a self-guided walking tour, and had gotten totally lost several times, were absolutely frozen to death, and were ready to call it a day (we were only halfway through the tour and it had been three hours), when we stumbled upon a church called Annakirche (in honor of St. Anne, the mother of Mary). All during our walking tours, we had tried to get in all the churches we visited so we could see inside but also so we could experience 15-degree weather instead of 3-degree. We were not able to get in any of them because it was a Saturday afternoon, and as we know everything (everything) closes down on Saturday afternoons. Well, as I said we stumbled upon this little church, and to our delight found it open. We went in, relieved and nearly-dead. The man at the door greeted us with “Grüss Gott! Deutsch? Englisch?” Which delighted us more than we can say. We eked out, “ENGLISH!” and he proceeded to tell us about a “Vivaldi Exclusive” concert they were having at the church in the evening, performing the Four Seasons by members of the Vienna Phil and Symphony. We took the pamphlet, and continued walking around the church thinking that it would sure be cool to go to that concert, but we’d have to empty our bank accounts first. We left, thinking, “oh that’s too bad. But it’s probably not worth it. Even with the 10-euro discount because we’re students.” Well, suffice it to say we didn’t get too far outside the church before we turned to each other, wondering if we would regret not going. It occurred to us that we would regret it, and rehearsing what our mothers said about not passing up such opportunities on a matter of money, promptly turned around and bought the tickets right that minute. We felt super good about our purchase, and returned that evening for the concert. Let me just say that when the concert ended (a dreaded moment indeed), Kristen and I could do nothing but sit there, gaping at each other, unable to move. It was the most glorious thing I have ever heard. The musicians were so, so good, and so free. I could feel so strongly the love that they have for music and for what they do. It was so…tangible. And the beautiful music and gorgeous venue, plus my love for music and all the experiences I’ve been having…it was just too much for my tender mortal heart. I felt completely overwhelmed, even to tears, and had to scrape my remains off the bench to tear myself away from the church at the end. The Spirit was just so incredibly strong—I have never felt anything like I did in that performance. Oh, it was so good. Kristen and I could not get over it, and we dragged ourselves home, hardly knowing what to say or how to say it. We felt so blessed to be there, and so glad that we didn’t miss that opportunity! We surely felt led to that church at that time. The picture below shows the church where the concert was, although of course it doesn’t do it justice.

Die Ausflugsfahrt

This week we did lots of cool things with our European Fine Arts class, and on our self-guided walking tours. We got to see some Roman Ruins, watch the Anker clock in action, tour the Staatsoper and Staatsoper Museum, go to Schumann’s house, see the Jewish Memorial, tour lots of churches, go to the Kuntshistoriches Museum (one of the most famous in the world), visit the Johann Strauss Stadtpark, and ride up and down the glass elevator outside Mozart’s house where he died. To name a few. Enjoy some pictures.

View from Mozart's death-house--and the top of the 7-story glass elevator. This is overlooking the "Street with no cars" as we call it, or the Kartnerstrasse

The K Klan--Kriesler and Kristen

Bemoaning our fate at not getting into any churches

Strauss!

Kuntshistorisches Museum

Schumann's house

Posing with Wagner at the Staatsoper

Anker Clock

Jewish Memorial

Die Kultur

Couple things about the culture and people that we have observed here.

1. We noticed that people don’t really have much of a personal bubble here.

2. People really don’t move out of the way when walking down the street and you’re about to either run smack into them or else the wall of the building next to you. They usually leave you with the option to run into the building.

3. Staring is not rude. Oftentimes on the U-Bahn I will notice someone staring intently at me from one foot away, so I kind of glance at them, and they don’t break their gaze. It’s kind of awkward and I honestly usually question if I have jam smeared on my face or something.

4. It. Is. Freezing. I honestly think I can say that I have never been colder in my entire life. I think the difference here is that we are walking around in this humid, windy, 4-degree weather (literally, or buchstablich) for several hours a day. Yesterday while we walked around lost on our walking tour, we discussed what our dying wishes would be should we suddenly find ourselves frozen to death. Kristen does not want to be cremated, and if someone goes to the trouble to make a statue of me, I don’t want a long column with just my head on top. You can guess what we might have been looking at while discussing our final requests. It is cold. Ingrid told us that the wind comes down from Russia. I totally believe it. The people here say that it has never been so cold in Vienna (naturally) for such an extended period of time. In fact, today while I was shivering in the mass in church and thinking that I would be much warmer and more comfortable in a freezer, I tried to think of times in my life that I’ve been colder. I could not think of any times, even when I recalled jumping out of a hot tub and rolling around in the snow in my swimsuit on a dare from the kids. Yes, it is cold. But it’s supposedly going to get warmer next week (maybe 6 degrees…? We can always hope for the best).

5. Every ten seconds, an ambulance drives by with its siren on. You would honestly think the city was in constant uproar. I have never seen any sort of emergency issue, though…

6. People really appreciate music here like I’ve never seen anywhere else. The audiences in the concerts we’ve been to are stellar—they behave well and they really seem to appreciate and love what they’re experiencing. Music is so appreciated here, I just LOVE it!

Die Festgelage

Ahh, food. You know you’re still reading because of this section. Besides the incident with the pizza, and another incident where Kristen thought she was getting a container of much-desired dried apricots that turned out to be a huge thing of gross Marillemarmelade (see picture below), it was a great week for food! J I enjoyed trying more delicious pastries and Krapfen, usually nutella-filled. Our meal with Ingrid is, as usual, something to discuss. MMM!!! She made pumpkin soup, which warmed our chilled innards, then fed us cheese-filled sausage wrapped in bacon, served atop mashed potatoes with brussel sprouts. AHH it was so good! For dessert, she brought out applesauce that was just unlike any applesauce I’ve had anywhere. SO good. I decided that the food here is just so…flavorful, and succulent, and DELICIOUS. Mmm.

This picture depicts the one sweet thing Ingrid has in her house (that she has offered us), but that neither of us really like. We know we are in death’s grasps, either starving for a snack or a sweet, when we succumb to Rose-flavored Turkish Delight. There are a lot of rose-flavored foods here.

This week for our treat at the grocery store (we try a new one every time we go shopping), we got these Belgium Waffle cookie things, and almost died when we ate them. What truly caused our deaths was putting nutella on said waffles. Oh my word. We also tried these cookies called Doppel, or something, that are kind of like cracker-cookies with fudge in between them. Oh man.

The two food highlights of the week, however, were Gilato and Truffles. First the Gilato—we had heard that this place (Zanoni & Zanoni) was good, but we didn’t even know what ice cream was until we went here. AHHHH. So many different kinds of flavors, and so amazingly good. You can tell by my poor writing, use of all-caps, and italicizing everything, that I really can’t describe the deliciousness. I got, of course, nutella-flavored ice cream that just tasted like Heaven in a scoop.

The truffle place was a gem like the little Annakirche, and we also discovered it in a hidden-away alley while trying to get warm on the walking tour. We decided to just “go in and look”, and defrost a bit. Well, Kristen convinced me to buy something lest I regret it later, so I asked the lady there if she spoke English and if she could tell me all the flavors of truffles. I got three truffles: peppermint, eggnog, and caramel. OH. MY. HEAVENS. TO. BETSY. There is nothing to say that will describe that heavenly taste. Kristen tried to capture my apparently hilarious rapture by snapping shots of me eating the chocolate. It was just too yummy.

Well folks, that’s all for now—hope you enjoyed. Bear in mind that I am constantly putting more pictures on facebook than I have on here, so hopefully you can go enjoy those, too. Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, Bussi, Ciao, Tschüss.